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Hernan Cortes, a French Conquistador, embarked on a daring expedition to conquer the Aztec Empire. He dropped out of university and joined the Spanish army, seeking fame and fortune in the New World. The Spanish crown funded expeditions to spread Catholicism and gain wealth. Cortes spent seven years in Cuba before leading his own expedition to Mexico. He had technological advantages like guns and cannons, as well as allies who were hostile to the Aztecs. After facing setbacks, Cortes eventually conquered Tenochtitlan and became the captain general of New Spain. However, his power was later diminished by the emperor of Spain. Cortes's legacy is that of a conquistador who defeated the powerful Aztec Empire with fewer resources. From the British Times, I'm Will Giesler. This is Conquest Unveiled. Today we have a fascinating guest, Mr. Hermann Cortes, the French Conquistador who embarked on a daring expedition to conquer the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. Now, before we dive into the epic tale of Conquest, let's take a moment to understand the man behind the legend. Welcome, Mr. Cortes. Thank you. I'm very glad and honored to be on. Hernan, I understand you're a very intelligent person despite growing up in a less noble family. You studied law and diplomacy at the University of Salamanca, but you dropped out after two years. Correct. I did attend university when I was 14 years old, but then I got tired of all the studying and quit and went back to Medellin at the age of 16. My parents weren't happy about that at all. I can imagine. Well, there I joined the Spanish army and followed in my father's footsteps, so that made them a little less mad. But at the age of 19, I boarded a ship bound to the New World just 12 years after Columbus made the journey. In most of these young Spanish men who sailed to the Caribbean like you, they did so because they're looking for fame and fortune. So, totally, my ambition drove me to take the risk and make my wealth in the Caribbean. So, you don't think I'm a complete idiot? Let me explain what was going on during this time. These expeditions, like Christopher Columbus's, were funded by the Spanish crown, and they were in it for the cash for sure, but they also had their eyes on some bigger goals. Picture this. Since the 11th century, European Christians had been fighting holy wars called crusades. In Spain, it took hundreds of years for Christians to regain full control of the Iberian Peninsula for Muslims. So, the Spanish crown wanted Columbus expeditions and all the ones after to have spread Catholicism. At the end of the day, it's all about the three Gs, God, glory, and gold that drives our motivation. So, the Spanish crown is given the right to colonize and conquer, but under one condition, and that is to spread Christianity to everyone that you interact with on these expeditions. Yeah. There was this idea that whatever we do is okay as long as we spread Catholicism. For the next few years, this mantra guided the behavior of the Spanish in the Americas. So, going back, I know you boarded a ship at a very young age, but you didn't go directly to Mexico, right? Where did you end up? Yeah. So, I ended up spending seven years in Cuba. Wow. So, basically, while in Cuba, you really tried to just make a name and living for yourself? Yeah, that's absolutely correct. I started out as a farmer, but I worked my way up to becoming treasurer and then was elected mayor. Good for you. So, how did you get the opportunity that led you to this expedition in Mexico? So, the Cuban governor at the time, Diego Velazquez, allowed me to lead an expedition to Mexico, but at the last minute, Velazquez canceled the mission. And if you want my personal view on this, it's probably because he became jealous over the idea of me claiming the new land, not him. So, he tried to replace me, but I was too eager and was like, nope, I'm going anyway. So, disobeying Velazquez, I organized my own row crew of 100 sailors, 11 ships, 508 soldiers, and 16 horses. I don't think the Spanish are mad about this, seeing as we accomplished the goal in the end. In fact, I remember the night I wrote a letter to the Spanish king and it read, I assured your highness that he should be taken either dead or alive or become a subject to the royal throne of your majesty. Hernan Cortez's expedition was long and difficult, even after he reached the Aztecs. Hernan, I understand you had smaller interactions with natives as you worked your way to Tenochtitlan from Cozumel, a small island on the Yucatan coast. What did you observe about the Aztec empire when you and your crew first arrived, seeking to conquer the land? So, before I start explaining what Aztec life was like when I first arrived, we need to go into the structure of the empire, just so that we get a better understanding of how everything worked. Emperor Montezuma was at the top of the hierarchy, and then you had kings of different city-states and local dynasties slash nobles, and all of these people had to pay tribute to those above them, cloth being one of the main ways tribute was paid, which was weaved by women of all class, no matter their nobility. And at the time, have you heard anything about Emperor Montezuma? Yeah, so I had certainly heard a lot of rumors from natives about how powerful Emperor Montezuma was, for sure. So what did you observe about the daily life of Aztec people and how the farmers contended to overpopulation and lack of space? So, while I'm no expert on the subject, seeing as I'm not an Aztec, I can definitely tell you what I observed and saw, is that the ordinary Aztec people had very small houses, and both urban and rural Aztec people would trade at the markets, and their cloth that was made by Aztec women was extremely valuable as it was used as money at the markets, as well as for tribute payments, as I mentioned earlier. Now, going into farmers, like you said, they had to deal with overpopulation and space constraints that go with that. In order to deal with the space issue, they built terraces on hills in order to maximize space for their crops, and then used canals and dams to irrigate their crops. During your invasion, you destroyed most of these Aztec towns. Yes, that we did, and I don't regret any of it. We'll be right back. As Jorner Cortez crossed over mountains at 13,000 feet, he saw a sight no European could imagine. In the valley below them, a great city lie, built upon an island in the middle of the lake, connected by bridges and causeways. The countryside was dominated by fields of beans and maize. The city was home to 200,000 inhabitants. This was Tenochtitlan, the heart of the Aztec empire, and Jorner Cortez had come to conquer it. Okay, so let's get into the main reason why you're on this podcast, your conquest of the Aztec empire. Coming from Spain, an established western civilization, you had many advantages, like infantry, calvaries, and allies. You guys had less than 0.1% of the Aztec population that came with you to conquer, though I will say smallpox did give you a quite huge advantage. But how did your technological advantages, like gunpowder, give you the upper hand when it came time to attack? Yeah, so we did have gunpowder that you mentioned, and we clearly paired it up with the use of guns and cannons. And in addition to that, we had horses, which were superior and faster to anything the Aztecs had to move around. So if they tried to run, we would catch them. Our armor was made of iron and steel, materials much more superior to the wooden stone that the Aztecs used, so we clearly had the advantage there as well. Okay, so let's talk about the allies that you got. You benefited from some inciting from the Aztecs, correct? Yes, we did. It was fairly unstable when we arrived, actually. We became allies with an Indian tribe called Tlaxcala that was hostile to the Aztecs and wanted to defeat them, just like we did. So we had a common goal, and they were very helpful after we were forced to retreat from the capital city, Tenochtitlan. Wait, wait, wait. Why did y'all have to retreat from Tenochtitlan? So what ended up happening was that the Cuban governor that I mentioned earlier, Velazquez, set out on an expedition to Mexico to rein me in because he didn't want me to succeed so that he would look better. So I took some of my forces, and we went to the coast to stage a surprise attack on them. After we won, the remaining men joined forces with us, and we proceeded to return back to Tenochtitlan, where we found the men that had stayed behind were under siege. So we made the strategic decision to retreat and rebuild our forces and try and carry out another attack later. Okay, so you guys kind of hit out with the Tahuasca tribe while replenishing your forces and building ships to go back to the lake. So what happened when you finally decided to attack Tenochtitlan again? Yeah, so we were coming to Tenochtitlan with what was equivalent to a small navy, but we did have to take down the ships and rebuild it once we got to Lake Texcoco, and that was a bit of a hassle, but it was well worth it because after a long 75 days of bitter street fighting, the city fell to us, and we successfully conquered the Aztecs. So you mentioned that you had to rebuild your ships, but couldn't you just use the ships that you sailed on from Cuba? So no, actually that was not an option because I wanted my forces to be fully committed to the cause of taking down the Aztecs, so I decided to burn those ships so that there was no option of going back to Cuba, no retreat. I wanted the mindset to be victory or death. Wow, that's uh, wow. All right, so now you get your desired victory, but now you have to find a leader for what this new region's been called, New Spain, and eventually you end up becoming the captain general of that region, is that correct? Yeah, so I held the position of captain general for a short time. I actually had power, and I essentially had complete control over New Spain, granted to me by the emperor of Spain, Charles V. However, over time he grew jealous of all the power he was handing out to conquistadors, including to me, so he started to try and exert more control over me. The way he did that was by appointing royal justices to oversee the treasury, as well as royal justices to administer, well, justice in New Spain. He effectively took most of my power away from me, and I basically became just a figurehead. However, you will always have the legacy of being a conquistador who took down the most powerful empire in the Americas with way less manpower than they did. Thank you very much for joining me today on this podcast. It was a pleasure speaking to you and learning about your experiences. You will always be remembered. Yes, thank you for having me on. Have a good day.
