History of Baja California

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 58. Chapters: Hernán Cortés, Junípero Serra, Hernando de Alarcón, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, History of the west coast of North America, Woodes Rogers, William Walker, Eusebio Kino, Las Californias, Gaspar de Portolà, Francisco Javier Clavijero, George Shelvocke, Francisco Palóu, Ricardo Flores Magón, Ferdinand KonScak, Provincias Internas, Fernando Rivera y Moncada, Francisco Garcés, Felipe de Neve, Juan María de Salvatierra, Eugenio Elorduy Walther, José Darío Argüello, Francisco de Ulloa, José Castro, Patayan, Juan Crespí, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco, Republic of Sonora, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, Johann Jakob Baegert, José Velásquez, Miguel Venegas, Wenceslaus Linck, Miguel del Barco, Francisco María Piccolo, Juan de Ugarte, Luis Sales, Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón, Isidoro de Atondo y Antillon, Fortún Ximénez, Sigismundo Taraval, José Longinos Martínez, Sierra de Guadalupe cave paintings, Félix Caballero. Excerpt: Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (Spanish pronunciation: ; 1485 - December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda and, for a short time, became alcalde (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortés ignored. Arriving on the continent, Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous peoples against others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter; she would later bear Cortés a son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortés wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortés was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. Cortés returned to Spain in 1541 where he died peacefully but embittered six years later. Because of the controversial undertakings of Cortés and the scarcity of reliable sources of information about him, it has become difficult to assert anything definitive about his personality and motivations. Early lionizing of the conquistadors