Having read a number of questions and answers about the topic on this subreddit, it occurs to me that I know very little about how the Spanish came to control Mesoamerica (for instance, I get that the Spanish allied with various disgruntled city states, but how did they come to control those city states later on?). What books would you all recommend that give a good, accurate overview of this series of events for someone who is not well-versed in Latin American history?
"A True History of the Conquest of New Spain" by Bernal Díaz del Castillo. It's little bit Spanish biased but generally good.
To equalize the bias I recommend "The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico".
There is also a very interesting ethnographic study of the Aztecs called "The Florentine Codex". It also contains a description of the conquest, again a little biased toward the Mexica.