Hernández de Córdoba expedition
1517 Spanish maritime expedition / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hernández de Córdoba expedition was a 1517 Spanish maritime expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. The enterprise proved disastrous and little profitable for the Spaniards, with half of them fatally wounded, the rest grievously injured, and all in all, very little gold to show for their troubles. It was nonetheless deemed an immediate and exciting success, having brought back news of vast lands inhabited by a rich and civilised people, namely, the Maya civilisation. The expedition is popularly credited as the first non-Amerindian contact with the Maya, and first non-Amerindian discovery of the Peninsula, though both these achievements are disputed in scholarly literature. It is deemed the opening campaign of the Spanish conquest of the Maya, and one of the precursor expeditions which led to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.[n 1]
Hernández de Córdoba expedition | |||||||
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Part of Spanish conquest of Yucatán | |||||||
La conquista / 1971–1979 mural by F Castro Pacheco / via Commons | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Columbian Viceroyalty | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (DOW) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
very many men / likely; many – 33,000 reported | 110 men / likely; 100–110 possible; excl sailors, servants | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
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Sponsor | Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, Cristóbal Morante, Lope Ochoa de Caicedo, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar |
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Start | Havana / accepted; other Cuban port possible 8 February 1517 (1517-02-08) / accepted; other Feb date possible |
End | Cuba April 1517 (1517-04) |
Goal | |
Ships | 2 caravels, 1 brigantine |
Achievements |
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Route | |
Possible route of the Hernández de Córdoba expedition / 2017 map / via Commons |