More handpicked essays just for you.
The impact of colonialism on Latin America
Effects of colonialism in latin america
The impact of colonialism on Latin America
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Hernan Cortez was one of the most iconic military leader and explorer in Latin American history. Hernan Cortez was born in the 1480’s, in Spain. He set sail to the new world at a young age. In his later twenty’s he moved to Cuba. While Cortez was in Cuba, he joined Diego Velazquez on certain expeditions throughout Cuba. Velazquez took over the Cuban government, he was the governor of Cuba after he conquered the country. He like Cortez very much, so Velazquez helped Cortez rise in the Cuban government. Cortez became very powerful in the Cuban government and wealthy. Everyone loved Cortez in Cuba. The fact that the citizens of Cuba admired Hernan Cortez so much, that it helped him create an army. This helped conquer a good amount of Latin America. …show more content…
In certain circumstances I do believe the narrator sympathizes over Cortez, but in some ways I believe he does not. Mostly I do not think he sympathizes over Cortez caused mayhem throughout Latin America. The destruction of Cholula also the fall of the Aztecs, which got the name “Conquistadors” (1:55). As well I do not sympathize over Cortez and his men, he disobeyed his order from the Spanish government. The Aztec leader offered many gifts mostly gold. (15:00) Montezuma was killed by Cortez and his men, he betrayed him. He went around to all certain Aztec people telling and confusing he was sent by a god to help fight Montezuma. The Spaniards try to steal the gold from the Aztec in the river but, half way into the river they spotted, 800 men died, they were a sacrifice at the pyramid for stealing. Cortez was not one of those men. He was saddened, but deep down inside I believe he was saddened that he lost his gold. Cortez will not let go of his dream. He wanted the gold. His corruption and war inside Latin America caused the fall of Aztecs. The Aztecs were in a war, also in a siege, many died. All people had to eat was lizards, most starved. Hernan Cortez during his time was one of the greatest military leaders in his day marched through of Latin America conquered all that got in his way. At the end of the day the gambler who gambled everything won. (54:21) maybe at the end he was a hollow victory for achieving his dream, he signal handily destroyed a civilization.
It is amazing how two people can witness the same event and come away with two distinctively different interpretations of said event. However, the letter from Cortes and the Florentine Codex do exactly this. They both describe the same event, but from different perspectives. Hernan Cortes was a Spanish Conquistador who caused the fall of the Aztec Empire by conquering Tenochtitlan which is now known as the present day Mexico City. He took their leader, Moctezuma, captive that led to a massive riot which ended with a lot of death. Although, the Florentine Codex covers the same event, it has a totally different tone and view of things. While both the letter from Cortes and the Florentine codex discuss the same incident, no one see’s everything
He attempted this primarily through his portrayal of Montezuma’s system of governance as brutal and is people as disloyal to him. He described the apparent willingness of the peoples he encountered to abandon the Aztecs and swear allegiance to the King of Spain, “Although they were subjects of Montezuma … they had been reduced to that condition by force …and when they had obtained through me some knowledge of your Highness … they declared their desire to become vassals of your Majesty, and to form an alliance with me”(Second Letter, 38–39). Cortés justified his conquest further through his proclamation to the his king that he was acting in defense of these newly acquired vassals. Cortés wrote that Montezuma subjected the local people to violent and tyrannical repression and, “took from them their sons to be slain and offered as sacrifices to his idols”(Second Letter,
Cortez is a hero and should be respected as a hero for the reasons that he stood up the way many were scared to do so in his time. We live in a city filled with many Hispanics that could relate and argue the same that Cortez is a here to the Mexican American culture. For now Cortez’s story is only told as a folk tale but I believe one day Cortez is going to be recognized as a hero. Just give it time. Viva Gregorio Cortez!
In this biographical paper, I will be exploring the history of Juan Cortina, a man who is a hero or bandit depending on who you ask, his historical significance, and then exploring what we know of Juan and what we can deduce about his personality.
Hernan Alonso was instrumental for destroying the Aztec Empire. He is the main reason why Hernan Cortes was able to succeed. He was the man that put Tenochtitlan under siege. He gained the skill of creating from being a blacksmith. He had the entrepreneurship to start his own business in this new land. He had helped from Hernan Cortes to pursue this conquest. This would also led to his downfall. Hernan Cortes was benefit for him and not one.Alonso was a “new christian” which marked him. Hernan Alonso was the first person to be burn for being a heretic in Mexico. Alonso was instrumental for the success of Hernan Cortes and vice versa.
De Soto was born somewhere around the year 1500 in Jerez de los Caballeros in Extremadura in what is now Spain (Milanich & Hudson 26). Contemporaries of de Soto would include Cortez, Balboa, and Francisco Pizzaro with whom he would share a great adventure. De Soto's ancestors had been part of the reconquista and as aristocrats many had been knighted for their part in driving the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula (Milanich & Hudson 26). Hernando would have played no part in the expulsion of the Moors; however, family legacy would have played no small part in developing his frame of reference. It is thought that by the time do Soto was fourteen he was on his way to the new world.
From the foothills of Barcelona in Spain, a man came to be. Full of strength, honor, wisdom, and courage, this man was named Hernan Cortes. He, as the Spaniards would say, was a god among men. Legend says he had cat-like reflexes, and also had the mind filled with strategies. He may not have been the tallest person in the crowd, but he had the most will to achieve greatness. He is one of Spain's most influential, if not the most, conquistadors.
In the early 1900’s, one man bested the rival troops and used his intelligence to defeat the oppressive Mexican regime. Doroteo Arango Arámbula, also known as Pancho Villa, was born into a poor family and worked in the fields. Pancho Villa escalated from a peasant outlaw into a well-known revolutionary war strategist and folk hero. Pancho Villa could easily outsmart troops and use his popularity to help his cause for equality. His actions could not atone for any previous transgressions in his life of crime, but his tactics as a revolutionary war commander made him almost unstoppable when it came to fighting for equality. Pancho Villa was an important factor in the Mexican Revolution and its beginnings. He was one of the first revolutionaries to fight against the Mexican government, and successfully evaded and won fights against the United States government. His greatest achievement was the amount of influence he delivered the poor, and empowered them to fight for their rights.
The corrido has been identified as having distinctive characteristics that make up its theme and plot. First, the corrido has a “context of hostile relations between Anglos and Mexicans along the border and the establishment of a scenic structure, geographical locale, and opposing social forces” (Mendoza 146). The corrido’s hero “is a hard-working, peace-loving Mexican, who, when goaded by Anglos, outrages into violence, causing him to defend his rights and those of others of his community against the rinches, the Rangers” (Saldívar). This hero “is quickly introduced in legendary proportions and defiant stature” and many people must die before the hero reaches his triumphant, but tragic, demise (Mendoza 146). The Anglos in the corrido, meanwhile, are not one-dimensional villains but “complex figures who contain positive as well as negative qualities” (Mendoza 146). These distinctive traits of a corrido – setting, conflict, and characterization, among others – ...
Antonio López de Santa Anna was born on February 21, 1794 in Jalapa, Mexico. He served in the Spanish army and became a military captain. He fought for the Spanish against the Mexican war. Like many other army officers, he switched sides in 1821 in order to make sure Augustin de Iturbide is head of state of an independent Mexico. In 1823, he helped overthrow Iturbide. He supported and helped Vicente Guerrero become president in 1828, but also overthrew him later. Also in 1828, he fought against Spain’s attempt to reconquer Mexico. By 1833, he was elevated to president of Mexico.
After evaluating the murder of Moctezuma II, the following conclusions are deducted. The jury ruled that Hernan Cortes was innocent in the charges of premeditated murder out of jealousy of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II. Hernan Cortes was innocent because there was the lack of murder. Without hard evidence connecting him and the Spanish army to the murder. Without the presentation of hard evidence and the extreme ambiguity as to what happened on the day of death of Moctezuma II and the Aztec rebellion it is unfair to consider Hernan Cortes guilty. The prosecutor in his opening statement asserted that it was Hernan Cortes greed for power that resulted to the tragic death of Moctezuma II. The prosecutor referred the power as Moctezuma
De Soto was then supported and shortly joined Francisco Pizzaro who was another explorer and conquistador, shortly after meeting Pizzarro they started sailing to present day Peru. Once they had started on there expeditition together Pizzaro in short time made De Soto one of his captains. After the explorers had sailed and landed in Peru, they were attacked and escorted by the Inca army which was led by Atahualpa in an area called Cajamarca. Pizzarro then ordered De Soto and a handful of his men to arrange a meeting with Atahualpa, his preposition of a meeting did not go well in this case. Which is why Pizzaro’s men attacked Atahualpa and his guards the next day, this battle was called the Battle of Cajamarca. The battle succeeded for the Spanish force and Atahualpa was taken in custody by the Spanish. Since Pizzaro’s men had only attacked Atahualphas guards, Hernando traveled with Pizzaro’s men to the camp on the Incan army, where he and his men attacked the tents on the Incan army and after defeating the men, the Spanish held Atahualpa captive in Cajamarca for
In 1519, Hernan Cortes left Cuba with only a small fraction of his huge army, 11 ships, 500 men, and 15 horses. After Cortes came to a halt for a series of short stops in Yucatán where gold was rare to find, instead he found a gift with no price worthy of it of translators, one "La Malinche" who later became his wife and also made legendary. She was an Aztec girl that was traded into Mayan slavery; another translator he found was a shipwrecked Spanish man who had also lea rned the Mayan language after seven years of slavery. He then soon learned that the land was ruled by a great leader in the city of Tenochtitlán. Then ambassadors from the Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma II arrived with gifts, in attempt of keeping him at a distance and preventing him from attacking by satisfying Cortes with gold.
The downfall of the Aztec Empire was a major building block of the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spain’s empire would stretch all the way into North America from the Southwest United States all the way up the Pacific Coast. The unfortunate side effect of this was the elimination of many nations of indigenous people. The three major themes shown in this conquest really give deeper look into the anatomy of this important historical event. Without context on the extent of native assistance given to Cortez in his fight with the Aztecs, a reader would be grossly uniformed. The Spanish conquest was closer to a civil war than an actual conquest. Until reading detailed personal accounts of the fighting it is difficult to judge the deadly effectiveness of the Spaniards technological superiority. Without it is difficult to imagine 500 conquistadors holding thousands of native warriors at bay. Once the greed of Cortez and greed in general of the Europeans one understands that if it wasn’t Cortez if would have just been a different man at a different time. Unfortunately fame and prosperity seem to always win over cares about fellow human beings
In schools, students are being taught wrong information. “Our gods were vanquished after the fall of Tenochtitlan as were our traditions. Our warriors and nobles were eradicated, our children starved and our women ravished by the white conquerors and their allies.” (157). In books across America, the Spaniards were said to be good people, but the way that Huitzitzilin described what happened, shows the complete opposite of how the Spaniards actually were.