In February 1519, Hernán Cortés landed in Cozumel with 500 soldiers, founded the port city of Veracruz (below) and then arrived at the Aztec capital by year end. Allied with anti-Aztec rivals, and the populace stricken with smallpox, Cortez conquered Tenochtitlán in 1521. The earliest Spanish colonial world heritage site is now called Mexico City, then capital of New Spain, centered on the National Palace, Zócalo (plaza) and Metropolitan Cathedral all built on top of the Aztec ruins.
Close behind the conquistadors, missionaries began building thick-walled monasteries nearby on the volcanic slopes of Popocatepetl: the Franciscans in 1524, the Dominicans in 1526, and the Augustinians in 1533. Across New Spain, churches were built on top of native religious sites.
And native cities, some thousands of years old, were ‘founded’—reorganized—under Spanish rule. Aztec trading hubs and routes throughout Mexico became Spanish. The trading hub of Oaxaca, valued for high desert salt, was re-founded 1529. Puebla, between the capital, the monasteries, the port and Oaxaca, was founded in 1531. Another gulf port city, Campeche, was founded in 1540, and later Tlacotalpan, a river port city was founded in 1550. Morelia, 1541, became an administrative center for commerce, including farming and ranching to the west. Each of these cities has UN-protected historic centers with colonial architecture arranged in grids. In 1555, an aqueduct was built north of the Capital, applying Roman technology to the ‘new’ world.
As silver mines were built in the north, wealth began being extracted at scale. Querétaro in 1531, San Miguel de Allende in 1542, Zacatecas in 1546 and Guanajuato in 1554 all reflect the opulence of silver dug by enslaved native workers. Besides admiring the marvelous architecture and world class art museums, I recommend touring a silver mine. Silver flowed for centuries, especially from around 1600, along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the old trading trading route to El Paso.
In 1565, Spanish galleon trade opened across the Pacific between Manila and Acupulco, and the traders introduced improvements to native methods to distill blue agave. Taking advantage of a law change in 1595, liquor production boomed in Tequila.
The Franciscans were still building monasteries over a century later, and in the 1750s, a newly arrived Father Junípero Serra oversaw the construction of several beautiful missions in the remote Serra Gorda regions, which are well preserved.
The Spanish colonial rule over New Spain lasted 300 years, from the conquest of Tenochtitlán to the end of the War of Independence. Visiting the world heritage sites that preserve this history in Mexico is a fascinating and rewarding journey. Especially for Americans considering Europe, this a great way to tour great Spanish colonial cathedrals and historic cities without burning carbon to fly over the Atlantic.
