Hispano-Mayan hostilities broke out on 5 March 1517, when a Cuban expeditionary force, lead by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, was ambushed by the military or militia of the Ekab Province near that state's eponymous capital. The expeditionaries' reports of grand Mayan cities lead to further Cuban expeditions to Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, notably bringing about the 1519–1521 conquest of the Aztec Empire.