You've probably heard the name Hernán Cortés. He's the Spanish guy who showed up in Mexico and, well, everything changed. But how did one man lead a few hundred soldiers against an empire of millions? It’s a wild story of ambition, clever tricks, and a whole lot of luck.
So, Who Was This Guy?
Hernán Cortés was born in 1485 in Medellín, Spain. His hometown was in Extremadura, a poor, tough region known for cranking out soldiers and adventurers. His family were hidalgos , basically, minor nobles with a fancy name and not much cash.
He was the only son, so the pressure was on to make the family rich. He was also a distant cousin of Francisco Pizarro, the guy who would later conquer the Incas. (Small world, huh?).
Spain in the 1490s was a strange place. The centuries-long war to push the Moors out of the country had just ended, leaving a ton of soldiers with nothing to do. For guys like Cortés, nobles too proud for manual labor but too poor to live fancy, the "New World" was their only real shot at getting rich and famous.
His parents sent him to law school, but he dropped out after two years. He probably worked as a legal clerk for a bit, which taught him how to use the law to his advantage later. He was described as "ruthless, haughty, mischievous, and quarrelsome," and decided stories of gold in the Americas sounded a lot more fun.
First Steps in the New World
In 1504, at 19, Cortés sailed to Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). He wasn't a conqueror yet, just a colonist. He got some land and an encomienda , a grant of local indigenous people forced to work for him.
In 1511, he helped conquer Cuba under a powerful guy named Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar. Cortés was a capable organizer, though not a great fighter. He got rich from mines and ranches and even became mayor of Santiago, the island's capital.
His relationship with Governor Velázquez was... complicated. Cortés was jailed for plotting against him and was also pressured into marrying the governor's sister-in-law, Catalina Suárez Marcayda.
Velázquez still picked Cortés to lead an expedition to Mexico in 1518. Cortés poured his own money into it, gathering ships and men. Velázquez got nervous and cancelled the mission, but it was too late, Cortés ignored the order and sailed away anyway, a classic act of mutiny.
Taking on an Empire
Landing and a Lucky Break
The fleet first landed on the island of Cozumel, and right away, Cortés got lucky. He found Gerónimo de Aguilar, a Spanish priest who'd been shipwrecked there for eight years and spoke the local Mayan language.
Next, in Tabasco, they defeated the Chontal Maya, mostly thanks to their horses, which terrified the locals. As a peace offering, the Maya gave them gifts, including 20 enslaved women. One was a Nahua woman named Malintzin, later baptized as Doña Marina, and known to us as La Malinche.
And here's where Cortés got REALLY lucky. Malintzin spoke both Mayan and Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec Empire. Now he had a translation team, Aguilar translated Spanish to Mayan, and Malintzin translated Mayan to Nahuatl.
Allies and a Point of No Return
Cortés's next move was pure genius, and a little sneaky. On April 22, 1519, he founded a town, Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. This let his own men "elect" him as their leader, cutting legal ties to his angry boss, Governor Velázquez.
To make sure no one could turn back, he scuttled his own ships. (Popular history says he burned them, but sinking them did the trick). The message was clear, conquer or die.
Cortés quickly learned the Aztec Empire wasn't one big happy family. Many local groups hated the Aztecs for demanding taxes and soldiers. His first allies were the Totonacs of Cempoala, but his most important partners were the Tlaxcalans.
The Tlaxcalans were tough warriors who had resisted the Aztecs for years. After a few brutal fights against the Spanish, they decided these strange newcomers were the weapon they needed to destroy their enemies in Tenochtitlan. Thousands of Tlaxcalan warriors joined Cortés, turning his small invasion into a massive civil war.
The March to Tenochtitlan
With his new army, Cortés marched on Cholula, a sacred city allied with the Aztecs. Claiming he'd uncovered a trap, he ordered a massacre, killing thousands of unarmed nobles. It sent a terrifying message, this new Spanish-Tlaxcalan alliance meant business.
On November 8, 1519, they walked into Tenochtitlan, the amazing Aztec capital built on an island. The Emperor, Moctezuma II, greeted them cautiously. A week later, Cortés kidnapped Moctezuma and held him hostage, hoping to rule the empire through him.
La Noche Triste (The Sad Night)
Things went south fast. Cortés had to leave to fight a Spanish force sent to arrest him (he won, and most of the new guys joined him). But while he was gone, his lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, panicked and massacred thousands of Aztec nobles during a festival.
The city exploded in rage, trapping the Spanish. Moctezuma was killed, either by his own people or by the Spanish, no one agrees. With their hostage gone, they had to escape.
The escape on June 30, 1520, was a disaster known as La Noche Triste , the Sad Night. Weighed down with gold, hundreds of Spaniards and thousands of their Tlaxcalan allies were killed or drowned trying to flee the city.
The Final Siege
The survivors made it back to Tlaxcala, and thankfully, the alliance held firm. While Cortés regrouped, a new weapon hit Tenochtitlan, smallpox. The disease, brought by the Spanish, killed tens of thousands of Aztecs who had no immunity, including the new emperor.
Cortés's final plan was brilliant. He had his men build 13 small warships, which were then taken apart, carried over mountains, and rebuilt on the lake around Tenochtitlan.
The ships gave him control of the lake, cutting off the city's food and water. For 93 days in 1521, his army and tens of thousands of native allies fought house-to-house. On August 13, 1521, the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, was captured and the Aztec Empire was gone.
What Was Cortés Actually Like?
What did the guy look like? No paintings from his life survive. The only drawing we have is from 1529, showing a tired-looking man in his mid-forties, not a romantic hero.
One of his soldiers, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, gave a better description. He said Cortés was of "good height and body, well-proportioned and muscular." Díaz added he had a sparse black beard, and a face that was "not very cheerful," but his eyes could seem "at times loving and at times grave and serious."
That sums up his personality. He could be charming and rally his men to do impossible things. But he was also incredibly ruthless, ordering massacres and betraying anyone who got in his way.
He was also very religious, or at least he said he was. He saw himself as doing God's work by stopping human sacrifice, which also happened to help him get gold and glory. Oh, and he loved to gamble but didn't drink much.
In His Own Words
The best look into his head comes from his five Cartas de Relación , or letters, to the King of Spain. They were basically propaganda, written to make himself look good and justify his mutiny.
He described Aztec sacrifices to shock the king, "they open their breasts, while they are alive, and take out the hearts and entrails...it is the most terrible and frightful thing to behold that has ever been seen" . This framed his invasion as a holy war.
To explain how he turned Aztec enemies against each other, he quoted the Bible, "Every kingdom divided against itself shall be rendered desolate" . Smart, huh?
He wasn't shy about his brutality. After the Cholula massacre, he wrote, "I determined, to anticipate their movements, in order to prevent being taken by surprise," followed by, "We made such execution that in two hours more than three thousand of the enemy perished" .
And then there's the famous line, which he may or may not have actually said, that gets to the point. "I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold" .
So He Won... Now What?
After the conquest, the King of Spain made Cortés the first governor of 'New Spain' in 1522. His first big project was to build Mexico City right on top of the ruins of Tenochtitlan. He also encouraged Spanish settlers and friars to come over.
But his ambition never cooled, and he sent his men to conquer more land. His independence and ambition, great for a conqueror, made him a bad employee for the King. The Crown worried he might try to start his own kingdom.
His downfall started in 1524 when he marched to Honduras to punish a rebellious captain. The trip was a two-year disaster. While he was gone, his enemies in Mexico City took over and told the king he was a traitor.
He sailed to Spain in 1528 to defend himself. The king treated him like a hero but took away his political power. Cortés was made Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca in 1529, making him super rich, but he was no longer allowed to govern the empire he'd conquered.
His last years were spent fighting lawsuits and funding failed expeditions. His first wife, Catalina, had died mysteriously. He remarried a Spanish noblewoman, Doña Juana de Zúñiga, and had a legitimate son, Martín.
He also had several other children, including another son named Martín with La Malinche, and a daughter with one of Moctezuma's daughters. He returned to Spain one last time in 1541. On December 2, 1547, Hernán Cortés died near Seville, a rich but bitter man, shut out of the world he had created.
Hero, Villain, or Something Else?
So, 500 years later, what do we make of Cortés? It's... complicated.
For a long time, Europeans saw him as a hero, a brave explorer who brought Christianity to a "savage" land. This story, which he helped write himself, made him a legend.
But in Mexico, it's a different story. To many, Cortés was a greedy, murderous invader who destroyed a great civilization and started centuries of suffering. Some Mexican leaders still demand apologies from Spain for the conquest.
Historians today see him as a man of his time, brilliant and brutal. He didn't conquer the Aztecs alone, he was the spark that lit a civil war between native peoples. Spanish technology and disease were huge advantages, but without his thousands of native allies, he would have failed.
But his impact is massive. The gold he took made Spain a global superpower. He kicked off the "Columbian Exchange" in mainland America, the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases that changed the world.
Perhaps his most complicated legacy is his role as a forefather of the modern Mexican nation. His son with La Malinche, Martín, was one of the first mestizos , people of mixed European and indigenous heritage. This relationship was born from violence, but it's the origin of the culture that defines Mexico today, making Cortés a figure that's hard to love... but impossible to ignore.