The Spanish led by Cortes landed in Veracruz in 1519, where the Aztec emperor Montezuma was unsure if they were enemies or the returning god Quetzalcoatl. Enemies of the Aztec Triple Alliance sided with the Spanish. Cortes was initially worshipped by Montezuma but the Spanish later massacred natives. The last Aztec emperor Cuauhtemoc led a failed rebellion in 1520 before the Spanish, aided by rival tribes, captured the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan and overthrew the Aztec empire in 1521.