Historical Figures Codexery

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who led the fall of the Aztec Empire

Hernán Cortés

Unknown artistUnknown artist · via Wikipedia: Hernán Cortés · Public domain

Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire and won Mexico for the crown of Spain.[1] He was born around 1485 in Medellín, Extremadura, a poor province of the Kingdom of Castile.[2]

Quick Facts

Order
1st
Office
Governor of New Spain

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Velázquez appointed Cortés captain-general of an expedition to Mexico in October 1518.[3] When he was 14 years old, Cortés was sent to Salamanca to study Latin under the tutelage of an uncle.[4] Cortés came back to Medellín after a period of two years, which displeased his parents because they had wanted him to prepare for a profitable legal career.[5] In 1504, Cortés departed for Hispaniola and subsequently became a colonist there.[6]

Despite Velázquez having revoked his charter due to their ongoing dispute, Cortés sailed anyway in February 1519, an act of open mutiny.[7] For interpretation, Cortés employed a native woman named Doña Marina.[8]

What the cited sources add

Cortés's secretary Francisco López de Gómara described him as ruthless, haughty, mischievous, and quarrelsome.[1] Gómara wrote that Cortés was "much given to women" and frustrated by provincial life.[1] Cortés penned a series of letters to the king of Spain between 1519 and 1525.[9] In those letters, Cortés never claimed that he was perceived as a god.[9]

The story of Cortés being mistaken for a god is self-serving and predictable, according to Townsend.[9] The Mexica did refer to the Spaniards for a number of years as teules.[9] Cortés's fifth letter to the Spanish king attempts to justify his reckless behaviour.[1]

References

  1. Francisco López de Gómara, "Hernan Cortés", The Latin Library. facts only, no text reused. thelatinlibrary.com
  2. Wikipedia, "Hernán Cortés" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Martínez Martínez 2024 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Hernán Cortés" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hassig, Ross. Mexico and the Spanish Conquest. Longman Group UK Limited, 1994, pp. 45–46 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Hernán Cortés" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: David A. Boruchoff, "Hernán Cortés", International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd. ed. (2008), vol. 2, pp. 146–149 Hernán Cortés (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Hernán Cortés" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Boruchoff, "Hernán Cortés", Hernán Cortés, Encyclopedia (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Hernán Cortés" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Crow, John A. The Epic of Latin America. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. 4th ed. p. 73 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Hernán Cortés" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jane Landers, Slaves, Subjects, and Subversives: Blacks in Colonial Latin America, UNM Press, 2006, p. 43; Bernard Grunberg, "La folle aventure d'Hernan Cortés", in L'Histoire n° 322, July–August 2007; Bernard Grunberg, "La folle aventure d'Hernan Cortés", in L'Histoire n° 322, July–August 2007; Crowe, John A. The Epic of Latin America. Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1992. 4th ed. p. 75 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Hernán Cortés" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hanson, "Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power", Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Townsend, "Inventing a God", Roundtable, 7 November 2019. facts only, no text reused. laphamsquarterly.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Hernán Cortés (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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