The Conquest of Mexico

On Columbus's fourth voyage to America, he took a canoe off of the modern day Honduras shore and brought Spanish and other foreign goods to South America. This was the first time anything from Spain had come to the natives in modern day Mexico. In 1519 Herman Cortes, an explorer of Mexico, founded a city. This city was near Veracruz, and he used this as support to continue his expedition in the eyes of the Spanish rulers at the time. Cortes then traveled inland, searching to conquer the largest civilization in Mexico at the time, the Aztec people. Using the strategy of creating an alliance between the Aztecs rivals, Cortes feigned to be the Quetzalcoatl, a mystical ruler, and an Aztec deity. The Aztecs king Montezuma, believed that Cortes was their king that they had been waiting for, so Cortes conquered the Aztec capital without violence needed in the November of 1519. In 1521 Cortes had conquered many parts of Mexico, and his conquest was completed.
Colonization had taken a toll on many native Mexicans, only by one major Spaniard as a ruler. Cortes took advantage of the other tribes knowledge, and eventually took control of both and more of the land. Spaniards like himself also forced Christianity apon the natives, which was probably not excepted freely. Religion was a huge part of their identities at that time, and many Europeans were trying to make natives practice the same way that they did. In modern Mexico, because of Cortes and many conquerors like him, Mexico is a dominant Christian country. Although the conquering destroyed many tribes and civilizations, the Europeans made all the people of Mexico one united country, after the Spaniards stopped colonizing.