The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes is known for conquering the Aztec Empire in the early 16th century, in present-day:

Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador, led the expedition that conquered the Aztec Empire, in present-day Mexico, between 1519 and 1521.

About Hernan Cortes:

• He was born in 1485 at Medellin, in Spain.
• He went to the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean as a young man, and took part in the conquest of Cuba.
• In 1519, he sailed from Cuba to the coast of Mexico with about 500 soldiers, a few horses and some cannons.

The conquest of the Aztecs:

• The Aztec Empire was a powerful state, with its capital at Tenochtitlan, built on an island in Lake Texcoco.
• The Aztec ruler, Moctezuma II, received Cortes peacefully at first.
• Cortes made alliances with local peoples, such as the Tlaxcalans, who were enemies of the Aztecs.
• Cortes took Moctezuma prisoner, but fighting broke out, and Moctezuma was killed in 1520.
• The Spanish were driven out of the city, but they returned with their allies and besieged Tenochtitlan.
• The city fell in August 1521, after a long siege.

Reasons for the Spanish victory:

• The Spanish had guns, steel weapons, armour and horses, which the Aztecs had never seen.
• They were helped by thousands of local allies.
• Smallpox and other diseases brought by the Europeans killed a large part of the Aztec population.

After the conquest:

• The Spanish built Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.
• Mexico became the centre of the Spanish colony of "New Spain".
• Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821.

Other Spanish conquests:

• Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire, in present-day Peru, in the 1530s.
• Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, reached the Caribbean islands in 1492.
• The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal.
• Brazil became a colony of Portugal, not Spain.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Peru was conquered by Pizarro; Brazil was a Portuguese colony; Chile was conquered later by other Spanish leaders.