conquistador

Gen. George Patton and Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador who famously destroyed his own ships so his soldiers couldn’t retreat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

Sporting a conquistador moustache and thighs as thick as a gaucho's steak, the culture shock was severe when the Argentina wing arrived at Harlequins.

From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2025

Others credit Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, who got a taste of chocolate after being served Xocolatl by Montezuma himself.

From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2025

To do so, he elicits help from fellow students, but their presentation is derailed by unlikely apparitions: a conquistador, a small child, Laura Linney.

From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2024

Las Casas, a conquistador who repented of his actions and became a priest, spent the second half of his long fife opposing European cruelty in the Americas.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

But the preoccupations among the conquistadores are plunder, religious conversions or, in Magellan’s case, an impulse to bring the world to his feet by making it navigable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Peru's largest archaeological sites are located outside Lima in places such as Cusco, which was the capital of the Inca Empire and fell to Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century.

From Reuters ● Nov. 22, 2023

They threw together a mining camp they called Eldoradoville, named for the mythic golden king and kingdom of the questing Spanish conquistadores.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2022

Some of the vines had been planted centuries earlier, by conquistadores and missionaries.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019

For example, the Spanish conquistadores wished to exact tribute from Mexico’s defeated native populations, so they were very interested in the Aztec Empire’s tribute lists.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

A centuries-old document telling the story of the Aztec civilisation and its fall after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in pictograms is going on display in Mexico for the first time in 186 years.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his Spanish conquistadors had marched many miles through the desert in search of the reputed Seven Cities of Gold.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026

Somewhat later, Spanish conquistadors followed Columbus across the Atlantic to conquer the Aztec and Incan empires, occupying significant parts of the Americas.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024

The new findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, call into question previous theories concerning the spread of syphilis by the Spanish conquistadors.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2024

As a result, Inka roads eschewed valley bottoms and used long stone stairways to climb up steep hills directly—brutal on horses’ hooves, as the conquistadors often complained.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann