I'm in my 30's. I lived in Mexico for 4 months. I have been to all these places.
Spain was merely four backwater provinces when Isabella began the reunification of Spain. A short 50 years later, and Spain ruled half of the earth, no question. But at the time that Cortez was poking around and conquering the Aztecs through his wit and luck, these things had not occured yet. In fact, it is BECAUSE of Cortez and the Conquest that Spain grew to an Empire.
But when Cortez arrived, he had a handful of men who had never seen a city of more than 30,000. They stumbled into the largest empire on earth since the Romans and conquered it within months. This certainly was a marvel, a feat, and one of the greatest upsets in human history.
It's not really that contraversial.
Ok. I am also in my thirties. Yes, cortez's feats were marvelous. Luck was involved, of course. Do not discount the superior spanish technology. Remember, it was the spanish that went to the new world, not the other way around. THe spanish were expanding in the old world several years before cortez ever stepped foot in the new world. I just looked this up to be sure of myself: the spanish empire is considered to be born in 1469. THat is over 20 years before the conquest of the new world began. Not as early as I had remembered it, but still your statement is proved wrong.
I think the spanish and the portuguese histories had becomed confused in my memories.