Originally posted on 2 MAY 2013



Hernan Cortes (1485 – 1527) Born in Medellín, Spain to a family of lesser nobility. Cortés chose to seek his fortune in the New World in 1504. He arrived in Santo Domingo, Hispaniola Island (Dominican Republic) where the Spanish crown granted him native indians to extract labor and to instruct them in the Spanish language and in the Catholic faith. Cortes was made a notary, person who is licensed by the state to perform acts in legal affairs, for a town. Cortes took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and in 1511 took part in conquering Cuba. At first, Cortes was made a clerk to the treasurer responsible for collecting the profits from the Cuban expedition. Cortes impressed the leader of the expedition and was made the secretary of the governor of Cuba. Cortes became a magistrate, a civil officer to administer the town and enforce law, of Santiago, the second Spanish town founded on the island. Cortes was provided Indians to work his mines and cattle.



In 1511 a fleet of boats returning to Hispaniola, wrecked near the coast of Yucatán, and some of its occupants managed to save themselves. The first expedition from Cuba in 1517 of three ships and about 110 Spaniards went West to find other lands to capture Indians as slaves to increase the manpower available to work for those Spaniards who did not already have their own personal slave work force. Mayan pyramids were discovered, gold was taken, and two Indians were captured. Several attempts to replenish their water supplies meet with Indian resistance and 50 Spanish were killed. The second expedition in 1518 of four ships and about 200 Spaniards went West to Mexico established a colony in Tabasco territory.



In FEB 1519, Cortes was appointed the leader of the third expedition (eleven ships and 600 men) to the mainland. The Governor of Cuba attempted to recall the expedition at the last minute and Cortés set sail in defiance of the governor’s wishes. Upon the arrival to the mainland, Cortes’s group found a previously ship wrecked Spaniard who had gone native and knew the Mayan language. In JUL 1519, he chartered the town of Veracruz in the name of the King of Spain. He ordered the removal all items of value from the ships and had them destroyed. The destruction of the ships accomplished two important purposes: His men knew there was no turning back and efforts by the Spanish Governor to find Cortes would be more difficult. Cortes won his first battle on the mainland against the Tabasco tribe. Upon his victory, Cortes was gifted a native noble Aztec girl by the Tabasco tribe. Her name was La Malinche. She learned Spanish and Cortes used her as an interpreter to establish indigenous tribes as allies against the Aztecs.



The Aztecs sent emissaries to greet Cortes. Cortes requested a meeting with the Aztec king and the king repeatedly declined. In AUG 1519, Cortes marched his force inland toward the Aztec capital. In OCT 1519, Cortes with 3,000 Tlaxcalteca allied warriors sacked the second largest city in the Aztec empire. In NOV 1519, the king of the Aztecs peacefully received Cortes’s army into the Aztec capital, an island city. Cortes seized control of the Aztec king.



In APR 1520, the 1,100 men sent by Governor of Cuba to arrest Cortés arrived on the coast of Mexico. Cortez left 200 men in the Aztec capital and rushed to the coast to confront the new Spanish arrivals. Cortez defeated the new arrivals and convinced them to join his forces. The Spanish leader left behind in the Aztec capital by Cortez saw an opportunity to extinguish a large number of the Aztec leaders and massacred them. Cortes returned to the Aztec capital and the Aztec king was killed in JUL 1520. The Spaniards managed a dangerous escape across a narrow causeway loosing 870 men. Cortes made his way back toward the coast and negotiated with indian allies to reorganize a military force to march back to the Aztec capital and laid siege in MAY 1521. In AUG 1521, the city fell to the Spanish. Cortés renamed the Aztec capital Mexico City.



Cortés wrote letters directly to the king of Spain advising him of his exploits and appealed to the king to be reward him for his successes instead of punishing him for his mutiny against the Governor of Cuba. Cortés was awarded titles which elevated him to high-ranking nobleman status. In 1541, Cortés returned to Spain.