Hernan Cortes' expedition of conquest, an undertaking of world-wide significance, was aimed with astonishing accuracy at the heart of the native civilizations of Central America. The maneuvers of his fleet prior to the landing at Vera Cruz, upon which he set his seal by scuttling the ships, show how systematically the white conqueror and inheritor of the Aztec realm reconnoitered the foreign coasts before deciding to stake everything upon a single throw: his rapid march to the Valley of Mexico and against Tenochtitan, the present-day Mexico city. The enterprise proved as successful as it had been daring. Within two years the Aztec capital was firmly in Spanish hands. This meant that by 1521 Cortes controlled a territory stretching from the Panuco river in the north to the border of what is now Guatemala; at the same time certain neighbouring provinces which were not under Aztec rule, namely the so-called Kingdom of Michoacan in the north-west and the areas to the south inhabited by the Maya and Quiche peoples, fell easy prey. Twenty years later the conquerors held this large territory under their sway, whereby they suppressed the natural customs of the indigenous population and made them subject to a Catholic-ridden Spain which was already moving toward a mercantile system based on colonial exploitation.
At no other point on the new continent would it have been possible for these entirely alien worlds to have encountered one another with such dramatic and far-reaching results. True, Cortes and his men still believed themselves to be on the trail of a fabulous India and did not appear to be surprised to find, in this unknown land, admittedly alien yet basically familiar conditions: a political structure, a network of cities, market centres, trade routes and a people subject to a rigorous social code and adept in many crafts; in short, an empire which could be taken over. How differently they would have fared had they set foot upon the mainland north of the twenty-second parallel or on the Caribbean coast deep in the south, beyond what had since ancient times been the zone of highly developed civilizations, and where at the beginning of the sixteenth century the Aztecs were the decisive power! These unique civilizations had invariably been built up and succeeded one another in this same area - a comparatively narrow strip of land which joins the two American continents.
It is still a matter for speculation as to when the first inhabitants of America, who according to current opinion reached North America from Asia via the Bering Strait, arrived in this region. The earliest traces of human life so far discovered in these parts are the remains of mammoth-hunters in the Valley of Mexico, dating from 6000 B.C. or earlier. In this same region, originally an extensive lakeland plateau, signs of primitive civilizations of later date have been found. At all events, the first authenticated archaeological records date back to the second millennium B.C., when the archaic-ceramic cultures, which have been traced all over the area in question, flourished. At this stage maize, the staple crop of the ancient Central American civilizations, had long been cultivated by man, the population had become settled in many places, adept in the manufacture of ceramics and accustomed to burying with their dead offerings often of a rich nature.
Archaeology, in particular the discoveries of recent decades, has enabled us to reconstruct in broad outline a succession of civilizations which cover a period of some three thousand years, from the archaic-ceramic age to the end of the Aztec period. The general outlines and the duration of the different cultural phases can frequently be traced only through their art forms. In this connection it should be recalled that we have been left virtually no written records by the peoples and tribes connected with those civilizations and referring to their history. It was the Spanish conquerors and colonizers who first described the world they found there, and induced converted natives to record the customs and traditions of their people. Strangely enough, on the other hand, the cultural life which is so clearly visible in their works of art finds no parallel in surviving utensils of everyday life. The technology of the ancient civilizations of Central America never progressed beyond neolithic conditions. Metals such as copper and gold were not used until the late period and then only for ritual objects and ornaments. What is more, it is not even clear whether, and to what extent, the stone and bone implements typical of the archaic period were improved and developed in the course of time. It is a mystery how human beings with so scanty an equipment for promoting civilization were able to attain to such a high degree of culture. In this respect we are prevented from making the usual comparisons with the early civilizations of the Ancient World. Whereas in Egypt and Sumer we find the first metropolitan centers coming into existence during the transition from the Late Stone Age to the Bronze Age, when methods of production and social relationships underwent great changes, the evolution of the early Central American civilizations into no less imposing cultures appears to have taken place in different and rather special circumstances. To this day we lack any sort of closer insight into the social conditions which governed the fives of the ancient peoples of Central America, and are therefore still far from being able to determine what were the principal factors that influenced the development of their cultural life.

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