Hernan Cortes (1485-2 December 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who served as Governor of New Spain from 13 August to 24 December 1521 (preceding Cristobal de Tapia) and from 30 December 1521 to 12 October 1524 (succeeding Tapia and preceding the triumvirate of Alonso de Estrada, Rodrigo de Albornoz, and Alonso de Zuazo). He was known for his conquest of the Aztec Empire, and, with it, large portions of Mexico.
Biography[]
Cortes in battle
Hernan Cortes was born in Medellin in the Extremadura region of Spain to a family of lesser nobility, and he decided to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda, the right to the labor of Native American and other subjects. He twice served as alcalde of Santiago de Cuba, and, in 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland of North America, partly funding the expedition. He ignored the recall of his expedition by Governor Diego Velazquez, and, once he landed, he took the native woman Malinche as his mistress and translator and allied with the Tlaxcalans against the Aztec Empire. Cortes fought emissaries sent by Velazquez to arrest him, and he used their extra troops as reinforcements during his campaigns against the Aztecs. In 1520, following the murder of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma, the Aztecs massacred the Spanish in the Night of Sorrows, leading to Cortes and his army - reinforced by soldiers from Cuba - destroying Tenochtitlan; Cortez took Moctezuma's daughter Isabel Moctezuma as his mistress. From 1521 to 1524, Cortes personally governed New Spain, and he wrote letters to Emperor Charles V asking him to acknowledge his successes instead of punishing him for mutiny. He was made Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, while the title of Viceroy was given to high noble Antonio de Mendoza instead of him. In 1541, Cortes returned to Spain, where he died six years later of natural causes.