Hernando
Cortez
By
Hannah Regina Turk
For my explorer research project, I am
doing Hernando Cortez. Hernando Cortez was great in many ways, as well as
horrible. You will learn all about him in my following report.
Hernando
Cortez was born in Medllin in 1485. All though his parents were just commoners,
Hernando was going for something bigger. At the age of 14, Hernando started to
study Latin in the University of Salamanca. But after a few years, he decided to
abandon student life. When he was 18, he sailed on a ship to Santo Domingo.
There, he befriended Diego Velazquez, the governor of the island with his
cunning jokes and ambitious personality. After a little while, Velazquez made
him a minor officer. But, when Velazquez hired him to be the leader of an
expedition, he became afraid of what would happen if Hernando took over the
expedition and tried to dismiss him not only of being the commander of the
voyage, but also being an officer. Hearing of the news, Hernando ran away. Then,
Hernando's life as an explorer began. During his conquest for the Aztec empire,
Hernando met Malintzin, a fair Aztec woman, who was of royal blood. She not only
became Hernando's translator, but his Mistress as well. Although they did not
have any children, they lived happily together. In 1540, after Hernando was
finished exploring, he went back to Spain and settled down. This was after he
conquered the Aztec empire, where he mined, farmed and explored. Because of
that, he was now the richest man in Spanish America. He died peacefully on
December 2, 1547 near Seville of old age.
The
first major achievement of Hernando Cortez was being the leader of the
expedition to Cuba. This happened when he was to be dismissed of his orders by
Velazquez. He left secretly on February 18, 1519 with 600 soldiers and sailors,
200 Indian slaves, and 16 horses. As he was traveling, Hernando heard rumors
about the great Aztec empire, and decided that he would try to find this rich
land, conquer it in his name, and take the vast riches. But because Hernando was
not actually the leader of an expedition, and he needed to have a government to
support him. So Hernando founded a small colony-Villa Rica de Cruz (now Veracruz)-formed
a small government, and named himself the leader. This way, he didn’t have to
go through the trouble of going to a country to beg for their support. Then he
realized he needed some kind of ally, to help defeat the Aztecs. So Hernando and
his troupes conquered the local Indians in Cozmul. They marched into their
villages, tour down their religious statues, and converted them to Christianity.
If they did not follow, Hernando would kill them. After a while, Hernando gained
full control of the Indians, and made them his allies. Then, with the same
skill, Hernando decided to conquer the Aztecs. When Hernando first came, all of
the Aztecs thought that he was their most powerful God, Quetzalcoatle. Not only
did they think he was one, but they treated him as one as well. Using this,
Hernando captured Montezuma. The Aztecs listened to him at first, but finally,
they became angry and went to war. Although Hernando’s troupes had guns, the
Aztecs had a much bigger army. Then, some other Spanish troupes of Velazquez’s
came to take Hernando back. But when they came, Hernando and some of his men
came and met up with them. After a little negotiation, Hernando persuaded the
troupes to come and join him. Now, with new men and more guns, the war was
easily won. Although most of the Aztecs died in the war, all of the ones that
were left over were killed by disease. Hernando conquered the land, which is
modern day Mexico.
The country from which Hernando fled to go exploring from was
Spain. Although they did not support his expedition, they were the ones who made
Hernando explore. When he was an officer, Velazquez, part of the Spanish
government, decided to dismiss him of his orders. So, instinctively, Hernando
ran away secretly at night. This led him to establishing Veracruz and conquering
the Aztec empire.
The number one thing
that made him famous was that he conquered the Aztec empire and other Indian
tribes of South America. He showed off his weapons and scared them a lot. And
when they brought him presents, he put them in chains if they didn't have enough
to satisfy him. He destroyed their ancient religion and culture by tearing down
their religious statues, taking their possessions, taking over their royal
treasuries, and converting them to Christianity. In the end, the whole Aztec
empire perished because of Hernando, either by war or the foreign diseases
Hernando and his followers brought. All in all, Hernando made a very
large and bad impact on the Aztecs and on the new world.
Personal
Reaction
Hernando
had some good sides, but he also had many bad sides. The few good things that
Hernando accomplished were very good. He founded Mexico, founded Veracruz, and
spread Christianity all around South America. But the bad things he did were
really bad. Hernando destroyed the ancient people of the Aztecs and their ways.
And the worst thing he did was to change people against their will. Just because
they were different than him, he changed them so they were all like him. Even
though he was a very brave explorer and a well-known man, I believe that he was
weak in the senses that the people he fought were different and weaker than him,
for he could not fight anyone stronger. He relied on his soldier’s power
because he was kind of scared of the South American natives, and any other
people who were different than him.
The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of The World Biography Volume 3
Explorers
From Ancient times to the Space Age Volume 1
Montezuma and
The Fall of The Aztecs By Eric Kimmel
World Book
Encyclopedia Volume 4. 1994
World Book
Encyclopedia Volume 4. 2000
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