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60 free Hernán Cortés trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hernán Cortés trivia quiz covers the conquistador who toppled the Aztec Empire with a few hundred men, thousands of indigenous allies and a talent for mutiny. The easy questions are the ones any history reader knows: his nationality, the empire he destroyed, the emperor he took hostage and the woman who translated for him. From there the set moves through the campaign: the governor of Cuba who tried to stop him, the priest rescued from the Maya, the ships he scuttled at Veracruz, the alliance with Tlaxcala, the massacre at Cholula, the Night of Sorrows and the thirteen brigantines that sealed the siege of Tenochtitlan. The harder end is for the specialists: the Salamanca uncle who taught him Latin, his kinship with Pizarro, the quinto he collected as a clerk, the notary training that let him justify his conquest, the coat of arms of 1525, the Honduras expedition and Cuauhtémoc's hanging, the marquessate of the Valley of Oaxaca, the viceroy who outranked him, Baja California, the Algiers storm, the five letters to Charles V, his mestizo children and the bones that were moved more than eight times before being rediscovered in 1946. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for Cortés, the conquest and its principal figures before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Aztecs, Mexico and Age of Exploration quizzes next.
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Q 01Cortés was a conquistador in the service of which European crown?
Castile
He brought most of what is now mainland Mexico under the King of Castile.
Q 02In which Spanish town was Cortés born, around 1485?
Medellín
It lies in Extremadura, then a poor and desolate province of Castile.
Q 03Cortés was a distant relative of which other conquistador, through his mother's family?
Francisco Pizarro
That relative went on to conquer the Inca Empire.
Q 04At 14, Cortés was sent to study what under an uncle in Salamanca?
Latin
Later historians wrongly assumed he enrolled at the university there.
Q 05What profession did the young Cortés train in, giving him legal knowledge to justify his conquest?
Notary
He practised in Valladolid and later in the Caribbean.
Q 06On which Caribbean island did Cortés first settle in 1504?
Hispaniola
Governor Nicolás de Ovando granted him an encomienda and a post in the town of Azua.
Q 07Which governor of Cuba first sponsored Cortés's expedition, then tried to recall it at the last moment?
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar
Cortés ignored the order and sailed in an act of open mutiny in February 1519.
Q 08What was the quinto that Cortés, as clerk to the treasurer in Cuba, had to secure for the Crown?
The customary one-fifth of expedition profits
He later insisted he had sent the Crown more than its fifth.
Q 09Whom did Cortés reluctantly marry in Cuba, under pressure from the island's ruler?
Catalina Xuárez, a well-connected local
She died at Coyoacán in 1522 without children.
Q 10Roughly how many men did Cortés bring when he landed on the Yucatán in 1519?
500
He also had about 11 ships, 13 horses and a small number of cannon.
Q 11Which shipwrecked Spanish priest, who had lived among the Maya, became Cortés's first translator?
Gerónimo de Aguilar
He had learned Chontal Maya during his captivity.
Q 12La Malinche was one of how many enslaved women given to the Spaniards by the natives of Tabasco?
20
Her languages let Cortés talk to the Aztecs through Aguilar.
Q 13What Christian name was La Malinche given at her baptism?
Marina
The Nahua called her Malintzin, from which the Spaniards heard Malinche.
Q 14Which two languages did La Malinche speak, making her indispensable to Cortés?
Q 21Whom did the governor of Cuba send in 1520 with 1,100 men to arrest Cortés?
Pánfilo de Narváez
Cortés defeated him and persuaded most of his men to switch sides.
Q 22Which lieutenant of Cortés carried out the massacre in the Great Temple that sparked the Aztec uprising?
Pedro de Alvarado
It happened while Cortés was away confronting Narváez on the coast.
Q 23How was Moctezuma killed on 1 July 1520, according to Spanish accounts?
Stoned by his own people
Some accounts claim the Spaniards murdered him once he was no longer useful.
Nahuatl and Maya
Historians disagree over why she chose to help the Spanish.
Q 15What did Cortés do to his ships at Veracruz to eliminate any thought of retreat?
Scuttled them
By founding Veracruz he placed himself directly under King Charles rather than the governor of Cuba.
Q 16Which people, after three battles in September 1519, became Cortés's most important indigenous allies?
The Tlaxcalans
About 1,000 of their warriors accompanied him on his march.
Q 17In which city did Cortés massacre thousands of unarmed nobles in October 1519?
Cholula
It was the second-largest city in central Mexico.
Q 18On what date did Moctezuma II peacefully receive Cortés into Tenochtitlan?
8 November 1519
Moctezuma hoped to learn the strangers' weaknesses and crush them later.
Q 19Cortés claimed the Aztecs took him for an emissary of which god?
Quetzalcoatl
Some modern historians dispute that the Aztecs ever believed this.
Q 20What did Cortés do to Moctezuma soon after entering the capital?
Took him hostage in his own palace
He ruled Tenochtitlan indirectly through the captive emperor.
Q 24What name is given to the Spaniards' disastrous night flight from Tenochtitlan on 30 June 1520?
La Noche Triste
Much of the looted treasure and all the artillery were lost on the Tlacopan causeway.
Q 25What official name does Mexico give to the Spaniards' flight from Tenochtitlan on 30 June 1520?
Victorious Night
The Spaniards' native allies were driven out alongside them.
Q 26Roughly how many men had Cortés lost by the time he reached Tlaxcala after the battle of Otumba?
870
Reinforcements from Cuba and his allies let him begin a war of attrition.
Q 27How many brigantines did Cortés have built in Tlaxcala to fight on Lake Texcoco during the siege?
Thirteen
Master shipbuilder Martín López constructed them.
Q 28Which disease devastated the population of Tenochtitlan while Cortés rebuilt his alliances?
Smallpox
The Spanish had acquired immunity because it had long been endemic in Spain.
Q 29On what date was Cuauhtémoc captured, ending the siege of Tenochtitlan?
13 August 1521
Cortés then renamed the ruined city Mexico City.
Q 30What torture was inflicted on Cuauhtémoc to make him reveal hidden gold?
The soles of his feet were burned over coals
Some gold was recovered, but far less than the Spaniards expected.