Title: The Columbian Exchange People | Shmoop
Headings: The Columbian Exchange People
The Columbian Exchange People
Christopher Columbus
Francisco Pizarro
Hernán Cortés
Hernando de Soto
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
John Winthrop

Content: From 1519 to 1521, Cortés commanded the small Spanish expedition that eventually captured the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, allowing Cortés to take over as governor of Mexico. His willful disregard for authority pitted him against his superiors in Cuba and in Spain, and although his exploits were legendary and quite profitable, he died an embittered man in 1547. Without the advantageous impacts of the Columbian Exchange, Cortés' conquest of the Aztecs would have been impossible. In 1520, smallpox—a European disease for which the Aztecs had no immunities—ravaged the population of Tenochtitlan, infecting as much as half the population. The smallpox pandemic fatally weakened the Aztecs, allowing Cortés to prevail one year later. Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (1496–1542) was a Spanish conquistador who led a disastrous expedition of conquest into the North American interior between 1539 and 1542. De Soto, who hoped to follow in the footsteps of Cortés and Pizarro, failed in his hunt for gold on the North American mainland. After leading his men on a fruitless three-year search throughout much of what now makes up the southeastern United States, de Soto died on the banks of the Mississippi River. His men fled back to Mexico. While de Soto's journey of conquest was an unmitigated failure, it was nevertheless historically significant.