Hernan Cortes Essays

When the Governor finally came back, he convinced Cortes to take some land for a time, though he didn’t fully settle down. Cortes was also involved in military, his job was to suppress native uprisings, Cortes was also often in duels over one girl or another one. Over the course of the next few years, he took part in conquests in Hispaniola and conquests in Cuba, the result of this was more land and native slaves. Hernan became very important in Cuba and was mayor of Santiago, he married the sister in law of Governor Velasquez, Catalina

When Moctezuma met Cortes did not trust him at first. The reason being is because his looked very sketchy. But the Aztecs said to trust him. So Moctezuma trusted Cortes and passed the thrown down to him. The reason why it happened so fast they said that because there was a tail that said that one day their true leader so that’s what they thought about Cortes, he’s the one. From that point on it was fine until something happened. The Aztecs attacked Moctezuma. During the battle, Moctezuma was killed and at that very moment Cortes became the true leader and took his position. The aztecs lost that battle, they didn’t know how to react. The Aztecs became slaves for Cortes. All slaves were forced into becoming christians. Today, in spain, holds

The Aztecs, part of modern day Mexico, were once the epitome of fine culture. They began their rule of southern and central Mexico during the 14th century and practiced an incredibly wealthy lifestyle. Nonetheless, this rule began to deteriorate when Spanish explorers disembarked at Tabasco and Vera Cruz on April 21st 1519. When the Spanish voyagers first arrived, they were welcomed warmly, respectfully and received Godlike treatment. Montezuma, the ruler at that time, believed that the Spanish military leader, Hernán Cortés, was the great god Quetzalcoatl. The Spanish took advantage of this Aztec belief and conquered Mexico within two years. By 1521, the Aztec culture was officially eradicated and a new culture, consisting of a

Cortes played a large role in the conquering of the Americas, and both Traditions and Encounters and The Broken Spears document his actions. In Traditions and Encounters, Cortes’s role as captain of Spanish expeditions was detailed. The advantage that the

Eventually one of Cortes’ men led a massacre of the Mexican nobles, and murdered Montezuma. These conquests led to other conquests with the motivation of more gold and more land. Another conqueror, Francisco Pizarro, also led his men to capture an emperor, Atahualpa of the Incans, and held him for a ransom of silver and gold. With this gold and silver, as well as land, they executed Atahualpa. These violent raids proved beneficial to the Spanish, helping them spread their conquered land further south in the Americas. This quest made the Spanish not only rich in silver and gold, but in land and with slaves, by use of violent force.

Maybe too much credit is given to Cortés as one of the greatest Spanish conquerors who developed effective strategy to defeat the Aztecs. Restall see this as somewhat of a myth accounting for the failure of historians to look at history before the 1519 (Restall, 19). Restall says “However, too often, without any direct evidence, the actions of Conquistadors after the 1519– 21 invasion of Mexico are taken as deliberately imitating Cortés, while pre-1519 patterns are ignored.” Whatever the case for whom should be given the credit for the strategy used to defeat the Aztecs; one must admit Cortés was able the win the trust of the people and use the Aztecs’ fear of him to control their empire. Cortés harbored fear of his own. Elliott says, “Cortés felt some uneasiness, when he reflected that it was in the power of the Indians, at any time, to cut off his communications with the surrounding country, and hold him a prisoner in the capital.” The Omens of the Aztecs betrayed them and caused them to see the arriving settlers as gods. They were not prepared to defend themselves against the advanced weapons of the Spanish. Much like the Aztecs, the Mayans faced hard times at the hands of the Spanish conquerors, but their defeat came much easier to the Spanish.

- Cortes actions played a vital role in helping establish Spanish settlement in the new world. He and his fleet of about 600 men traveled into Mexico in hopes of finding gold as well as glory. During his time in Mexico he persuaded Indian societies who were rivals of the Aztec Empire, to join his force to take over this mighty empire. He used terror and intimidation to do so along the way. After a few years he took down the Aztec Empire, which opened the door for other explorers to invade the new world as well in their hopes of finding gold as well.

The capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, and what is known today as Mexico City was conquered in 1521 by the Spanish explorer named Hernando Cortez. Cortez was born Medellin, Spain in 1485. He was the only son of a noble family and his father was a captain in the Spanish army. He was fascinated with Christopher Columbus’ journeys in the new world. This was a far cry from his parents wish for him to be lawyer. Before reaching the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, Cortes along with Diego Velazquez, were powerful figures in the island of Cuba. Their partnership soon ended when Cortes went against Velasquez’s wishes to marry his sister and sailed to the mainland of Mexico against his orders. On 1519 Cortez reached the harbor of central Veracruz (“True Cross”). He arrived with 11 ships, 15 horses and a fleet of 500 men in search for gold. Cortes soon learned that the land was ruled by the great Aztec lord in the city of Tenochtitlán: King Monezuma II.

In 1519, Hernan Cortes set sail toward Yucatan, Mexico. The Spaniards were excited for being able to settle in this place for the first time. In Tabasco, Mexico Cortes ran into some resistant natives. He cleared them out with ease, until they were forced to surrender. They gave him supplies and then he left. His mind was set to conquering the Aztecs. He had heard of them and he knew that they were very important in Mexico and he wanted to overthrow them. While they were parading through Mexico they encountered the rivals of the Aztecs, called Tlaxcalans, which were another tribe in Mexico. They became very important allies for the Spanish, during their upcoming siege on the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan. When Cortes arrived, the Aztecs actually though he was their God, Quetzalcoatl, and their leader treated him with a big party. This was because their God was supposed to be returning to Earth that day. The Spaniards wanted to make themselves look powerful, so they fired shots into the air, to scare the Aztecs. They further entered the city and started to sack the whole thing, with the help of the Tlaxcalans and Doña Marina. They took Montezuma (the Aztec leader) hostage. Cortes manipulated him and ruled the city that way. While Montezuma was captured and the Spaniards were ruling the city, another Spanish force arrived from Cuba. Cortes stormed the

Hernan Cortes was a fierce conquistador from Spain that grew up in a noble family. In 1504, he headed out for Hispaniola but ended up in Cuba in 1511. Cortes convinced the Cuban governor to let him be the leader and general of an expedition to Mexico. He then established Veracruz, and was elected official General. Cortes scorched his ships. His men were skeptical about

Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés'

Cortés was intelligent and proficient in law and knew that he was committing treason when he first departed Cuba for the unknown. Frank Ross wrote in “The Codex Cortés: Inscribing the Conquest of Mexico” that Cortés had “conceived of his defense as a legal case which depended on showing that his sense of personal loyalty to the King motivated his actions.” He had to provide evidence that his expedition into the unknown was for the benefit of Spain, especially economically. In the Second Letter of Hernán Cortés to Charles V, Cortés describes the Tenochtitlan market as packed with sixty thousand people

Hernando Cortes was one of the bravest military leaders of all time. Born in Medellin, Spain, he was a Spanish Conquistador who conquered most of Central America. He also gave Spain three-hundred years of control over Mexico. Cortes started exploring in the early 1500’s. He explored to find riches and conquered by being observant of the natives. With a small army, he conquered the Aztec Empire. Cortes went to the university in Salamanca, Spain. He attended the university to study Latin and Law. Unfortunately, Cortes completed only two years of school. He returned to his family in Medellin, Spain. However, life became boring for him. Nevertheless, Christopher Columbus inspired Cortes to explore the New World. Finally, Cortes was able to

He allied with the Totonac and Tlaxcalan people, longtime enemies of the Aztecs (Diaz Del Castillo, Burke, & Humphrey, 2012) and convinced Aztec tributary groups that cooperation with him would be beneficial to them (Paine, The Aztecs, 2015). As he moved throughout the region he interacted with the people and collected knowledge. This information he used to play up the Aztec weakness of no actual standing army to sweep in at any moment and punish the people. Cortes used diplomacy in adding more allies to his army, without which he may not have succeeded in his attempt to conquer the

     In 1519 Hernán Cortés led a couple hundred other Spaniards inland to the impressive Empire of the Mexica ruled by the Great Montezuma. Many historians today tell how quickly and almost effortlessly these Spaniards conquered the Empire. They paint an image of ignorant, helpless Indians practically giving up their land out of fear of this group because certainly the Spaniards must be gods since they have powerful weapons and strange animals. We know neither Cortés nor any of his men were gods, of course, but what was it that allowed Cortés to prevail over the inhabitants of the land?