CULTURAL READINGS: Colonization & Print in the Americas

Jay I. Kislak Foundation

Hernando Cortés, Praeclara Ferdinandi Cortesii de nova maris oceani Hyspania narratio... Nuremberg: F. Peypus, 1524. Detail

Tenochtitlan was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521; Cortés built Mexico City on its ruins. This map, attributed to Albrecht Dürer, shows the city before its destruction, with the principal Aztec temples in the main square, causeways connecting the city to the mainland, and an aqueduct supplying fresh water. Much of the information on this map must have come from Aztec sources - as did a great deal of the intelligence Cortés relied upon in his conquest. This map circulated in numerous histories of the New World.

Other Cortés images

Promotion and Possession

• [Return to] New Spain
• The English Colonies
• New France

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