Which civilization was defeated by Hernán Cortés in 1519?

Which civilization was defeated by Hernán Cortés in 1519?

• A. Inca
• B. Aztecs
• C. Maya
• D. Olmec

Answer: (B)

Cortés’s campaign is about the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in what is now central Mexico. He arrived in 1519 and spent the next couple of years building alliances, notably with Indigenous groups that were hostile to Aztec rule, while wielding superior weaponry. The decisive moment came with the siege and fall of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, in 1521, which effectively ended the Aztec civilization's political power. The Maya civilizations had declined long before Cortés’s time, the Olmec were an earlier pre‑Columbian culture, and the Inca were defeated later by Pizarro in the Andean region. So the Aztecs are the civilization associated with Cortés’s conquest in this era.

Cortés’s campaign is about the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in what is now central Mexico. He arrived in 1519 and spent the next couple of years building alliances, notably with Indigenous groups that were hostile to Aztec rule, while wielding superior weaponry. The decisive moment came with the siege and fall of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, in 1521, which effectively ended the Aztec civilization's political power. The Maya civilizations had declined long before Cortés’s time, the Olmec were an earlier pre‑Columbian culture, and the Inca were defeated later by Pizarro in the Andean region. So the Aztecs are the civilization associated with Cortés’s conquest in this era.