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…
newly explored Mexico. There he encountered the natives, the Aztecs. He explored the area moving in from the coast until he found the Aztecs capital city, Tenochtitlan. There he and his men were invited to the city after being mistaken for their god. Cortés and his men took the leader of the Aztec's hostage and then sacked the city. Cortés was eventually called away from the city to deal with a Spanish force sent to arrest him, he came back to Tenochtitlan to find the Aztecs in a full rebellion. He left the city only to return and finally conquer the Aztecs. Cortés then served as governor of New Spain as it was called until 1526 when he was unseated. He spent the rest of his life trying to get back governorship or trying to get recognition for his accomplishments. He eventually died in Spain in 1547. Cortés was a huge influence on what happened in the Americas, he destroyed a culture and paved the way for Spanish conquest of Southern and Central America. He was a huge influence on the Aztec empire as well as the entire New World as a whole. Cortés was born in 1485 in Medellin, Spain.
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…
went on an expedition to Cuba in 1511 led by Diego Velazquez. He worked in the civil government and served as the mayor of Santiago for a time (“Hernán Cortés.”). After earning a name for himself and after a lot of asking, Diego Velazquez finally granted Cortés command of his own expedition. In 1518, ignoring a last minute order by Velazquez to cancel it, he sailed to Mexico He had with him more than 500 men and 11 ships and by February 1519 he had reached the Mexican coast (“Hernán Cortés.”). Having been discovered only a year earlier, Mexico was still a mystery and the Spanish were eager to explore it. Cortés' other goal was to convert the natives to Christianity. Which is why he and his men destroyed and removed many of the statues and figures associated with the native religion and replaced them with figures of the Virgin Mary and crosses. Cortés met the first amount of resistance from the natives near Tabasco. He overpowered them quickly and they surrendered. They then gave the Spaniards food, supplies, and 20 women. One of the women, called Malintzin, was an interpreter who became a prominent figure in Cortés' life. She and Cortés even had a child together, although he was never officially recognized by Cortés. One of her most important contributions was helping the Spaniard's communication with envoys of the Aztec empire and even the emperor himself (Szalay). The emperor of the Aztecs, Montezuma, sent envoys to meet Cortés as he got closer to the capital city, Tenochtitlán, the reason for this being, that they thought that Cortés and his men were one of their gods Quetzalcoatl, because the Aztec myths say that Quetzalcoatl would return with light skin and a bearded face. The envoys were intrigued by the light skin and the horses that they rode. The Spanish shot at them, which shocked the natives and scared them even more. They were right to be scared because when Cortés entered Tenochtitlán, he sacked it and took Montezuma hostage. Malintzin was important in helping Cortés manipulate Montezuma to rule Tenochtitlán through him. There are also sources that say she told Cortés about a plot to destroy his army. While Cortés was in Tenochtitlán, a Spanish force sent from Cuba landed on the coast. They had been sent by Velasquez to take down Cortés. When Cortés heard about them, he took an army of Spanish and Tlaxcalan soldiers to fight the Spanish. He defeated them but when he returned to Tenochtitlán he found the Aztecs in a full rebellion, which prompted him and his men to flee the city, although at this time Montezuma was killed, either by the Spanish or the Aztecs (Szalay). Cortés soon returned to the city and with allies that he had gathered from surrounding cities who hated the Aztecs, Cortés laid siege to Tenochtitlán. After 93 days the cities defenses fell and the great Aztec empire was finally destroyed. Although from the ruins of Tenochtitlán the Spanish capital for New Spain, the city we now call Mexico City (Cartwright). There were many factors that contributed to the fall of the mighty Aztec Empire. One of these being an intolerance to disease. During the fight against the men from Cuba one of Cortés' men had gotten smallpox from one of the men from Cuba, and when he was killed in the rebellion and his body was looted, an Aztec caught the disease. It proceeded to spread throughout the city, with nothing to stop it because the Aztec people had no immunity (Szalay). This weakened the empire and further hastened the downfall of this great civilization. One of the other key factors that contributed to the destruction of the Aztecs entire culture was human sacrifices. The ritual sacrifices that the Aztecs did ended in thousands of deaths, and also contributed to the destruction of the Aztec empire. The first reason for this is that they were killing future soldiers to fight the Spanish, there is no way to tell how it would have been different if the people killed had been alive to fight the Spanish. The second reason is that the killing of the citizens of conquered cities caused these cities to hate the Aztecs, which gave the Spanish powerful allies in the Tlaxcala people, this was the biggest reason, as Cortés would not have been able to conquer the Aztecs without the extra men and knowledge of Aztec fighting style (“The Fall of the Aztec Empire”). These things helped the Spanish destroy the Aztecs, which allowed them to set up their colony of New Spain, with Cortés as its first governor. Cortés stayed in that role until 1524 when he went to Honduras to stop a rebellion happening against him.
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
Cortés.”). That is the life and legacy of Hernán Cortés, he did many things, some people may call them terrible, some may call them exceptional. Whatever anyone may call them they had a huge influence on the Aztecs and the New World. He didn’t just conquer the Aztecs, but he opened up Mexico to the rest of the Spanish, and he created one of the first colonies on the mainland of North America. It doesn’t matter if you agree with what he did or not, it has to be recognized that he did incredible things. He conquered the Aztecs, he discovered Baja California, he was the first governor of New Spain, and he founded Mexico City. If that isn’t an impressive resume then I don’t know what is. All of these things go to show and to prove that Hernan Cortés was a huge influence on the Aztec empire as well as the entire New World as a whole.
Using only a fairly small number of soldiers (10,000), Cortes brought down 5 Million Aztecs to their knees and so it made easier for Hernan to take over a country that was in desperate times. The Aztecs drove the Spanish troops from the city, giving Cortes a better chance to try and win over the Aztec empire again. Cortes returned again in 1521, this time putting an end to the Aztec empire by killing the Aztec leader. The same year King Charles I appointed him the governor of New Spain. It was after the war when Cortes changed the name of the country from Tenochtitlan to Mexico City or
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.
During his reign, Hernan Cortes spent most of his time rebuilding Mexico City. He destroyed Aztec buildings and temples, and then rebuilt Christians Churches on top of the ruins. He also brought many Europeans to Mexico. Because of this Mexico City soon became the most important city in the Americas. Cortes founded new cities and appointed men to rule over these new cities and extend Spanish rule. He instituted the encomienda land tenure system in 1524. This is a trusteeship labour system in which certain per...
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
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
“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.
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.
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