The Spanish Were Initially Welcomed by the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II

Moctezuma II reigned from 1502 or 1503 to 1520 as the ninth Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan and the sixth Huey Tlatoani or Emperor of the Aztec Empire (also known as Mexica Empire). He was also king consort of Ecatepec through his marriage to queen Tlapalizquixochtzin of Ecatepec, one of his two wives, though few people in Mexico, even in his own court, were aware of this political function.

In early 1519, Hernán Cortés, a Spanish conquistador, arrived in Yucatán, Mexico. He was in charge of a contingent of 11 ships carrying 630 troops. To conquer the territory, he utilized the approach of pitting native people against each other. He arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, after defeating the Tlaxacan and Cholula warriors by allying with other indigenous. Moctezuma II, the Aztec monarch of Tenochtitlan, welcomed Cortes and permitted him to stay in his capital.

Cortes utilized an incident in which two Spaniards were slain as a pretext to kidnap Moctezuma after about six weeks. For several months, Cortes administered the city in an indirect manner. The Spaniards led by Pedro de Alvarado attacked defenseless Aztec nobility gathered at the Festival of Toxcatl on May 20, 1520, slaughtering hundreds, including much of Tenochtitlan's authority. This sparked an uprising in Tenochtitlan, which resulted in the death of Moctezuma II and the expulsion of Cortes and his troops.