Hernando Cortes
Cortez is famous in the history of Texas because he was important to the history of Mexico and Texas was settled by Spanish people who came through Mexico. If Cortez had not come to what we now know as Mexico if he had not conquered the Aztec Indians Texas history might have been very different. Hernán Cortés was a Spanish explorer who is famous mainly for his march across Mexico and his conquering of the Aztec Empire in Mexico.Cortés was born in the Spanish city of Medellín in 1485. When he was a young man he studied law but he soon gave that up to seek his fortune in the New World that was just being discovered by Columbus and others.First he went to the island of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) in 1504. He was only 19 years old at the time. He stayed there for seven years then took part in the Spanish conquest of Cuba in 1511. He became mayor of Santiago de Cuba and stayed there until 1518.He is called the "conqueror of Mexico" because in the year 1519 (that was about 27 years after Christopher Columbus first sighted the land of the "new world") this man Cortez brought some soldiers and a few horses ashore in Mexico, marched inland to the city where the Aztec Indian empire was found. Along the way, he encountered many representatives of the Aztec King, Moctezuma.