Hernan Cortes

Hernan Cortes, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, was a Spanish conquistador, military commander, explorer, captain general, and writer 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. He was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellin, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortes chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World, going to Hispaniola and later Cuba, where he received an encomienda and served for a time as alcalde of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519 he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, which he partly funded; his enmity with the governor of Cuba, Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order Cortes ignored.