Bio Hernan Cotes was born around 1485 in Medellin, Spain and died in Spain on December 2nd 1547 in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Castile, Spain. Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador\ explorer that defeated the Aztec empire and claimed Mexico for Spain. He was 19 years old when he first set sail. He came from a noble family. He also went to the university of Salamanca to study law at the age of 14. He didn't follow the rules so he dropped out of University. He did learn Latin and wrote very well.
Why did he become an explorer? Hernan heard about the mysterious "New World", and became curious and adventurous enough to leave University to travel to the "New World". He wanted to explore and discover new things\territories in this mysterious world. Soon after, he set sail to the "New World" in search of discovering the answer to marvellous mysteries.
Where did he explore? He visited\explored the Peninsula of Baja California in 1536, Hispaniola in 1504,Cuba in 1511, Tenochtitlan (the former capital of the Aztecs) in 1519, and he explored Mexico's Pacific coast months later. He arrived at the Hispanola when he was 19 and stayed in Santo Domingo to live there where he became the mayor. Afterwards he joined an expedition to Cuba in 1511. Cortés commanded his own expedition to Mexico when he arrived in 1519. He came with 500 soldiers and 11 ships. Years later he overthrew the ruler "Montezumathe" of the Aztecs Empire in 1521. He was the best know for conquering the Aztecs Empire with a small army.
What was his contribution to the exploration age? Thanks to Cortes, South America is Spanish speaking today. If he hadn't conquered the Aztec Empire, maybe South America would speak a different language because other explorers and conquistadores from other countries in Europe would of discovered and conquered it first. He also established trade between these 2 continents. Many goods from "New Spain" couldn't be found in Spain at the time, and New Spain traded with other cities outside of the conquered Aztec Empire. This brought lots of riches to Spain.