Hernán Cortés

About Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) was a Spanish conquistador whose actions fundamentally reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the Americas. Ranking #369 in historical importance by MIT's Pantheon project, his most notable contribution was leading the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire. Starting in 1519, Cortés leveraged local indigenous alliances and superior military technology to conquer Tenochtitlan, ultimately leading to Spanish colonization and the creation of New Spain.

Cortés registers a significant 'overattention' gap relative to his historical weight. Despite being ranked #369 in importance, he accrued 1.2 million Wikipedia views in 2025. This places his internet attention 3x higher than expected based on his HPI score. For context, the much more historically significant Elizabeth I of England (HPI #14) garnered only about 319,000 views in the same period, highlighting a contemporary focus skew toward figures associated with conflict and conquest in the Americas.

While his attention is high overall, Cortés shows slight cooling in recent interest. His 2025 momentum calculation, comparing Q1 to Q3 views, shows a -9% decrease, suggesting that while the baseline attention is strong, the immediate digital spike seen in early 2025 is beginning to recede.