Compare And Contrast Columbus And Cortes

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On October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on unknown territory, however, in his perspective of Earth he thought he made a new route to Asia. He travels throughout the lands, soon, he discovers new forms of inhabitant plants, as well as, indigenous people that were native to those lands. Years later he soon unravels that it was all unaccustomed terrain. The monarchy of Spain also discovers Columbus’s new discoveries, then, they send more explorers to conquer the lands. In 1520, Hernan Cortes goes with the order from Spanish royalty to go to the newly discovered lands to conquer them, also, help expand the Spanish empire. Overall, Columbus and Cortes both reported the new lands they recently discovered back to Spain, however, their descriptions …show more content…

They both did as they were told and wrote letters on their findings. The explorers had similar findings, such as, new inhabitant plants, animals, and indigenous people. Also, they reported layouts of the land as they traveled along. However, there were differences with the letters from Columbus and the letter from Cortes. For example, Columbus wrote to Louis De Santangel how the indigenous people were completely naked and were less advanced than the Europeans. Furthermore, the lands Columbus explored were mostly islands and didn’t have much rugged terrain. While, Cortes in a different mountainous area from Columbus saw and wrote to Charles V that the natives were not naked and had a variety of structures with diverse uses, such as, temples and houses for the nobility. Columbus had envisioned the lands for the Spanish colonization, on the other hand, Cortes went for the riches, such as, gold, silver, and other precious metals. Even though their perspectives for the lands were different, however, their Euro-centric perspectives distorted their views on

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