Hernán Cortés, Conquistador of the Aztec Empire.

A Conquistador (English: Conqueror; : Conquistadores, or Conquistadors) was a Spanish or Portuguese soldier, explorer and adventurer. The Conquistadors invaded and conquered much of the Americas and the Philippines Islands and other islands in Asia Pacific. Many of them were hidalgos (noblemen of low category).

Their conquests brought these lands under Spanish colonial rule between the 15th and 17th centuries, starting with the 1492 settlement by Christopher Columbus in what is now the Bahamas. They created what is now called Latin America.