Hernan Cortes Quotes
Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no human tongue is able to describe; for within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room enough for a town of five hundred families.
Cortés, Hernán. The Despatches of Hernando Cortes, the Conqueror of Mexico, Addressed to the Emperor Charles V, Written During the Conquest, and Containing a Narrative of Its Events. Translated by George Folsom, Wiley and Putnam, 1843, p. 114.
Gordon, then a young officer, was part of an British and French expeditionary force that was ordered to destroy the Yuanming Yuan—the Garden of Perfect Brightness which was called “The Old Summer Palace” where the emperors of China resided in the summer. It was the best Chinese architecture of the time and the palaces were full of many great works of art. The reason for the destruction was that the Chinese had imprisoned Western representatives who had come to manage a treaty. While incarcerated, the Western prisoners were murdered. Generally, retaliation was meant to do damage to something that the rulers of the offending nations valued greatly.
There were some people and corporations that wanted to open up the Grand Canyon for mining.
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
