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Mexico, two anchors found: "They come from the fleet of the conquistador Cortes"

December 18, 2019

A discovery that could shed light on the era of the Spanish conquistadors. In the sea opposite the Mexican coasts, archaeologists have recovered two ancient iron anchors, perhaps belonging to the Spanish condottiere's fleet Hernan Cortes: The military passed into history for having invaded, conquered and destroyed in the sixteenth century the Aztec Empire, the pre-Columbian civilization that dominated today's Mexico. The two artifacts, found by the divers at a depth of about ten to fifteen meters and hidden by layers of sediments, would have in fact 500 years. The discovery took place just in the area where in 1519 the ships of Cortes landed, north of the city of Veracruz, starting point for the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish crown and then the major port of New Spain. In Veracruz the ships loaded with gold and silver sailed towards Seville. Archaeologists now hope to find more artifacts, explains the Reuters, why the condottiero, to eliminate to his own men every possibility of escape, would have destroyed in front of the coast the ships of his fleet.

The stakes for scholars are great: "The conquest of Mexico was a fundamental event for human history," he explained marine archaeologist Frederick Hanselmann, "E these wrecks, if we can find them, are the symbol of that clash of cultures that led to what is now the West ". Last year another Spanish one was found in the same area."We have come to serve God, the King and also to get rich," the reporter of the Cortes expedition told Bernal Diaz del Castillo referring to the companies of the conquistadores. The expedition led by Hernan Cortes sailed from Cuba to Mexico on February 18, 1519 to clash with the army of the Aztec emperor Montezuma: the fleet consisted only of 11 ships, 100 sailors and 508 soldiers, who were however provided with horses and modern firearms , unknown to the locals. At the end of 1521 the Spaniards conquered Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. Favored not only by the most advanced weapons, but also by local rebellions and the spread of infectious diseases brought from Europe, the military undertaking of the condottiere was a success but decimated the local population. Thus a new era began for that part of the world.

While in Mexico five centuries after the Spanish conquest, the interest in this military expedition is growing, also thanks to the attention of the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who apologized formally to the Spanish king Felipe VI it's at Pope francesco due to the massacre of the natives, archaeologists' research could give other surprises. These discoveries could help to reconstruct the details of what was one of the most important military expeditions in the history of the "New World".

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