CONQUISTADORS One of the most successful of the conquistadors was Hernán Cortés He and his men conquered the Aztec empire in Mexico capturing it and renaming it New Spain Other conquistadors such as Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro who conquered Peru also became well-known for their successes across the Atlan tic Ocean But the victories of Cortés and others usually spelled devastation for the Native American tribes they encountered such as the Aztecs and the Incas These people were usually enslaved and their way of life destroyed they looked upon the arrival of the Spanish as a terrible development in their own history Unfortunately the stories of these early conquistadors compelled more Spaniards like them to make the dangerous journey to the New World seeking glory for Spain and for themselves 10
CHAPTER 1 THE QUEST FOR GOLD History usually celebrates the achievements of the Muslims in southern Europe In Spain the Moors built beautiful mosques baths centers of learning and other institu tions They were renowned for producing literature music and scientific knowledge However despite these achievements the Spanish aristocracy was eager to defeat the Muslims and erase their influence on their nation They believed the Moors were pagans and they wanted to build a Catholic empire to replace their Muslim one AN EMPIRE FOR SPAIN The Reconquista literally the re-conquest of Spain took hun dreds of years Finally in 1492 the last Muslim stronghold in Granada fell to the Spaniards Spain expelled its Muslim popula tion though some Moors adopted Christianity and remained The Spaniards next step was to build a new empire which would take massive amounts of wealth So the Spanish monarchs commissioned conquistadors to explore the Americas to find new sources of capital for the new monarchy But why would a man want to leave his home in Spain and travel to a new world One reason was adventure who knew what this New World had to offer Another reason was personal prosperity many young men who did not inherit an income from their families had 11
12 CONQUISTADORS The Alhambra a palace and fortress built by Moorish rulers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries overlooks the city of Granada Spain The fall of Granada to Christian armies in 1492 marked the end of the Reconquista to earn their own living in some other way Becoming an explorer with the prospect of striking it rich was appealing Many conquis tadors were from the lower classes and dreamed of finding a quick way to earn a fortune CORTÉS AND THE AZTECS Hernán Cortés was one of the ear liest success stories Born in 1485 in Medellin in western Spain he
13 THE QUEST FOR GOLD left when he was nineteen seeking adventure and wealth By 1517 he was living in Cuba fruitlessly trying to find gold when a ship captain reported that new civilizations had been discovered in the lands further west Those lands had gold silver and other riches rumors claimed Excited Cortés set out in 1519 with eleven ships landing in the port of Vera Cruz on the coast of what is now called Central America He and his army of 550 men searched for gold but found nothing Cortés communicated with the local people using gestures and other ways of making them understand what he wanted to find Eventually Cortés learned of a land even further inland where gold was apparently plen tiful In Vera Cruz the people referred to that land as Mexico Mexico became Cortés’s new goal despite the fact that it was hundreds of miles away over rough mountainous terrain His men were daunt ed by the idea of traveling so far into new unfamiliar territory which was only accessible by foot To force them into obeying his orders Cortés made a bold move he burned the elev en ships in the harbor of Vera Cruz giving his men no other choice but to join him In 1521 after traveling hundreds of miles he and his men finally found what they had been looking for and it certainly must have
