Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés’s letters to King Charles of Castile describe the exotic customs his armed band encountered as they advanced toward Tenochtitlan in 1519. But what really is striking is how familiar it all was to Cortés. Upon reaching what is now Mexico City, he wrote: “There is one square twice as big as that of Salamanca, where more than sixty thousand people come each day to buy and sell. [There is] a courthouse where 10 or 12 persons sit as judges.” He is struck that “the orderly manner which, until now, these people have been governed is almost like that of the states of Venice or Genoa or Pisa.”