Can you tell me who discovered the Americas? Christopher Columbus, most people know that and that's cool and all. However, a lot of people are much less educated on the people who came after. For example, if I asked you, who discovered Baja California? That is a tougher question, the answer being Hernán Cortés, the famous Spanish conquistador who conquered the greatest of the native empires, the Aztecs (Szalay). Born in 1485 to a noble but not wealthy family in Spain. He was a kid when the New World was discovered, and since then he was fascinated by the adventure and the mystery behind the New World. He was so fascinated that at the age of 19, he sailed to the New World. After a few years in Hispaniola and Cuba, he led an expedition to the …show more content…
Born the only son of a not wealthy, but noble family. At the age of 14 Cortés went to the University of Salamanca to study law, while there, however, he was restless and unhappy(Szalay). He started to read more about the New World and became fascinated by the stories of Christopher Columbus and people like him. Columbus had landed in San Salvador and the West Indies in 1492 when Cortés was a young boy. Columbus had sailed to find riches in the form of spices from Asia and more specifically India and Indonesia. Where nutmeg, cloves, pomander, pepper, and cinnamon were found, all of these spices being in high demand and therefore worth quite a bit of money (Szalay). Cortés wanted to be a part of this movement, he wanted to make his fortune. This prompted him to sail to Hispaniola in 1504 at the age of 19. He lived in the town of Azua, where he served as a notary for several years (“Hernán Cortés.”). When he was in Hispaniola, Cortés attempted to meet with the Governor, who he knew from Spain. The Governor was gone but the secretary told him that he would definitely be able to get a land grant. He famously responded by saying "I came to get gold, not till the soil, like a peasant." However when the Governor returned Cortés was convinced to take a piece of land for some time. He didn't settle down though and was involved with the military helping to suppress native uprisings (Nanney). Finally being fed up with his simple life he …show more content…
He stayed there for two years, and when he returned to Mexico he found that he had been removed from power. He traveled to Spain to plead with the king, however, he was never appointed the governor. The king did allow him to return to Mexico, where he discovered Baja California and did more exploring (Szalay). When Cortés reached his mid 50's he returned to Spain where he fought for power after being almost entirely neglected. He finally was allowed to fight with the Emperor in the fight against Algiers. It ended badly for the Spanish, and Cortés almost drowned. He returned to Spain, and after being neglected still, he decided to travel back to Mexico (Nanney). He never made it to Mexico, before he could set sail, on December 2, 1547, Hernan Cortés died of pleurisy. He did leave behind a will though, in which he provides for his children, requests to be buried at the Hospital de Jesus Nazareno in Mexico City, and he also left money for a missionary training school as well as a nunnery in Coyoacan (“Hernán
“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, is the rhyme embedded in children’s heads in the first lesson of US history. However, beyond the discovery of the New World, Christopher Columbus receives no other mentions. Especially no one acknowledges that he was the reason Native Americans were mistreated and kept as slaves. Although Christopher Columbus’ actions are not all honorable he should still be celebrated during Columbus Day as a brave explorer who risked his and his crew’s lives to find a new way of travel and land. His efforts bridged a gap between the New and Old World and helped feed Europe, which immensely impacts our society. Because of his dedication and bravery to be an explorer Christopher Columbus Day should be celebrated.
After the discovery of the new world, by Christopher Columbus, rapidly the Europeans navigate from their countries to the new world in search of gold and precious rocks that have a value for their kings or queens. Hernan Cortes, born in Medellin, Spain, was a conquistador mainly best known as the conquistador that found Tenochtitlan, which is now call Mexico City. During the conquista Bernal del Castillo and Hernán Cortés describe the struggles and other issues that they had to find the city Tenochtitlan through writing it on a book. Tenochtitlan, at that point, had amazing building structure and an extensive market. The Aztec or Mexica had, when found by Cortez, an extensive knowledge of Astronomy, time, and including Mathematics. After Cortes’s entrance to Tenochtitlan the king, Moctezuma, believe that Spaniards were part of their culture or history, as the same as Toltecs.
Hernan Cortes was born at Medellin in Spain in the year 1485 and eventually became one of the great Governors of Mexico City. It all started in 1518 when the Governor of Cuba (Diego Velazquez) placed him in charge of an expedition to explore Mexico for colonization. In February, 1519, Cortes was about to set sail when Velazquez changed his mind at tried to replace him; however Cortes in an act of mutiny pushed forward anyway. In March of 1519, Cortes claimed the land for the Spanish Crown (Charles V). Because of this great victory and the gold that Cortes sent back to Spain, he was named Governor and Captain General of Mexico in 1523.
Slide 2- the man the Spanish monarchy chose was Christopher Columbus. Columbus is known for stumbling into America while looking for Asia.
Christopher Columbus discovered the America’s for Spain in 1492. The explorers and settlers that settled in Central and South America were mostly Spanish and Portuguese. The English took notice of the Spanish success in the America’s, so they decided to explore the upper part of the America’s, North America, in the late 1500’s.
Christopher Columbus, as we all know unintentionally founded America. Christopher Columbus had just left spain in search of Asia for treasures when he landed on The Caribbean Island. When they
The name of the article is PRO/CON: Should we celebrate Christopher Columbus?It was made By Silvio Laccetti, McClatchy Tribune, and Los Angeles Times Editorial Board adapted Newsela staff. On 10/06/2017. There are monuments and teachers that are being destroyed. Many people died during Columbus time and when people think of Colombes they think of all the people that he killed. There are parks playgrounds and schools that tribute Christopher Columbus. The article says we should the accomplishment he made. The Los Angeles California City Council have joined with other cities to replace Columbus Day with a holiday called Indigenous Peoples Day. because of the controversy of Columbus, a lot of people
On October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on unknown territory, however, in his perspective of Earth he thought he made a new route to Asia. He travels throughout the lands, soon, he discovers new forms of inhabitant plants, as well as, indigenous people that were native to those lands. Years later he soon unravels that it was all unaccustomed terrain. The monarchy of Spain also discovers Columbus’s new discoveries, then, they send more explorers to conquer the lands. In 1520, Hernan Cortes goes with the order from Spanish royalty to go to the newly discovered lands to conquer them, also, help expand the Spanish empire. Overall, Columbus and Cortes both reported the new lands they recently discovered back to Spain, however, their descriptions
Christopher Columbus is a mythical hero or in other words, not a true hero. The story of Christopher Columbus is part of the many myths of Western civilization. Also the story of Christopher Columbus represents the power of those that are privileged and in most cases white European men that have written this mythical history. Zinn (2009 exposes the truth about Columbus through eyes of the people who were there when he had arrived which were the Native Indians (p.481). Columbus had kept a personal journal for his voyage to describe the people and the journey. What was evident throughout his journal was the Native Americans were very nice, gentle and kind hearted people (Zinn, 2009, 481). As Zinn suggests Columbus spoke of the Native Americans as” they are the best people in the world and
It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory voyage from King John II of Portugal, but he was refused. In 1485, Columbus took his son Diego and went to Spain to get some help.
In our personal lives we consider our past forgotten, however in our history everyone affects how they see themselves. "history repeats itself " is gradually long time we know manipulated and deceived us the wrong information, books, learning in school, the "biased" report before the newspaper, radio and television. Let us move on and we just solemn pray for that will prosper in our country. I noticed that there have been distortions in our history. It’s sad because it seems like we have forgotten the sacrifices of those who died during the time of dictatorship. This tragedy cannot continue. We should stand up for someone’s rights today. Times have changed. More sooner than later, they will take power into their hands by all and whatever
Who discovered America? The common answer to this question would most likely be Christopher Columbus. However, many explorers and adventurers came to America before Columbus. Viking Leif Ericsson was one of these explorers. Ericsson visited, and may have even discovered, the land that became America on one of his many adventures away from his native Greenland. The life, discoveries, and legacy of Leif Erikson are an important piece of history that not many are familiar with.
Some of the problems when studying history are the texts and documents that have been discovered are only from perspective. Furthermore, on occasion that one perspective is all there may be for historians to study. A good example of this textual imbalance can be found from the texts about the discovery of the New World; more specifically, the letters of Christopher Columbus and Pêro Vaz de Caminha during their voyages to the New World. Plenty of the text from this time is written from the perspective of the Europeans, as the Indigenous population did not have any written text. What this means is that it provided only one perspective, which can drastically hinder how history is interpreted. Columbus’s letter of his first voyage to the Caribbean
Before the most famous historic voyage to the Americas Christopher Columbus had no support to go on his expedition. Christopher Columbus tried to get support from the King of Portugal John II, but he was turned down. Spain finally agreed to sponsor his voyage in 1492 across the Atlantic Ocean. By agreeing to sponsor Christopher Columbus voyage they believed they would have gained leverage in what they were trying to do in Spain. The Reconquista made the Spaniards very powerful. By Christopher Columbus finding new land with people and gold it convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to continue to support his voyages. Even though the king and queen believed that allowing him to go on the voyages benefited them it actually allowed Christopher
Cortes helped build more farms throughout the country and other necessities for making the economy better. Hernan constantly looked for ways to keeping his power, growing his country, making sure the number of assets he owned kept increasing, and he would constantly look for ways of defeating those who would try to overthrow him. Since Cortes had a spark for exploration, he sponsored many of the exploration trips that were carried out in his country. Thinking about making the economy better, he built more cities, and even promoted industrialization by starting sugar factories. He spread Christianity amongst the people. Basically, Hernan Cortes did a fine job of laying the Mexico City on top of the old Aztec Tenochtitlan. To make sure he did not let his personal wishes aside, in 1524, Cortes left to explore the world more and that led him to the jungles of Honduras.