Hernan Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marques del Valle de Oaxaca (Spanish pronunciation: [?r?nan kor?t?s]; 1485December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the King of Castile, in the early 16th century. Cortes was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Born in Medellin, Extremadura, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortes chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda and, for a short time, became alcalde (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the governor of Cuba, Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, resulted in the later recalling the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortes ignored. Arriving on the continent, Cortes executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous peoples against others. He also used a native woman, Dona Marina, as interpreter; she would later bear Cortes a son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortes, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortes wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec empire, Cortes was awarded the title of Marques del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. Cortes returned to Spain in 1541 where he died peacefully but embittered.
Because of the controversial undertakings of Cortes and the scarcity of reliable sources of information about him, it has become difficult to assert anything definitive about his personality and motivations. Early lionizing of the conquistadors did not encourage deep examination of Cortes. Later reconsideration of the conquistadors' character in the context of modern anti-colonial sentiment and greatly expanded concern for human rights, as typified by the Black Legend, also did little to expand our understanding of Cortes as an individual. As a result of these historical trends, descriptions of Cortes tend to be simplistic, and either damning or idealizing.
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