Actually, Cortez' history has been pretty well known for a very long time. He was a militaristic conqueror, but far kinder to those he conquered than the Aztecs, who were their only alternative. Brutal by modern standards, but not unusually so for his day.
He was also an amazing risk taker - willing to gamble his own life repeatedly. People forget that Cortez' troops did not have such a great advantage in military technology over the Aztecs. The musket wasn't invented yet. He had a few primitive firearms and a few crossbows - in the tens, not hundreds. Otherwise his men fought hand-to-hand, Cortez included.
His victory over the Aztecs heavily relied on his diplomacy with Aztec client kingdoms, exploiting their hatred of the Aztecs to build a large army. It was truly a phenominal acheivement in military history. In it's own way, more impressive than the conquests of Alexander or Caesar.
This little fact often gets left out. The Aztecs gave barbarians a bad name. Aside from the human sacrifice, which can, perhaps, justified in that they thought that by doing so they were saving the world, they had their neighbors for dinner, a habit that endears you to no one.
The Aztec "culture" is one of the few I can find nothing good to say about.
a.cricket
Whatever he had it wasn't much.
In the spring of 1519 a Spanish expedition of eleven ships set sail from Cuba. On board were 508 soldiers, 16 horses, and several pieces of artillery.
http://www.umich.edu/~proflame/texts/mirror/conflict.html
The Aztecs regularly raided their neighbors for human sacrifices and they would choose the healthiest males for that. Naturally their neighbors didn’t like that, so when Cortez came, they said, let’s ally ourselves with this strange looking person who may have magic on his side to enable us to defeat the aztecs.