Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) was a Spanish commander, famous for the conquest of Mexico and the destruction of the empire of the Aztecs. Departing from Spain in February 1519 under the command of 11 ships, a hundred sailors and just over 500 soldiers, he managed to defeat an enemy which certainly was more numerous, but absolutely backward from the point of view of military technology. Gaining the support of other indigenous peoples subjected to the harsh rule of the Aztecs, Cortés deposed the emperor Montezuma II on 13 August 1521, and brought the siege of the capital Tenochtitlan to a successful conclusion. Entering the Spanish Monarchy with the name of Nueva España, current day Mexico had Cortés himself as its first governor, who was appointed by the Emperor Charles V. Back in Europe, the conqueror also participated in the unfortunate compaign of Algiers (October 1541), which sought to weaken the Turkish presence in the Mediterranean. He died near Seville in 1547, but in the seventeenth century, Cortés’s body was transported to where it still stands today: to the Church of Jesus the Nazarene in Mexico City.