Best Spanish Conquistadors
"Aguirre, the Wrath of God" is a 1972 West German film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski as Lope de Aguirre, a Spanish soldier who, in 1561, joins—and ultimately usurps—a large expedition led by Gonzalo Pizarro in search of the mythical city of El Dorado in the Amazon basin. The sc...
Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador who led the military campaign that resulted in the fall of the Aztec Empire and established Spanish control over central Mexico. Arriving in the mainland in 1519, Cortés forged alliances with various indigenous groups who were opposed to Aztec rule, using the...
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led an expedition from Cuba into Florida in 1539 and across much of the southeastern region of the present-day United States. The expedition reached the Mississippi River in 1541 and continued moving through Indigenous territories until de...
Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish conquistador who led the Spanish campaign against the Inca Empire in the 1530s. His forces captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532, and Atahualpa was executed the following year after a ransom of gold and silver had been collected. Pizarro founded Lima, originally cal...
