How Did Hernan Cortez Contribute To The Renaissance?

The Renaissance era was a great transition from the Medieval times. The arts started to be emphasised and individualism became a major theme. Human exploration was celebrated through art, literature, and theater. Not only was the Renaissance time period the age for human exploration it was a time of global exploration. Hernan Cortez was one of the many explorers of the Renaissance age. He gained the reputation of the first and greatest conquistadors when he conquered the Aztecs, but there was a lot of speculation about his methods of conquest. Although, his contributions were beneficial and long-lasting, his tactics of conquering the Aztecs were inhumane. Hernan Cortez was a Spanish explorer that was born in 1485 in Medellin, Spain. He studied

He had a “religious, highly respectable family” that pushed him to do something great (Wepman, 15). His family was also a very “distinguished family with little wealth but much honor” (Wepman, 16). When he returned from school at the age of sixteen, “the restless boy seemed to be a disappointment” to his parents (Wepman, 16). The following two years “accomplished little beside the torment of his parents” and by the time he reached 18 he was desperate to escape his provincial hometown (Wepman, 16). Cortez’s adventurous heart took a toll on his parents who expected him to be someone of importance. The nagging of his parents and the boredom where he grew up ate at him causing him to seek out a better future for himself, but not just any generic one, but one that held adventure and glory. Cortez’s parent’s belief in him to be great fed his pride and ego contributing to the invincibility facade he created for the Aztecs and their rivals. However, his very religious family, also, gave him the religious views he had when embarked and when he arrived at Tenochtitlan, which lead him to impair his relationship with the Aztecs over their religion. His beliefs and the beliefs of his parents and his country provoked him to use inhumane tactics to conquer the Aztecs due to the strong principles that were embedded in him as a young

Many monarchs of the age were searching for a sea route to the Indies and China. Therefore, many of the explorers were searching for something and it definitely was not conquest to the degree that Cortez took it. Christopher Columbus and Diego Velazquez de Cuellar are the only explorers that had methods of conquest resembling Cortez’s, however their mission for their country’s weren’t as passionately brutal as Cortez’s was. Velazquez did not really conquer anything, however, he did establish three settlements and became the governor of Cuba and when there were uprisings he killed those that partook in the rebellion. The only cruelty he showed was the use of slavery in Cuba. Christopher Columbus used slavery and brutality towards the natives in Hispaniola when they did not peacefully accept and respect his and the Spanish authority. However, Cortez took conquest to a whole new level because he used cruelty towards his men, as well as, the natives. When there was talk of return among his men because of disloyalties to Cortez, he had sunk one of his ships so in the end they could not return, forcing them to follow him into fierce battles with many native tribes. When he decided to completely destroy the Aztec empire he used strategy and cunning to gain allies and used “looting, rape, and butchery… with little regard for the Christian faith” (Wepman, 89). Cortez’s passion for conquest, riches,