FIRST CONTACTS 28000 BCE 1821 CE
SPANISH EXPLORERS
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Cortes
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Pineda
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Cabeza de Vaca
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Coronado
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Detailed explanation-1: -Cortés valued it at ‘3, 800 gold pesos [something close to “pieces of eight”]’. His companion Bernal Díaz de Castillo reckoned it was worth more like 10, 000 pesos and was ‘as big as a cartwheel’.
Detailed explanation-2: -A year after being welcomed into the capitol city of Tenochtitlán, now Mexico City, he arrested the emperor and demanded all of his gold. Cortés and his men then melted the treasure down into bars.
Detailed explanation-3: -In only the first half-century or so of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, over 100 tons of gold were extracted from the continent.
Detailed explanation-4: -Almost overnight, Spain became very rich taking home unprecedented quantities of gold and silver. These were stolen from the Incas and the mines that the Spanish came to control. The gold was used by the Spanish monarchy to pay off its debts and also to fund its ‘religious’ wars.