Monty

MONTY

 HERNAN CORTEZ I would like to introduce Hernan Cortes. He was born in 1485 in a small town called Medellin in southwest Spain. He went to law school at the age of 14. When Cortes was eighteen years old, he sailed to the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies. Cortes became a soldier and helped conquer Cuba in 1511. He sailed for Diego Velasquez.

He sailed for King Ferdinand, who was King of Spain. He brought five hundred men! He brought eleven ships. His dates of exploration were from 1518-1527. He conquered Mexico, mainly the Aztecs. He didn’t do it this alone. Really what happened was Cortez retreated and more Spanish soldiers came and it was they who conquered the Aztec. Cortez did have other native tribes on his side because the Aztec would sacrifice them. Cortez and his soldiers conquered Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

Conquering the Aztecs was not easy. He tricked the Aztecs with horses because they had never seen horses in their life, but the Aztec were smart and realized the horses couldn't run on rocky ground. So the Aztec would fight on rocky ground. After conquering Tenonchtitlan, they changed the name to New Spain and the capital because known as Mexico City.

Cortez was the first conquistador to find Mexico.The Aztecs and many other tribes died out because the Spanish brought smallpox, the plague and other awful diseases. The Spanish were adapted to the diseases because the diseases were in Spain for so long. After this amazing exploration, Cortez became very famous. Every Spaniard had heard of him. He had found many riches. King Ferdinand gave him a good amount of gold, but of course the king took most of it. Cortez lived in Cuba for a little bit on an estate. Cortes was sent back to Spain and never went on a voyage again. He died at his home in Spain in 1547. He lived until he was 62years old. That’s pretty old for back then. Even though the Spanish thought that Cortez was a hero, I think that he was a ruthless and mean explorer. Monty

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