Title: The Spanish Conquest of the New World | World History
Headings: The Spanish Conquest of the New World
The Spanish Conquest of the New World
Hernán Cortés 1485-1547
Francisco Pizarro c. 1474-1541
Francisco de Orellana c. 1511-1546
El Dorado – The Golden Man

Content: The Spanish Conquest of the New World | World History
Latin American History
The Spanish Conquest of the New World
July 8, 2017
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Hernán Cortés
Spain’s soldier-explorers, the Conquistadors, overthrew the two most powerful native kingdoms of the New World – the Aztec kingdom of Mexico and the Inca realm in Peru. Neither kingdom could withstand the shock of invasion by steel-clad Spanish troops, some of them mounted on trained workhorses which no Indian had ever seen before. When a rider was unhorsed, the natives actually thought the animal had broken in half and were appalled that both halves kept on fighting. This awesome reputation helped tiny Spanish armies, often less than two hundred men, to conquer vast native populations. Their classic method was to march on the native capital, form an alliance with rebel natives, and then seize the supreme ruler. In Mexico it was the Emperor Moctezuma; and in Peru, the Inca Atahualpa. This was exploration by conquest – swift and destructive, but out of it arose the great Spanish Empire in Central and South America. Hernán Cortés 1485-1547
Conqueror of Mexico, Cortés was a born leader and a man prepared to take enormous risks. After landing in Mexico he burned his fleet behind him so that his men had no possibility of retreat.