Americans, perhaps 30 million strong, did not submissively accept the rule of Europeans. Their resistance and reception of the foreigners varied greatly. Visiting Dominican Republic, where Columbus established a beachhead and then to the Mexican port of Veracruz where Hernán Cortés landed 28 years later. Following his route across lofty mountain chains to Tenochtitlán of the Aztecs, today's Mexico City, where the final showdown took place.