Hernan Cortes - Conquistador or Coward?

Officially known as Hernan Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro, the man better known as Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador, explorer, fortune hunter, and soldier who is both acclaimed in reviled in history as the man who led the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and acquire vast territories of mainland Mexico for Spain.[1] Hernan Cortes was born in 1485 in Medellin, near Seville, Spain and died of pleurisy en route to Mexico in December 1547.[2] The parents of Cortes, Martin Cortes and Catalina Pizarro Altamirano, were of upper class origin but were suffering from "reduced circumstances" [3] at the time of Hernan's birth. The young Cortes suffered from ill health in childhood. By the time he was a teenager, his parents enrolled him at the University of Salamanca at the age of fourteen, hoping he would eventually pursue the law.[4]

Cortes did not do well at university. His nature was too restless and he was too easily distracted to focus on his studies. Cortes failed out of the University of Salamanca after two years and returned home. Around this time, stories were pervasive in Medellin about adventure and lucrative opportunities in the "New World."[5] It was at this point that Cortes decided to devote his life to adventure and decided to follow the life of a soldier. He sought military service under respected military strategist Gonzalo de Cordova, but en route to Italy he took extremely ill and had to remain in Valencia for over a y

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od."[30] Cortes' zeal for conversion was typical among European colonizers, especially since some of the practices found among the natives - like human sacrifice - repulsed the sensibilities of the Europeans' who viewed such practices as heinous and an abomination of God. The march to Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) was arduous and took three months. Along the way, Cortes and his men met resistance. Cholula was the second-largest Aztec city and a sacred religious center. As one historian notes, "In a brutal attack, Cortes massacred its citizens and set fire to the city."[31] Cortes was also helped in his victories over the Aztecs by the victories of other explorers like Christopher Columbus, who helped cement the image of Spanish might in the minds of Aztecs. By the time Cortes and his forced reached Tenochtitlan, Montezuma was prepared to shower him with precious gifts because of this reputation and because of the recent devastation that had occurred in Cholula. When he arrived in Yucatan, Cortes soon became interested in something besides land and gold. He took notice of a young Aztec translator named Dona Marina, or "La Malinche," who also rapidly became his mistress and advisor.[32] La Malinche became a

Category: History - H