I conquered Mexico and was a captain in the Spanish army; I was made first governor of Mexico and ruled Mexico for about 20 years from 1521 to 1540 (Nanney, 1). I, Hernando Cortes, should be in the History Hall of Fame because I conquered all of Mexico, used my cunning to bring down a mighty empire with few men, and set the stage for further conquest by the Spanish (Nosotro, 1).I was born in Medellin Spain in the year 1485 to a family of lesser nobility. I attended the University of Salamanca but I was tired of small town life and was persuaded by stories of riches to go to the New World (Pavlovic, 1). When I arrived in Hispaniola, I joined an expedition to Cuba led by the local Spanish ruler of Hispaniola; Don Diego Velazquez de Cuellar. This successful expedition made my mentor and friend Velazquez governor of Cuba and for my reward I received a large farm, mines, and native slave, where I spent the next 13 years of my life attending to my land. (Jacobs, 15). Suddenly, in 1518, Velazquez offered me the chance of a lifetime; the opportunity to lead an expedition to lands west of Cuba, I took the opportunity in a heartbeat and left on the expedition (Ramen, 22).My first major achievement was successfully landing in lands west of Cuba. With the landing I was angrily met by the leaders of the Tabascan tribe in Potonchan who did not want us on their land, our armies met and my army of 500 easily won and we drove these men out so we could gather food and water (January, 17). Although I easily defeated the Tabascans, I preferred to use cunning over war and I showed this after making peace with the chiefs of the rest of the Tabascan tribe (Nanney, 1). Our next stop was San Juan where the people their invited us to a large feast with an unfamiliar food called turkey (Pavlovic, 1). At San Juan my men and I gained many gifts by the Aztec official Teudile (who persistently called me Quetzalcoatl) which attracted us to the great city of Tenochitlan and their divine leader Montezuma (Nosotro, 1).My second major achievement was gaining allies with many of the local tribes. After learning of the great power and wealth of the Aztecs I knew we were going to need more men to conquer their magnificent city (Jacobs, 31).We came across a tribe called the Totonacs who hated the Aztecs and once we expressed our idea of conquering them, they quickly joined our march (Ramen, 33). As we were moving closer to Tenochitlan and learning about their empire we got to a place under Aztec rule called Quiahuiztlan where Aztec officials were coming to collect taxes. I convinced the chief of Quiahuiztlan to imprison the officials and we questioned them with help of the locals to learn of Tenochitlan and let the Aztecs know we were in town. (January, 31). We moved on and arrived at the tribe of the Tlaxcans. A vicious people ...
