<P> Cortés made alliances with tributaries city - states ( altepetl ) of the Aztec Empire as well as their political rivals , particularly the Tlaxcalteca and Texcocans , a former partner in the Aztec Triple Alliance . Other city - states also joined , including Huexotzinco and polities bordering Lake Texcoco , the inland lake system of the Valley of Mexico . Particularly important to the Spanish success was a multilingual ( Nahuatl , a Maya dialect , and Spanish ) indigenous slave woman , known to the Spanish conquistadors as Doña Marina , and generally as La Malinche . After eight months of battles and negotiations , which overcame the diplomatic resistance of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II to his visit , Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8 , 1519 , where he took up residence with fellow Spaniards and their indigenous allies . When news reached Cortés of the death of several of his men during the Aztec attack on the Totonacs in Veracruz , he took Moctezuma captive , along with Cuitláhuac , his kinsman . Capturing the cacique or indigenous ruler was standard operating procedure for Spaniards in their expansion in the Caribbean , so capturing Moctezuma had considerable precedent , which might well have included those in Spain during the Christian reconquest of territory held by Muslims . </P>
who was the leader of the aztecs when the spanish soldiers invaded their land
Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II