
Cortez Claiming Mexico For Spain, 1519

by British Library
Title
Cortez Claiming Mexico For Spain, 1519
Artist
British Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Image taken from page 8 of "The History of Mexico and its wars with revisions and additions up to the present time, by the publisher A. Hawkins. Embellished with engravings" by John Frost, 1882. Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro (1485 - December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. He was born at Medellin into minor nobility, and after studying at Salamanca chose to look for his fortune in Hispaniola and later Cuba. In 1519, against the orders of the Governor, he led an expedition to the mainland that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile. He used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter; she would later bear him a son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won. He wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortés was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. In 1541 Cortés returned to Spain, where he died, in 1547, an embittered 61 year old man.
Uploaded
June 14th, 2016
Embed
Share
Similar Subjects
Comments
There are no comments for Cortez Claiming Mexico For Spain, 1519. Click here to post the first comment.