What spanish explorer conquered the aztec empire in mexico?
Hernan Cortes, soldier of fortune and law school dropout, conquered the Aztec empire with something like 500 Spanish soldiers and the aid of nearly 300,000 indigenous warriors he accumulated on his way to Tenochtitlan from the city now called Vera Cruz (ocean port on the Gulf of Mexico). These warriors were gathered from the various outlying discontented regions, unhappy with paying the high tributes exacted by the empire. Cortes’ woman/Aztec guide la malinche played a huge role in this because she had contacts with many of the outlying provinces, was adept at many languages, and a quick learner in Spanish. Its been a few years since I gathered these factoids from various dictionaries, common history books, and I have been wanting to read more from sources of the day, such as: the cronicas (diaries of Cortes and others living at the time) as well as accounts from Fray Bartolome de las Casas and other priests of the day. My discipline hasn’t matched my ambitions, but I’m working on that
