1. SSWH8.A

2.  Born in 1485  Flunked out of law school  In 1502 – after hearing stories about the new world – he signed on with an expedition to the West Indies led by Nicolas de Ovando.

3.  Cortes proved himself to be an excellent soldier  He was selected to join a force that was going to conquer the island of Cuba  In 1511 Cortes settled down in Cuba as a rancher…for awhile

4.  Reports of the wealth of the Aztec nation in Mexico begin to reach Spanish ears  In 1519 Cortes is selected to lead an expedition to settle a colony in Mexico  He is given 600 men and around 20 horses

5.  Upon their arrival on the shores of Mexico Cortes burns the ships the expedition came in.  Cortes decides that they are not there to make a colony. They are there to conquer.

6.  Cortes had learned of the Aztec legend of Quetzalcoatl  He decided that he could use the legend of a pale- skinned bearded god returning to his advantage

9.  Cortes enters Tenochtitlan without any resistance. (remember, he looks like a god)  He sets up a military headquarters  He kidnaps Emperor Montezuma and makes him sign an oath of allegiance to Spanish King Charles V

10.  Cortes hears that 1,400 Spanish troops have landed. They have been sent to arrest him.  Cortes takes some of his troops and heads to fight his countrymen, but when he gets there many of the 1,400 men sent to arrest him join his army.

11.  When Cortes returns he finds that the troops he left behind had massacred almost 600 defenseless Aztec nobles. The city is in revolt.  In an attempt to calm the Mexicas down, Emperor Montezuma is released.  The Aztecs stone him to death.  The conquistadors are forces to retreat out of Tenochtitlan.

12.  In 1521 a plague of smallpox devastates Tenochtitlan.  Cortes returns with an army reinforces with natives warriors that hated the Aztecs and wanted a chance to get revenge on their overlords. The city falls; so does the nation.  5 million Aztecs had been defeated by disease, technology, and fewer than 1,000 conquistadors.