Hernando Cortez (Hern

1
Hernando Cortez(Hernán Cortés)

• Audrey Shelton

2
Early Life

• Born in Medellin in Southwestern Spain in 1485
• He was a soldier and a farmer before he sailed
  for Diego Velasquez to help conquer Cuba in 1511
• Velasquez became the governor and Cortez was
  elected mayor-judge of Santiago.

3
Basic Information

• Nationality - Spanish
• Lifespan - 1485 - 1547
• Family - Spanish nobility his parents were Martín
  Cortes de Monroy and Catalina Pizarro Altamarino
• Education - Well educated attended University of
  Salamanca
• Career - Spanish Conquistador and Explorer
• Famous as the Spanish conqueror of Mexico and
  the Aztec Empire
• Cortes conquers the Aztec nation of 5 million
  with less than 1000 soldiers

4
Conquering the Aztec Empire

• When Mexico was discovered in 1518, Vilasquez
  chose Cortez to make a colony there
• On November 8, 1519, Cortez reached Tenochtitlan
  (Mexico City) and was received by Montezuma, the
  Aztec emperor.
• Soon after Cortez established headquarters in the
  capital
• Learned that the Aztecs had plundered Veracruz
• Seized Montezuma and forced him to surrender the
  attackers.
• Had them executed
• Velasquez sent 1400 solders to arrest Cortez, but
  he defeated the army and most of the survivors
  joined him
• Cortez returned to Tenochtitlan. Aztec warriors
  ambushed him. Montezuma was brought to pacify his
  people, but they stoned him to death.

5
Still Conquering the Aztecs

• Cortez was surrounded by the Aztecs, but he and
  three others managed to get the chief of the
  tribe and kill him. The Aztecs, confused by this
  apparent miracle, retreated.
• With fewer than 500 of his men left alive,
  Cortez, in July of 1520, made his way back to his
  Indian allies.
• Cortez attacked Tenochtitlan again by ship the
  following May. On August 13, 1521, Guatemoc, the
  new Aztec emperor, surrendered. This was the end
  of the great empire of the Aztecs.

6
Stopped Human Sacrifice

• Aztec theology involved the concept that the gods
  gave things to human beings only if they were
  nourished by human beings, so the Aztecs gave
  their gods human sacrifices

7
More Provinces Than Your Ancestors Left You Cities

• Neglected, he returned
• I am a man who gave you more provinces than your
  ancestors left you
• Five letters addressed to Charles V are his only
  writings

8
Ending of His Life

• 1540 Hernando Cortes returns home to Spain for
  the last time
• 1541 Spain fears the power that Hernando Cortes
  has in the New World - Cortes is denied any
  government post in Mexico and his reputation is
  smeared by rumors that he murdered his wife,
  Catalina Xuarez but he is given permission to
  fight against the Moors and the Pirates of
  Algiers
• 1547 Cortez died on December 2, 1547 near
  Seville
• Buried, Mexico City, Mexico
• In all the city, only one Cortes statue is on
  display, a bust placed in a passageway of the
  Hospital de Jesus, which Cortes founded in 1524.