Conquistador in Spanish means "conqueror". So called the people in the era of colonization of America, who conquered the territory of the New World.
Conquistadors became ruined knights who went to new lands in order to seize territories and earn money. In addition, far from their homeland, the conquistador received freedom from church and royal authority.
In our top, we will talk about the most famous conquerors of that time, who terrified the Indian settlements with their firearms, cruelty and ruthlessness.
10. Hernando de Soto
Hernando was a seafarer with the title of Adelantado, that is, he participated in the conquests not on his own initiative, but on the orders of the royal authority with the aim of studying the lands behind the Spanish possessions.
For the first time, the conquistador took part in the campaign in 1514, becoming famous as a good fighter and strategist, who soon began to lead entire expeditions. Hernando took part in the campaign against the Incas and in 1534 he became vice president of Cuzco.
9. Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada
In addition to conquests, Gonzalo was involved in writing history. He was born into a noble and wealthy family, devoting his youth to study, but after graduation, Quesada was sent to command the Colombian coastal population. He had no military experience, but successfully managed the command of 900 Spanish soldiers.
With the army of Quesada traveled 8 months in search of Eldorado, but found a settlement of the Chibcha people. The settlers mistook the soldiers for the gods, so they surrendered without a fight, and the territory was named the conquerors of Santa Fe de Bogota.
Throughout his life, the conquistador dreamed about the mythical Eldorado, but as you know, no one was able to find the country. Gonzalo, after his travels, settled in Huesca, having lived a long life, the remainder of which he devoted to writing books on preserved memories.
8. Pedro Alvarado
Alvarado was the conquistador who conquered Central America. In 1519 he began to command the ship of the expedition in the detachment of Hernan Cortes, and then became the confidant of the commander.
5 years after joining the detachments of Cortes, Alvarado went to conquer Guatemala, which ended with his appointment to the rank of first governor of the conquered territory.
Alvarado was a cruel man, the severity of his character was manifested, first of all, on the peoples of the conquered territories. Dwellings were burned by whole villages, and all the objectionable Indians were fed to dogs.
Killed Pedro Alvarado, stopping the rebellion of the Indians. His own horse threw him from the saddle and the conquistador died within a few days.
7. Pedro de Valdivia
Conquistador went down in history as the first governor of Chile. In 1537, Valdivia supported Pizarro in the battle with Almagro, for which Pizarro awarded Pedro, making him commander of the detachment to conquer Chile.
During the conquest of Chilean territory, Valdivia met resistance in the person of the people inhabiting the territory - Mapuche. However, Chile managed to conquer and Valdivia was appointed governor.
In 1553 there was a major uprising of the Mapuche Indians, against whom Valdivia went out to fight personally. But the uprising did not work, Pedro and the detachment had to retreat, but the army managed to escape only to the swamps in which the horses were bogged down. Mapuche Valdivia was taken prisoner, and no one else saw the conquistador, because the date of his death is unknown.
6. Diego Velazquez de Cuellar
Adelantado, who conquered Cuba. Diego also became famous as a participant in the second campaign of Christopher Columbus. Velazquez launched a campaign to conquer Cuba in 1511 and became governor of the conquered territory. In this position he remained until his death.
Diego had a difficult relationship with another conquistador Hernan Cortes. The conflict arose because Velazquez instructed Cortes to go to capture Mexico, providing finance and military force, but Cortes refused him.
5. Vasco de Balboa
Balboa became famous as the founder of the first European city on the American continent, and Vasco also discovered one of the Pacific coasts. Before becoming a famous conqueror, Balboa was engaged in farming on his native island. After 10 years of housekeeping, the farm began to cause losses, eventually ruining Balboa.
Then he joined the detachment, which was trying to strengthen the first Spanish colony. The military detachment could not resist the resistance of the natives, and then Balboa proposed to retreat to the peaceful lands of the Isthmus of Panama.
The soldiers who joined Vasco eventually became involved in the founding of the first Spanish city on the mainland, which the conquistador became governor in 1511.
It was Balboa who found out from the Indians information about the golden city of Eldorado, but in the process of searching for a mysterious place, Vasco discovered the waters of the present Pacific Ocean.
4. Diego de Almagro
Diego de Almagro was one of the conquerors of Peru, along with Francisco Pizarro and Hernando de Luke. During the first expedition to conquer Peru, Almagro did not acquire anything, but lost his eyes. In the next expedition, the conquistadors reached the territory of the Incas, and after the empire was captured.
Almagro became governor of New Castile, most of whose territories needed to be explored, which the conquistador did in 1535. Within a year, he explored the territory in search of gold and wanted to destroy the Indian tribes, but Diego did not find gold and met strong resistance from the Indian peoples.
In 1537, the Incas rebelled against the Spanish armies in Peru, Almagro, taking advantage of the situation, captured Cuzco, captured the Pizarro brothers and proclaimed himself governor of Peru. Gonzalo Pizarro attempted to free his brothers through war or negotiation. And only by 1538 the brothers, through diplomacy, were released, and Gonzalo began a war with the Almagro because of his deeds. Almagro was captured and a few months later was sentenced to death by decapitation.
3. Francisco de Montejo
Francisco de Montejo was remembered for the fact that he conquered Yucatan, and was also a rival to many famous conquistadors, because of his cruel and difficult character.
In 1526, by royal decree, Montejo became captain-general of Yucatan, and the conquest of this territory began 2 years later. The east coast of Yucatan resisted, not wanting to surrender territory to the conqueror. For this, Montejo inflicted cruel torture on the Indian tribe, burned them at home and fed the children fighting dogs. But, despite all the dirty methods of struggle, Montejo was unable to recapture the eastern territories and moved to the West, where he was already waiting for success.
The second attempt to capture Yucatan happened in 1931 and lasted until 1935, but the conquistador again failed. It was possible to subjugate the people and lands of Yucatan Montejo only in 1940.
2. Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro founded the city of Lira and conquered the Inca Empire. The conquistador took part in the discovery of Peru, but the first expedition ended in failure.
The second expedition is known for the fact that the leader of the Incas Atahualpa gave the order to sacrifice two Pizarro soldiers to the god. For the deed, the leader was captured, but only 4 years later, when Pizarro entered the territory of the Incas and defeated the troops of Atahualp, although Francisco had under his command only 168 people. As a result, the leader was captured, about 7,000 Incas died, while there was not a single loss in the Pizarro detachment.
The Indians tried to redeem their leader, and Francisco set the following price: gold and silver coins were to fill the indicated room by the height of his raised hand. The Incas collected the required amount, but Pizarro still sentenced Atahualp to death and hanged the leader.
1. Hernan Cortes
Cortes conquered the Mexican territories and destroyed the Aztec tribes. The conqueror belonged to a noble family, because in his youth he studied at the university, but after he preferred military service to science.
Hernan participated in the conquest of Cuba, and conquered Mexico for three years. Little information has come to contemporaries about the campaigns and life of Cortez, and some historical sources even contradicted each other, so historians differ in their opinions when assessing the personality of Cortes.