Hernando Cortes

Hernando Cortes (1485-1547) was only 33 years old when he reached in Mexico from Spain, along with five hundred soldiers. Cortes was shocked to find Aztecs brutalizing prisoners of weaker tribes and engaging in cannibalism and human sacrifice. Conquistador Cortes freed the prisoners and replaced the Aztec idols with Christian crosses.

According to Cortes' personal secretary, Francisco Lopez de Gomara, "Cortes told [a Mexican tribe] of their blindness and great vanity in worshiping many gods and making sacrifices of human blood to them, and in thinking that those images, being mute and soulless, made by the Indians with their own hands, were capable of doing good or harm."

Cortes is a controversial figure among historians today. Many criticize him for destroying the Aztec civilization.