Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar

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Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (* 1465 in Cuéllar , Segovia Province , Spain , † 1524 in Santiago de Cuba ) was a Spanish conqueror and governor of Cuba for the Spanish crown.

Departure to the New World

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar came from a very wealthy, aristocratic family and was an officer in the Spanish army in Naples before settling in Seville . There he became close friends with Bartolomeo Columbus , the younger brother of Christopher Columbus . Diego Velázquez took part in Columbus' second journey. The fleet left Cádiz on September 25, 1493 with three large ships and 14 caravels . The geographer Juan de la Cosa , the officers Alonso de Ojeda , Juan Ponce de León and a few other people who later became famous were also on this trip .

Hispaniola

The expedition members settled on Hispaniola and founded the first cities there. They built these cities on the Spanish model with a certain degree of self-government. That way they could turn to the king directly. As a result, however, the first settlers came into conflict with the interests of Christopher Columbus, the viceroy of the West Indies . The new governor Francisco de Bobadilla sent him in chains to Spain. Although Columbus was later pardoned by the Spanish royal couple , he was not reinstated in his office.

In 1502, the governor Nicolás de Ovando , appointed by the king, arrived in Hispaniola. Diego Velázquez became his first deputy and was a co-founder of Santo Domingo . At that time Velázquez was the richest man in Hispaniola and had the greatest political influence after the governor. Meanwhile was Cuba of Sebastián de Ocampo been bypassed altogether. Now it was clear that this was also an island. Nevertheless, the Spaniards made no move to conquer the island at this point.

In 1511 the Spanish Crown tried to align its interests with those of Columbus' descendants. Christopher Columbus' son Diego was appointed the new viceroy - according to the Capitulaciones, the treaties concluded by the Spanish Crown with Columbus ; this appointment amounted to the establishment of a dynasty . However, the settlers led by Diego Velázquez were not ready to accept this. So Velázques equipped an expedition with four ships and three hundred men with which he set out for Cuba in November. One of these 300 men was his secretary, Hernán Cortés . Other well-known participants included Bartolomé de Las Casas , Pedro de Alvarado and Cristóbal de Olid .

Cuba

In 1511, Diego Velázquez founded Baracoa, the first city on Cuban soil. Santiago de Cuba was the second city to be founded after Baracoa. There is evidence of this from Diego Velázquez from June 18, 1513. Velázquez managed to lure many Spaniards to this new colony with his clever government policy. So Pánfilo de Narváez came from Jamaica , and Ponce de León prepared his hapless expedition to Florida in Baracoa . Francisco Hernández de Córdoba came with 100 Spaniards to escape the tyranny of the governor of Panama , Pedrarias . With Córdoba, the soldier and later chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo also came to the island.

In 1512 Velázquez organized the first expedition into the interior of Cuba. The course of this expedition is preserved thanks to the chronicles of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Bartolomé de Las Casas. The campaign was led by Pánfilo de Narváez.

Expeditions

Havana was founded in 1515, but later had to be relocated several kilometers due to an insect plague. Cuba quickly became the base for almost all expeditions to the mainland. In 1517 Velázquez sent Francisco Hernández de Córdoba from Santiago de Cuba to Yucatán . Already in April 1518 he sent another expedition under his nephew Juan de Grijalva . The chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo was also on board . In the same year, not far from today's Veracruz , Grijalva had contact with the subjects of Moctezuma II and received a not inconsiderable amount of gold as a gift. He decided to send this treasure and the seriously injured and sick to Cuba. The person in charge of this transport was Pedro de Alvarado . Diego de Velázquez accepted him and the gold with great enthusiasm. He immediately sent one of his chaplains, Benito Martínez , to Spain with the news of the gold discoveries. Velázquez had very good relations with the Bishop of Burgos , Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca , who was in charge of the West Indies. So he received the order to conquer this new empire. He quickly prepared the third expedition and gave command to his secretary, Hernán Cortés.

Battle for New Spain

Cortés had no interest in merely acting as a tool for Velázquez in the conquest of this new land. Therefore, he founded the city of Veracruz on his own initiative (in today's Mexico) , just as Velázquez had shown him when he founded Baracoas in Cuba. He was thus independent of his patron and only subject to the Spanish crown. Velázquez did not want to accept this betrayal and sent Cortés an expedition with 18 ships and about a thousand men. This expedition was led by Pánfilo de Narváez . This had the order to arrest Cortés and to complete the conquest of the new country under Velázquez 'command. But Cortés defeated Narváez in Cempoala. After this renewed failure, Velázquez no longer had enough financial means to be able to take action against Cortés again. He died in Santiago de Cuba in 1524. All the cities in Cuba that were founded by Velázquez still exist today.

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personal data
SURNAME Velázquez de Cuéllar, Diego
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish conqueror
DATE OF BIRTH 1465
PLACE OF BIRTH Cuéllar , Spain
DATE OF DEATH 1524
Place of death Santiago de Cuba , Cuba