Hernan Cortes
Conqueror of the Aztec empire
About Hernan Cortes
Hernan Cortes was born in 1485 in Medellin, western Spain. He studied law but stopped in order to go the the Americas and make a fortune. In 1504 Hernan Cortes sailed to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. In 1518 Cortes then convinced Diego Velazquez to let him accompany him on an expedition to Cuba, but Diego Velazquez canceled the expedition after he became suspicious of Hernan Cortes but he ignored Diego Velazquez and set out to Mexico anyways. When he arrived he established a settlement which is now Veracruz and made local allies.
Hernan Cortes and the Aztecs
Hernan Cortes trained about 400 soldiers in Veracruz and thanks to a native woman named Malinche who was a translator for Hernan Cortes he was able to form alliances with other native people. When Hernan Cortes arrived at the Aztec land, Tenochtitla they greeted him and his soldiers because there was a prophecy that a light skinned god would arrive from the east, but as soon as the Europeans got the chance they took Montezuma who was the Aztec emperor at the time and just like that Hernan Cortes took control of Tenochtitla, the Spaniards then killed thousands of Aztec Nobles. In total about 240,000 people were supposedly killed in Cortes's conquest of the Aztec's.
Cool Facts about Hernan Cortes
- Hernan Cortes tricked the Aztecs to give him gold and he also discovered chocolate when he first arrived in Mexico
- When Hernan Cortes arrived in Mexico the Talascan Indians attacked him and his men and from this battle 2 of his crew members died and 800 Indians died, and after this he discovered that a few thousand Indians wanted to join his crew
- He was born of Spanish nobility, and his parents hoped that he would become a lawyer
- Hernan Cortes failed his law studies and left his University in order to journey to the New World and gain fame and fortune
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Mexicoweb/factfile/Unique-facts-Mexico7.htm
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/articles/facts-about-hernando-cortes.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montezuma
http://www.history.com/topics/aztecs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cortes_hernan.shtml