The word conquistador comes from Spanish and Portuguese and means conqueror.

They were from many

nationalities and sailed through the world, From Europe to America, Oceania, Africa and Asia to conquer territory
and to open trading routes all over the world. From the 16 th and the end of the 18th century, the spanish
conquistador brought colonialism to nearly the entire world for Spain and Portugal. They also converted the native
people from the New World.

Who were they ??

Conquistadores were mostly soldiers searching for adventure which paid for their tools for trading over the world
(for example weapons, armor or horses). Some of them were from poor families and some from noble families. They
came into action when Christopher Colombus first « discovered » South America. We are going to talk about the
Spanish conquistadores only to not do out-subject.

What did they do ?

The spanish conquistadores explored many lands such as the Caribbean, South and North America, the Pacific and
Asia and Oceania where they colonised. Sometimes, they even found new animal species but sometimes, reports
confused these species with mythological monsters like giants and dragons!

The good part is that they found new animal species as well as new plants and food. But on the other hand, the
Spanish conquistadors crushed many civilisations and brought many bad diseases from the New World.

Famous conquistadors

Hernán Cortés
Born in 1485 in Spain and died in 1547
Child of a family of little nobles who wants to have a explorer life, but his father wants him to be military in Italy. He
was responsible for the brutal conquest of the Aztec Empire, and then of it’s destruction with an army of 600 Spanish
soldiers and a combination of violence, ruthlessness and luck.

Francisco Pizarro
Born in about 1475 from Gonzalo Pizarro Rodríguez de Aguilar, a nobleman in a province in Spain who fought in
many wars, and Francisca Gonzales, a maid in the Pizarro household, and died on June 26, 1541). With only a little
group of soldiers, he was able to capture the emperor of the bug Inca Empire, Atahualpa. They managed to destroy
this empire, collecting all the gold and silver back to Spain.

Diego Velazquez de Cuellar

Born in 1464 and died in 1524, he was a conquistador and a colonial administrator. He went in Christopher
Colombus’ Second Voyage to the New World and became an important figure in the Carabbean’s conquests. He also
took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba and became governor of Cuba later then. He is mostly famous for
sending Hernán Cortés to Mexico (who destroyed the Aztec Empire) and for fighting by his side.