Hernan Cortes Research Paper

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Pages: 9

Hernan Cortes was the greatest explorers of all time. He was mostly known for his exploration through Mexico and the defeat of the most powerful civilizations in the early years. His first voyage to the New World was at the age of 19. When he landed on the New World called Hispaniola, they offered him a piece of land where he could establish his farm. To this Hernan complied furiously saying that, “he did not travel to the New World to work hard on land but to find gold.” Hernan Cortes served as a secretary for Diego Velazquez who at that time was doing an expedition towards Cuba’s shore. Even though these two explorers worked together very comfortable they did not trust each other. There first adventure together, went pretty smooth, none of the Indians questioned there dominion through the West Indies.
After several years living in Cuba Hernan Cortez lived as a king would but he still felt that there was something else out there that he needed to find in order to feel completely happy. The governor of Cuba, (Diego Velasquez) heard the report that Francisco Hernandez Cordoba did on his founding of the new territory and soon Velazquez wanted to find out if this
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His crew consisted of “550 soldiers, 100 sailors, 16 horsemen, 10 brass guns, 4 small cannons.” (R. Conrad Stein Pg.19) When Hernan Cortes arrived at Yucatan peninsula he was meet by one European survivor from a shipwreck 7 years earlier. That man was Jeronimo de Aguilar which learned the language of the Mayan and could translate it into Spanish became the first stokes of Cortes luck. De Aguilar became Cortez interpreter with the Tabascans. As a custom Tabascans presented Spaniards with a gift of a woman, and in this case was La Malinche, Malina or Malinali. The Spaniards baptized Malinali with a Spanish name, Marina. She became Cortes interpreter because she was a native girl who knew many languages that would help Hernan Cortez with