Hernando Cortés

 

 

Hello Year 3 here is a picture and some information about the famous Hernando Cortés read the information and then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.

 

The Spanish went to the Aztecs in 1519 because they were looking for land, gold, and to make people believe in the Christian religion.   Cortés had about 600 men and a few horses. On their way to see the Aztecs the Spanish made friends with a group of people called the Tlaxcalans, who were enemies of the Aztecs.

The leader of the Aztec Empire was called Montezuma II. The Aztec capital city was called Tenochtitlán.  Normally, the Spanish adventurers would have been captured and killed immediately, because that is what the Aztecs did to invaders.  The Aztecs did not do this when they first met the Spanish explorers.  They had never seen white people with beards and horses before so they thought that Cortés and the Spanish were like gods, and so they treated them like gods.  

Montezuma gave Cortés and his men gifts of gold and chocolatl (a chocolate drink). He thought that these gifts would keep Cortés from taking over the city, but they just made Cortés want more.

The Spanish thought the capital city of Tenochtitlan was amazing. Everything was clean. There were places to eat and hairdressers! You could buy medicines and all kinds of food. You could buy meat and there were streets that sold only pottery and mats. Painters could buy the paints they needed for their art.  Cortes wrote a letter to Spain telling them there were more than 60,000 people in the marketplace buying and selling things. No one used money. Everything was bought and sold using cocoa beans.

The Spanish felt very comfortable in the Aztec capital city.  As time went on, the Spanish felt that they might never leave.  However, the Aztecs became very suspicious of the Spanish. The Spanish did not act like gods. They did not do the things that gods did. They had no special powers.  They even didn’t go to the sacrifice ceremonies, which after all, were done for the gods.

Because the Spanish did not behave like gods the Aztecs told the Spanish to leave the city.  Cortes was angry and returned the next year with an army.  The Spanish used guns and illnesses from Spain to kill the Aztecs. The Spanish also had help from the other groups in the area like the Tlaxcalans who lived in the same area as the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans didn’t like the Aztecs and so they wanted to kill them and take their land too.  By the mid-1500’s, the Aztec Empire had collapsed.

When Cortes had destroyed the Aztecs he changed the name of the capital city from Tenochtitlan to Mexico.

The Aztecs had many things the Spanish did not have.  They had chocolate, sugar, rubber, corn, and a sewage system.

After the Aztecs were destroyed Cortes started to take the cocoa beans and chocolate drink back home to Spain.  Cortes made the chocolate drink sweeter by adding sugar.  Because it was so expensive to bring the cocoa beans and sugar all the way from Mexico, chocolate was very expensive and only rich people could afford it.

People from Spain wanted the best land for growing cacao trees because they knew they could become rich from chocolate.  As there were not many cacao trees at this time the Spanish did not want to share chocolate with other countries.  For almost 100 years the Spanish kept chocolate a secret from the rest of the world!

Hernando Cortes quiz!

1. How many men did Cortes take to the Aztecs?

 

2. What was the capital city of the Aztecs called?

 

3. Who was the leader of the Aztec empire?

 

4. Why did the Aztecs give Cortes gifts of gold and chocolate?

 

5. How did the Spanish feel when they were staying with the Aztecs?

 

6. When Cortes had destroyed the Aztecs what did he change the name of the capital city to?

 

7. What did Cortes add to the chocolate drink?

 

8. Why did the Spanish keep the cocoa beans a secret from the rest of the world?

 

9. How many years did the Spanish keep cocoa beans a secret from the rest of the world?

 

10. What do you think about Cortes and the things he did?