Mexico was discovered by Europeans through the expeditions commissioned by Diego Velázquez, the governor of Cuba. The initial contact occurred in 1517 when Francisco Hernández de Córdoba landed on the Yucatán coast. However, it was the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés who led the crucial expedition in 1519 that resulted in the conquest of the Aztec Empire and brought large parts of what is now Mexico under Spanish rule. Cortés founded the settlement of Veracruz and eventually defeated the Aztecs, establishing Spanish control over Mexico for the King of Castile.