Spanish Conquest Research Paper

Words: 785
Pages: 4

The Spanish conquest in 1519 was one of the most brutal conquests in the 15th century, led by Hernán Cortés, a conquistador for the Spanish empire. The Spanish conquest lasted only about 3 years, but in those 3 years over 20 million native Aztecs were killed by disease and over 200,000 were mercilessly slaughtered in the battle of Tenochtitlan. All for the quest of gold, and wealth and to expand the Spanish empire. The Spanish conquest all started with the goal of finding gold and expanding the Spanish empire to the new world, what is now North America, so the Spanish empire sent out Spanish conquistadors with the goal of finding gold and expanding the empire in mind. The one who ultimately led the Spanish conquest was Hernán Cortés. Hernán Cortés was born in 1485 to a noble family in Medelln, Spain, and at the age of 18 Hernán …show more content…
Later on however in 1511 Hernán Cortés ended up in Cuba, and convinced the governor of Cuba, Velázquez, to select him as captain of a expedition to colonize Mexico in 1518. Velázquez later canceled the expedition to Mexico, but Hernán Cortés ignored the command given to him and took about 608 men, 11 ships, and 16 horses, and sailed for Mexico arriving in February of 1519. When Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico he stopped at Tabasco where he enquired valuable information about the Aztecs, and how to conquer them. The native people of Tabasco also spoke Spanish which led Cortés to believe that the Spanish were there, later Cortés found out about a European shipwreck and found Jeronimo de Aguilar one of the survivors of the shipwreck who was fluent in Mayan, Jeronimo de Aguilar later became Cortés’s chief interpreter, an important asset to Cortés and the