Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés (1485– December 2, 1547) was the conquistador who became famous for leading the military expedition that initiated the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.

Cortés was the son of Martín Cortés de Monroy and of Doña Catalina Pizarro Altamarino—names of ancient lineage. Cortés (full name Don Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca) was born in Medellín, in the province of Extremadura, in the Kingdom of Castile in Spain in 1485, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés first served as a soldier in an expedition of Cuba led by Diego Velázquez in 1511.

He studied in Salamanca for a time but soon grew restless and left Spain in 1504 to explore the New World. In 1511 he sailed with Diego Velázquez to conquer Cuba. There Velázquez was appointed governor, and Cortés clerk to the treasurer.

In 1519 he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded.

His enmity with the governor of Cuba Diego Velázquez resulted in the latter calling back the expedition in the last moment, an order which was ignored by Cortés in an act of disobedience. Cortés traveled to Mexico anyway, setting his sights on overthrowing ruler Montezuma II in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Cortés arrived with around 500 men, 16 horses, and some cannon. He founded a small settlement that would eventually become the city of Veracruz. Montezuma II's messengers returned to the emperor with the terrifying reports of their encounter with the Spainards: their guns, horses, dogs and their lust for gold.

Hernan Cortés and his men landed on the Mexican coast on April of 1519. Montezuma II sent Cortés gifts of gold and chocolate to welcome the Spanish. Although Montezuma II did not trust Cortés, he also was worried that Cortés was the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. Aztec mythology said that Quetzalcoatl would come to Earth as a man and Cortés had arrived on Quetzalcoatl's birthday.

The Aztecs eventually drove the Spanish from Tenochtitlan, but Cortés returned to defeat the natives and take the city in 1521. Tenochtitlan at the time was one of greatest civilizations on earth. An Aztec city built on a lake with heigh pyramids along with a network of roads and bridges.

When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés he fought them and won and used the extra troops as reinforcements. Instead he wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny.

Cortés continued to seek opportunities to gain wealth and land. He sent more expeditions out into new areas, including what is present-day Honduras. He spent much of his later years seeking recognition for his achievements and support from the Spanish royal court.

Cortés died in Spain on December 2, 1547.
Hernán Cortés

German social theorist: Max Weber

Max Weber (21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) best known for his thesis of the “Protestant ethic,” relating Protestantism to capitalism, and for his ideas on bureaucracy. Maximilian Carl Emil “Max” Weber was born in the Prussian city of Erfurt.

His father was a lawyer and member of a family of prosperous textile manufacturers. His mother's family placed a high value on education.

Educated mainly at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, Weber was trained in law, eventually writing his Habilitationsschrift on Roman law and agrarian history under August Meitzen, a prominent political economist of the time.

Max Weber is credited with numerous contributions to modern sociology and is considered one of the pillars of the discipline along with Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim.

Max Weber’s first significant The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, appeared shortly after his recovery from a long period of depression lasting from 1897 to 1904.

In 1919 he took permanent Chair in Munich. He lectured in overflowing lecture theatres on basic concepts in sociology, on economic history and on political science.
German social theorist: Max Weber 

Vincent van Gogh: Dutch Post-Impressionist painter

Vincent William van Gogh was born in 1853 at Groot Zundert, a little village in the Dutch province of Brabant, not far from the border between Holland and Belgium. Deeply religious, he studied for the priesthood but never passed the entrance exam for theology school.

The van Gogh family had, for centuries, given men of note to Holland especially as clergymen and in commerce; in the nineteenth century several members of the family were art dealer.

At sixteen years old, Vincent began working as an assistant (1869-76) at the Hague Gallery of French Art Dealers, an international firm with their shops in The Hague, London and Paris. He traveled between London and Paris until he was fired from the gallery in 1876.

In May 1876, he becomes a teacher in a school at Ramsgate. In April 1881, he set off for Brussels to study art, where his family encouraged him to take painting lessons.

He settled in The Hague where he lived with his model Christien, a prostitute. She appears in the drawing Sorrow (1882) and Sien Posing (1883).

Van Gogh began studying painting with Anton Mauve in January 1882. Van Gogh studied for three months at the Academy in Antwerp in 1885- 86. He then traveled to Paris in order to be close to his brother and confidante, Theo. In Paris, Van Gogh was influenced by the light and color of the Impressionists as well as Japanese art.

Van Gogh’s burst of creativity between 1885 and 1890 was his most productive interval. Artistically, Van Gogh's time in The Hague is extremely important. He worked unceasingly and created his first paintings and lithographs.

Especially after moving to Paris in 1886, van Gogh produced one classic painting after another at a manic pace fueled by both absinthe and his growing mental instability – producing more than 200 painting in the two years after his move.

In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles where he would begin the most productive period of his career. In approximately two years, he produced two hundred paintings and over a hundred drawings. During this time, he painted some of his most loved works, including Night Cafe, The Sower and Starry Night. His battle with mental illness was prominent and he experienced several breakdowns in Arles which resulted in voluntary and involuntary stays in mental asylums.

Van Gogh has been acknowledged as a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism and has had an enormous influence on 20th century art.

In May 1889, Vincent Van Gogh was sent to an asylum in Saint-Remy. During the time he spent in that mental hospital, Vincent painted one hundred and fifty paintings and produced hundreds of drawings, his art being his haven, an escape from his tragic and lonely reality. Vincent Van Gogh was truly lonely all his life and made many attempts at romance, however, all resulted in rejection.

In 1890 he went to live at Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, under the supervision of a physician, Dr Paul Gachet, himself an amateur painter and engraver, whom van Gogh painted.

On July 27, 1890, van Gogh shot himself at the scene of his last painting, the foreboding Cornfields with Flight of Birds, and died two days later.
Vincent van Gogh: Dutch Post-Impressionist painter

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance.

His family name was Sanzio: he was born in the city of Urbino, in the pontificate of Sixtus IV. His father, Giovanni Sanzio, was a painter for court of Urbino but of no professional celebrity, he was considered to possess superior judgment.

In the court of Urbino, Raphael was exposed to some of the best artists and thinkers from around the world, Because of his father’s connections in the court, Raphael began training to be an artist.

The great fame of Michael Angelo Buonaroti, and Leonardo da Vinci, induced him to visit Florence and the careful examination of the works of those eminent artists enlarges his ideas and enabled him to improve his style.

After residence of some time at Florence Raphael, was recalled to Urbino by the death of his parents. He remained there to execute some works for the duke and the churches and then return to Florence where he continued his laborers and studies.

His reputation afterwards called him to Rome in 1509, where Pope Julius II, employed him in decorating with frescoes the chambers of the Vatican. Pope hired Raphael as scriptor brevium. It was here that he first displayed the full extent of his admirable genius; and his pictures of the doctors of the churches and the school of Athens are still regarded as some of the most wonderful production of the art.
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino

Biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Australia. Out of seven children born to Leopold and Maria Anna Mozart, only Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl survived.

Leopold was a respected musician who schooled his children early in harpsichord and later, the violin.

Mozart’s first efforts at composition began when he was only four years old. Mozart’s first published compositions, which were for harpsichord and viola, appeared in Paris when he was only seven.

At eight, he startled the King of England by playing at sight every difficult piece of music put before him, and improvising during public concerts. At age nine, Mozart has already composed his first two symphonies.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart’s works contain the essence was well as the most perfect of those compositions which are correctly called classical.

His fame came first as a composer and performer of music for the harpsichord, but the piano began to be perfected, and by the time he was 21, he had selected it for his main instrument. He became the frost of the great composers for piano.

He wrote many different types of music and excelled in every one. During his short life he composed more than 50 symphonies and 15 operas. He also wrote many works for choir, orchestra and smaller groups of instruments.

This genius of all composers died in his home on December 5, 1791 at the young age of 35, following a struggle with rheumatic fever.
Biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart