1492 was one of the great turning point years in all of history. In January, Spanish armies completed the Reconquista, ending 800 years of Muslim civilization in Europe. Later that month, Queen Isabella of Castile granted an audience to a little know Italian navigator named Christopher Columbus, who had a plan to reach Asia by sailing west and bypassing the established routes of the spice trade dominated by Venice, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire. Isabella later agreed to fund and outfit his voyage, and in August he set sail.  In October he landed - not in Asia, of course, but in the islands of the Caribbean off the coast of a continent no one in the old world knew existed. Spain would not corner the Asian spice market like Columbus and Isabella initially hoped, but by the close of 1492, Spain was in possession of newly “discovered” islands that formed the foundation for what would become the largest empire the world had ever seen. 

Columbus claimed the position of Viceroy over the new colonies for himself and for his heirs, but he and later his bothers and sons proved to be so incompetent and unpopular that Spanish authorities reneged on their initial agreement after Isabella died. Into this power vacuum came ambitious members of the courts of Castile and Aragon with dreams of fortune and glory in the new world. One of the most successful was Diego Velasquez de Cuellar, who came first to Hispaniola to work for the crown and later led the conquest of Cuba.  He then ruled over the entire island as governor and brought all future conquests under his control, becoming the most powerful man in the Caribbean in the process.

Around 1505 the explorers and conquerors began to be joined by colonizers who would populate and build societies in the newly conquers islands. This included crown officers, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs, and church authorities all looking for a piece of the new world for themselves. 

One of these ambitious figures was Hernan Cortés, a notary from a minor noble family in Extremadura, a backwater region in western Castile. A distant uncle happened to be the crown’s top official in the Caribbean and young Hernan took a position in his administration. Later, he joined Velasquez de Cuellar in the conquest of Cuba and took large tracks of land and mines as a reward. His new holdings made him wealthy.  He soon married Catalina Suarez, a young woman from a wealthy noble family, and was named mayor of Santiago de Cuba. Cortés, though, fell out of favor with Velasquez and was forced to watch from the sidelines as others were chosen to explore the new continental landmass discovered to the west. After two expeditions to scout the Yucatan peninsula in modern-day Mexico, Velazquez began planning a third, more ambitious mission, and soon Cortés would get his chance to redeem himself. Little did Velasquez de Cuellar realize; redemption was the last thing on Cortés’ mind.