Hernández de Córdoba expedition

The Hernández de Córdoba expedition is a 1517 Spanish maritime expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. The expedition ends in disaster after battling the Mayan city-state of Chakán Putum, resulting in half the Spaniards being killed, and the other half being wounded. The expedition nonetheless brings back exciting news of vast lands inhabited by a rich and civilized people, namely, the Maya civilization. The expedition is popularly credited as the first non-Amerindian contact with the Maya, and first non-Amerindian discovery of the Peninsula, though both these achievements are disputed in scholarly literature. It is deemed the opening campaign of the Spanish conquest of the Maya, and one of the precursor expeditions which led to the Spanish invasion of the Aztec Empire.