Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca [a] [b] (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century.
Moctezuma gave lavish gifts, which led Cortés to plunder the city. Cortés claimed the Aztecs saw him as an emissary or incarnation of the god Quetzalcoatl, though this is contested by few historians. [161] Upon learning that his men had been attacked on the coast, Cortés took Moctezuma hostage in his palace, demanding tribute for King Charles.
Faced with imprisonment or death for defying the governor, Cortés' only alternative was to continue his enterprise in the hope of redeeming himself and his men with the Spanish Crown. To do this, his men established a settlement called La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, or "True Cross", since they arrived on Maundy Thursday and landed on Good Friday.
At this time, the Mexica (Aztecs) began to prepare for the annual festival of Toxcatl in early May, in honor of Tezcatlipoca, otherwise known as the Smoking Mirror or the Omnipotent Power. They honored this god during the onset of the dry season so that the god would fill dry streambeds and cause rain to fall on crops.
Over time, the celebration of Columbus grew into Columbus Day, and the truth of his journey, that he had lied to the Queen of Spain about his Route and ended up being stripped of his title and banned from the Indies, was buried. The glorification of Cortes resulted from his success in Mexico and the publication of his letters to the King.
The Drake Passage, between the southern tip of South America and Antarctic, is infamous as one of the most dangerous journeys on the planet. But why is it so rough – and how can you cross safely?
Drawing of a battle in the Spanish conquest of El Salvador, 1524. The Spanish Requirement of 1513 (Requerimiento) was a declaration by the Spanish monarchy, written by the Council of Castile jurist Juan López de Palacios Rubios, of Castile's divinely ordained right to take possession of the territories of the New World and to subjugate, exploit and, when necessary, to fight the native ...
Cortes represents a much more familiar face — a former All-Star who has become a staple of New York’s pitching staff in recent years — but also a much bigger unknown at this point in time.