Waubonsee Community College

The conquerors, produced by Sonya Gay Bourn

eng

videorecording

The conquerors

electronic resource

911956094

produced by Sonya Gay Bourn

49

He is one of the greatest conquerors in history, and among the most brutal. Hernán Cortés' thirst for gold and power led him to Mexico in 1519, where he launched a conquest unlike any other in history.As THE CONQUERORS details, Cortés undertook his campaign in violation of explicit instructions; his was supposed to be a more diplomatic than military mission. Yet his first contacts in Mexico resulted in a battle that so terrible that the Aztecs fled into the interior. They had never seen the guns, horses, and shiny metal armor of the conquistadors. In approximately two years, Cortés owned the Aztec empire, and their once proud ruler Montezuma was dead. Through brilliant execution, from an often precarious military position, Cortés killed hundreds of thousands of Aztecs and brought down the 300-year-old empire—the first major American civilization to fall to the Spanish

adult