Cortes, Hernando

The European bubonic plague of 1347 killed one-third of the population of Europe. It is the largest single plague ever recorded. The disappearance of the Aztec civilization was spurred by smallpox and measles introduced by Hernando Cortes and his band of Spanish invaders. The same diseases also decimated Native Americans in what is now the United States. Much more recently, the influenza epidemic of 1918 killed an estimated 40 million people worldwide. Malaria continues to be a major problem for people and their countries today in areas in which it is endemic. AIDS, tuberculosis, influenza, hepatitis, pneumonia, and a lengthy list of parasitic infections continue as important constraints on the welfare of people throughout the world. 

When Hernando Cortes arrived in Mexico in 1519, tin from a mine in Taxco was already in circulation as money (40, 70). Some small pieces of it, said Cortes, were found among the natives of a province called Tachco [Tasco, or Taxco], in the form of very thin coins and continuing my search I discovered that in that province and many others this was used as money I further learned that it was mined in the province of Tachco, twenty-six leagues from this city [Temixtit n] (71).9... 

Hernando Cortes mentions coins made of tin from Taxco that were in use in Mexico. 

Lycopene was introduced into the Western world after the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes was offered some tomatoes by the Aztec emperor Montezuma. Cortes disregarded this courteous gesture and went on to conquer Mexico from 1529 to 1531. In the states bordering Mexico — Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California — tomatoes and other Mexican-Indian foods soon began to be adopted but also made their way to Europe. In Italy, tomatoes were mentioned as early as in 1554 and were then slowly assimilated. Their initial color was yellow (porno d oro) they obtained their red appearance only after years of cultivation. Today, tomatoes, the major source of lycopene, are an important part of the Mediterranean diet. 

The tree is said to have been discovered in the Amazon or Orinoco basin at least 4000 years ago. Christopher Columbus was the first European to encounter the beans, during his fourth voyage to the New World in 1502, but he virtually ignored them. It was two decades later that the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes helped spread the valuable cocoa bean crop to the Caribbean and Africa, and then he introduced drinking chocolate into Spain in 1528. The cacao tree is now cultivated in West Africa, South America, Central America, and the Far East. At world level, the demand for cocoa is generally measured by reference to world grindings. The world grindings of cocoa beans in 2003/2004 approached three million metric tons. 

Life of the Conqueror Hernando Cortes. Two volumes. Harper Bros., New York... 

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