While the Aztec Empire peaked in central Mexico, a different empire was spreading it's tenticles across the Atlantic Ocean. The Spanish were in the early phases of setting up a global superpower powered by colonialism. In early 1519, the Spanish arrived in force on the shores of the Yucatan Peninsula. After crushing the Chontal Maya city states, Hernando Cortez and his Spanish conquistadors set their sights on the Aztec Empire. But would the ensuing conquest have been possible without Malintzin? Her real name forever lost to history, a nameless slave girl possessed a weapon that would change the course of history forever.
This is Part IV in a series on the rise, fall, and enduring legacy of the Aztec Empire. It discusses the arrival of the Spanish and their interactions with the Chontal Maya, some background on Hernando Cortez and the Spanish politics in the Carribean, the role of Malintzin (or Malinche or Dona Marina or Malintze) in the conquest, the Spanish war with the Tlaxacalans, and beginnings of the war with the Aztec Empire.
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