His
name has come down in history as the heroic explorer of Mexico, the Spanish
soldier who brought down the Mighty Azteca Empire. He is said to have conquered over 5 million
Aztec subjects with just 1,000 Spanish men.
His name was Hernando Cortes Pizarro and he was neither hero nor
conqueror of the Aztecs. This over
simplification of history is much more complicated. Our primary sources come from the numerous
letters penned by the invading Conquistador himself as well as letters from soldiers
under his command. Secondary sources are
those who wrote decades after the conquest interviewing Azteca and Spanish participates. Finally we have modern day historians who were brave enough to reexamine the facts from a different perspective.
Cortes
was born in 1485 in Medellin, Castile.
He was born into a hidalgo family that was not considered wealthy. He was the only son of Martín Cortes de Monroy and Catalina Pizarro Altamarino and his childhood
seemed to be plagued by sickness. His
parents sent him to the University of Salamanca to study law. Evidently he wasn’t very patient to sit and
learn since he came home without a law degree.
According to Cortes’ friend and biographer, Francisco Lopez de Gomara,
Cortes proved to be “a source of trouble to his parents as well as to himself,
for he was restless, haughty, mischievous, and give to quarreling, for which
reason he decided to seek his fortune.”
His
choices were either to join forces in Naples or join an expedition to the “New
World” to earn fame and fortune. He booked
passage with a distant relative, Nicolas de Ovando y Caceres who was being sent
to the Americas to take up position as the new governor of Hispaniola. Cortes never made the voyage due to his adulterous affair
with a local married woman. He injured his leg
when caught by the outraged husband as he was leaping over the garden wall to escape.
In
1504 Cortes finally boarded an expedition headed by Alonso Quintero.
Side note: Alonso Quintero was such a greedy ambitious
individual that he left Spain earlier to reach Hispaniola before his superiors
in order to gain the upper hand in personal profits, but fate sent a storm
which forced him back to Spain. Although
he was forgiven of his mutinous act he tried once again at sea to deceive his
commanders but karma intervened once again and he arrived months after the main
fleet. This amoral act of selfish greed will be repeated by Cortes time and time again.
Upon
arriving he applied for his citizenship and was immediately given land to
farm. His distant relative Nicolas
Ovando granted him an enconmienda which gave him local indigenous natives as
personal slaves. They were forced to
work his land. Cortes also received a
position in the town of Azua de Compostela as a notary. In 1506 Cortes took part in the conquest of
Hispaniola and Cuba to which he received more lands and more Indian slaves from
the expedition leaders.
Cortes
continued to rise in power and prestige.
However,
Cortes was made out to be an encomendero.
Farming
was not his beloved occupation. Warfare
boiled in his blood and he excelled in invasion expeditions. In 1511 he joined
the expedition of Diego Velazquez de Cuellar to complete the conquest of Cuba
under the orders of Diego Columbus brother of Christopher Columbus.
Before
Diego Velazquez even set out from Hispaniola to conquer the island of Caobana,
he was preceded by Cacique Hatuey. He
had fled Hispaniola with four hundred warriors in canoes to warn the
inhabitants of Cuba about the impeding invasion from the Spaniards.
Without
prior knowledge such atrocities told by Cacique Hatuey was not believed by the
people of Cuba and few joined him to resist.
Cacique was forced to resort to guerrilla tactics and was able to
confine them to their fort at Baracoa.
Diego
Velazquez had learned from past experience that when the indigenous inhabitants
lost their cacique they would become disorganized and scatter. Velazquez taught this to Cortes and they
concentrated all their efforts on capturing the war leader. When the Spanish eventually captured Cacique
Hatuey he was tied to a stake and burned on February 2, 1512. The warrior and leader Hatuey sacrificed his
life defending his right and the rights of his people to live and be free. http://cubahistory.org/en/spanish-settlement/rebellion-of-hatuey.html
After
the invasion of Cuba was complete, Velazquez was appointed its first governor. New colonizers arrived quickly and began settling
the land. These new settlers, however, did
not want to be under the personal authority of Diego Columbus. In response to their demands Velazquez
ordered a general cabildo ( a local government council) which under Spanish law
duly authorized them to deal directly with Spain.
In 1513 Cuban Governor Velazquez authorized
the importation of African slaves to augment production on the farms due to the
infectious diseases taking heavy toll on the local population.
Expeditions
to Yucatán by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1517 and Juan de Grijalva in 1518
had returned to Cuba with small amounts of gold, and tales of a more distant
land where gold was said to be abundant. Cuban Governor Velasquez granted Cortes a charter to explore and
trade in the new lands. He was forbidden
to colonize but Cortes tricked his father in law to insert a clause about
emergency measures that might have to be taken without prior authorization in
the true interest of the realm.
Cortes
then applied all of his funds, mortgaged his estates and borrowed from
merchants and friends to outfit his ships. Velasquez may have contributed to
the effort, but the government of Spain offered no financial support
William Prescott – Mexico and the Life
of the Conqueror – Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 2, circa 1843
To Be Continued….
Mvto
So basically you guys twisted history to make all the discovery and conquest look bad. I trust nothing from your post. Today like in the past the most important people has haters, but it does not work that way.
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