Hernán Cortés (1485 - 1547)
The Conquest of Tenochtitlan by an unknown artist
March 4th 1519: Cortés arrives in Mexico
On this day in 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico. When he was around twenty, the young explorer left Spain to make his fortune in the Americas. Initially sailing to Santo Domingo, in 1518 Cortés left there for Mexico in search of its fabled wealth. A month after his arrival, Cortés established the settlement of Veracruz, marking the beginnings of the Spanish conquest and colonisation of Mexico. At the time of the Spanish landing, Mexico was ruled by the Aztec empire under the leadership of Montezuma. His ruthless army marched to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, and were initially welcomed supposedly as god figures. However, relations rapidly deteriorated after fighting broke out between the conquistadors and residents of Tenochtitlán, which resulted in Cortés taking Montezuma hostage. While initially driven out of the city by the Aztecs, Cortés returned and sieged the city, which fell in 1521. Cortés then consolidated Spanish colonial rule over Mexico, Christening it ‘New Spain’, which devastated the indigenous population through warfare and disease. After being removed from Mexico by the Spanish authorities, Cortés continued to explore Central America, and spent the last few years of his life back in Spain, where he died in December 1547. While Cortés was gone, his legacy remained in the endurance of Spanish colonies in Mexico, and the persecution of the native population.
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