The encounter between Hernando Cortes and Montezuma II mb-code 1193284 Plate 19 from volume I

Plate 19 from volume I of The natural history of Carolina

A Pilgrimage was a comprehensive portrait of London

'Cardinal Wolsey

The balloon was inflated using coal gas and launched from sites that included Vauxhall Gardens in London

The encounter between Hernando Cortes and Montezuma II mb-code 1193284 Plate 19 from volume IThe encounter between Hernando Cortes and Montezuma II, Mexico, 1519 (c1820 1839). Cortes (1485 1547) was the Spanish conquistador who conquered Mexico and overthrew the Aztec Empire ruled by Montezuma. Landing in Mexico in 1519, with a force of only some 600 men, Cortes succeeded in overthrowing the empire of the Aztecs, a civilization numbering 5 million. He was able to achieve this partly due to the natives being terrified of the Europeans' horses