The Paths of Conquest
nThe conquest of Latin America was not a unified movement. 
•In 1519 Hernán Cortés led an expedition into Mexico.
nHe fought the Aztecs with the assistance of Indian allies.
nAt Tenochtitlan Moctezuma II was captured and killed.
nBy 1535 most of central Mexico was under Spanish control as the Kingdom of New Spain.
•Francisco Pizarro in 1535 began the conquest of the Inca Empire, then weakened by civil war.
nCuzco fell in 1533.
nThe Spanish built their capital at Lima and by 1540 most of Peru was under their control.
nOther Spanish expeditions expanded colonial borders.
•Francisco Vazquez de Coronado explored the American southwest in the 1540s;
•Pedro de Valdivia conquered central Chile and founded Santiago in 1541.
•By 1570, there were 192 Spanish urban settlements in the Americas.