(1485-1547) Cortés was a Spanish conquistador known for his conquest of the Aztec empire, which won Mexico for Spain. Cortés had fought under Diego Velázquez in 1511 in the conquest of Cuba. In 1519 he left Cuba and led an army to Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, was unsure whether the Spaniards were supernatural and received them in the capital with great honor. Cortés then kidnapped the emperor and, with him, the empire. Moctezuma remained as a puppet emperor, but the Spaniards took over much of the kingdom and plundered its treasure stores.  After a series of battles, the Aztec empire and its leadership were finally destroyed in 1521.