The Spanish Viceroyalty
In November 1519, the army of the Spanish soldier Hernán Cortés beheld for the first time the great Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The shimmering city, which seemed to be floating on the water, was built on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. One of Cortés’ companions later recalled the wonder the Spanish felt at that moment: “When we saw so many cities and villages built on the water and other great towers on dry land and that straight and level causeway going towards [Tenochtitlan], we were amazed . . . on account of the great towers and temples and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked where the things we saw were not a dream.” (Bernal Díaz del Castillo, cited in Coe and Koontz 2005, p. 190)[1]
Córtes set out immediately for Tenochtitlán and sent Motecuhzoma’s treasures to the Queen of Spain and her son Charles V in order to justify his wholly unauthorized activities on the American mainland. A year later Albrecht Durer saw them displayed in Brussels where Charles halted for a while on his way to be enthroned as Holy Roman Emperor in Aix-la-Chapelle. He wrote in his diary on 27 August 1520:
