Soon after the Spanish conquest and colonization of the island of Cuba in 1519, the conquistador Hernán Cortés landed a small army of soldiers and treasure hunters on the coast of what is now Mexico. Cortés’s army hurtled toward the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan, skirmishing with Indigenous populations, massacring groups that opposed them, and recruiting allies from among those disgruntled with the Aztec tributary system. Aided by infectious diseases, to which the Indigenous peoples of the Americas had no resistance, and by the support of thousands of Indigenous warriors who were old enemies of the Aztecs, Cortés and the Spanish toppled the Aztec Empire. Their conquest was complete by 1521. The Aztec population was devastated by the war and its aftermath. By 1680, more than 90 percent of the Aztec population had died of disease or as a result of warfare.