Cortess Expedition

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Grayson-Narrator 1 / Narrating Young Cortez (Ex-moonshiner) Sketchy Stal-Ker
Cloe-Narrator 2 (Professional Tree Hugger) Annet Clutterbuck
Mariana-Narrator 3 / Daisy Swindle; Semi-Professional Archaeologist
Cayce-Narrator 4 / Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (Hotdog Choreographer) Ghandzaliy Gofair
Quinton- Narrator 5 / Ludwig Brackencrack IV (Professional Bread Kidnapper) /Cortez.

Grayson-Young cortez
Hernan Cortes was born 1485, in Medelln, Spain to parents Martin
Cortes de Monroy and Dona Catalina Pizarro Altamirano, The Cortes family
did not have much money but was regarded as an honourable family. At the
age of 14, Cortes was sent by his parents to west-central Spain to study at
Salamanca to earn a degree in law. Although, he was not very happy at
school, and eventually dropped out, but not before learning a bit of Latin,
which was completely pointless. He was very intelligent and also a very
clever man. He was ruthless, naughty, mischievous, and quarrelsome and a
constant source of trouble for his parents. He was excited by the stories
brought back by Columbus's men and he wanted to be part of it. He set out
for Valencias east coast with the idea of serving in the Italian wars. But he
instead wandered around for about a year until finally he followed his
passion and set sail for the island of Hispaniola aboard the Santo Domingo in
1504, when he was 19.

Cloe-Years in Hispaniola and Cuba

As a young spanish born nobel, Hernn Corts went to hispaniola in the

west indies in 1504. He spent seven years living in the town of Azua working
as a successful farmer and notary. He sailed with Diego Velzquez in 1511 to
conquer Cuba, and in the capital of hispaniola, he worked as a clerk to the
treasurer and later was elected as mayor of santiago not once but twice. On
a spanish expedition to the american mainland in 1518, he was designated
captain general, because of his training as a soldier and being known as a
good leader, a ruthless fighter, and an intelligent administer. Even with all his
success, he wanted more adventure and power. He had convinced the
governor of Cuba, Velasquez, to lead an adventure to mexico. At the last
second Velasquez canceled the voyage, but Cortes ignored his orders and set
sail with 11 ships, 100 sailors, 16 horses, and over 500 men.

Mariana- Expedition to Mexico

Arrival in Mexico 1519- Cortes reaches Mexico at Yucatan. Mexico had
been discovered before this by the Spanish a year before and they were
happy to simply settle down. When Cortes reached Tabasco he ran into
trouble with the native people. He was fast to overpower them and the
natives gave way to his power. The natives gave the Europeans food, more
needed supplies and 20 women that included Cortess own personal slave,
Marina. She knew the Mayas and the Aztecs and soon became Cortess way
of communicating with the natives and later became his mistress and the
mother of his son, Martin. A few months later Cortes left Yucatan and headed
west. He got to the southeastern coast, where he founded Veracruz. His
main reason for founding Veracruz was so that he could become the captain
general of the new colony. He trained his men so that they would work
together as a cohesive unit of disciplined soldiers. He then burned down all
his ships, so his men couldnt turn back.

Conquering the Aztecs

Cortes knew that the Aztecs were one of the primary forces in Mexico
so he headed out to conquer them. As he was heading through mexico he
ran into a group of natives called the Tl axcalans. They were enemies with
the Aztecs and joined Cortes and became an important ally when cortes
sieged Tenochtitln (The Aztec capital city)
Cortess arrival was greeted by Montezuma with respect and honor because
he and the Aztecs believed that he was the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.
Quetzalcoatl was the god that the Aztecs believed was who created humans
and completed a number other notable feats.
Montezuma sent out some of his people to meet the Spaniards as they came
closer. The Spaniards light skin and them riding horses was fascinating. The
Spaniards, who goal was to take over the aztecs fired shots. Their shots
scared and stunned the Aztecs.
Cortes made his way into the city. As the Spaniards fought the Aztecs Cortes
took Montezuma hostage. With Dona Marinas help Cortes manipulates
Montezuma and gained control of Tenochtitlan by ruling through Montezuma.

Cayce- The Siege of Tenochtitln

Cortes had control over Tenochtitlan from Montezuma by holding him
hostage. Meanwhile, a group of spanish soldiers from cuba landed on the
coast of Mexico. Their goal was to remove Cortes from power, but cortes took
a group of Spanish and Tlaxcalan soldiers and marched on the Spanish.
Cortes manages to defeat the Cuban soldiers, but while he was away, the
Aztecs were in the middle of a full rebellion. Cortes and his troops fled the
city, however, while they were retreating one of their men caught smallpox.
The man quickly died, and they left the body, but when aztecs were looting

his corpse, they contracted the disease, and quickly began a full on
epidemic. None of the Aztec had any resistance to it, so it spread like wildfire
and killed a massive portion of the Aztec. Cortes gathered his men again in
1521, and attacked Tenochtitlan one more time, but because of the fighting
already happening and the disease, so it was easy to conquer them. The
aztec no longer trusted Montezuma, as they had little supplies and the
smallpox had killed over 3 million Aztecs, and crippled their society. Cortes
could practically just walk in claim it as his own. Its uncertain how
Montezuma died, although two common theories is that the Aztec stoned
him to death or that the Spanish killed him when conquering. Although, after
taking the land, Cortes began constructing Mexico City on the ruins, which
quickly became a massive city and thrived with Spanish and Europeans. King
charles also appointed Cortes as the Governor of New Spain.

Quinton-Later years
In 1524 Cortez got restless.He ended up traveling south to the jungles
of Honduras. The journey that took almost two years was devastating.While
Hernan was gone his property was overthrown by the people he left in
charge. They were extremely cruel with their management. This concerned
Spain. The spanish bureaucrats sent out a directive to investigate Cortez
lead by Luis Ponce de Len. Unfortunately Luis died and Cortez was accused
of poisoning luis. This accusation forced Cortez to retire.

Sourceshttp://www.livescience.com/39238-hernan-cortes-conqueror-of-the-aztecs.html
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/cortez.html
http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/hernan-cortes
http://www.mexonline.com/hernan-cortez.htm

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/exploring-the-early-americas/cortes-and-the-aztecs.html
http://www.biography.com/people/hern%C3%A1n-cort%C3%A9s-9258320
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