A Journey with Hernán Cortés

A Journey with Hernán Cortés book cover — PRIMARY SOURCE EXPLORERS A JOURNEY WITH HERNÁN CORTÉS LISA L OWENS LERNER PUBLICATIONS MINNEAPOLIS

A Journey with Hernán Cortés — page 1 — INTRODUCTION AN IMPRESSION OF MEXICO CORTES In a 1519 letter to King Charles V Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés shared details from his Mexican expedition He told of Mexico's fertile plains and beautiful river banks He described the country's inhabitants as people of middle size with bodies and features well proportioned A letter like this is considered a primary source A primary source is a document image map or other object created by a person at the time in which that person lived Cortés had never been to Mexico before his expedition Cortés left Spain in 1504 and began his exploration of Mexico's geography and people in 1519 The explorer is shown in this nineteenth century engraving

A Journey with Hernán Cortés — page 2 — This map from one of Cortés's letters to the king shows the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán He had no idea how it might differ from his native Spain But part of his job was to learn everything he could about the place Knowing Mexico's geography and being able to communicate with its people were important for carrying out his mission to claim the land for Spain And Cortés stayed in touch with the king to tell him about his findings and the mission's progress Cortés's writings give important insight into his own thoughts and actions Without them we would still be able to learn about Cortés from primary sources such as diaries and artworks created by others of his time But his firsthand accounts are a valuable piece of the primary sources puzzle Historians rely on many different kinds of primary sources to study events and people and to present the most accurate information possible

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