Significance: Tenochtitlan was the name of the Aztec Capital that existed prior to the Spanish Conquest. Mexico City was built on its ruins. The city of Tenochtitlan amazed the Spanish. It was built on an island on Lake Texcoco. The city was similar to Venice, in that there were canals in all areas of the city so water travel by canoe was as efficient as travel by foot. The city was large - there were anywhere from 200,000-400,000 people living there when Hernan Cortez arrived in 1519.
What also impressed the Spanish were the huge ceremonial buildings and marketplaces. The marketplaces had 20,000-40,000 people trading daily, with goods from all over present day Mexico and possibly even the Inca Empire in South America. The largest building complex was the Templo Mayor. There is a modern museum in Mexico City dedicated to the Templo. Most of these ceremonial buildings were dedicated to specific gods.
There were distinct social classes in the Aztec civilization, from slaves, to tradesmen, to noblemen, all the way to the king - who was Moctezuma II when Cortes came in 1519. Moctezuma's power came from an alliance with two other city-states and was reliant on other city-states and agricultural areas that had been conquered by Tenochtitlan. Therefore Moctezuma was not in a rush to go to war with the Spaniards - as he knew that there were plenty of people he subjugated who would gladly rise up against him with the Spanish. So, he initially welcomed Cortes and his relatively small group of soldiers as an ambassador.
Moctezuma's initial peace with the Spanish would eventually be seen as a mistake by his people. While Cortez was away dealing with the Governor of Cuba, who wanted to pull him back from his conquest of the Aztecs - the number two in command Pedro Alvarado killed a large number of noblemen during a festival. After that act the people of Tenochtitlan rose up against the Spanish who had to withdraw. And although it is unclear - the people of Tenochtitlan may have even killed their king Moctezuma for failing to destroy the Spanish.
Cortes did what Moctezuma was afraid of him doing - he partnered with all of the city-states who had been conquered by the Tenochtitlans and then besieged the city. The famine caused by the Spanish not allowing food or fresh water into the city worsened the diseases that the Spanish had brought to the Aztecs, such as small pox, for which their immune systems had no defense.
After over three months of starvation and disease the people of Tenochtitlan finally gave up the city. The Spaniards dismantled everything and over many decades the capital of New Spain was built in its place.
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