Nuño de Guzmán, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Nuño de Guzmán

Spanish conqueror

Date of Birth: 31-Oct-1490

Place of Birth: Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1544

Profession: military personnel, explorer

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán (c.
1490 – 1558) was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain.
He was the governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525 to 1533 and of Nueva Galicia from 1529 to 1534, President of the first Royal Audiencia of Mexico (High Court) from 1528 to 1530.
He founded several cities in Northwestern Mexico, including Guadalajara. Originally a bodyguard of Charles V of Spain, he was sent to Mexico to counterbalance the influence of the leader of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés, since the King worried he was becoming too powerful.
As Governor of Pánuco, Guzmán cracked down hard on the supporters of Cortés, stripping him and his supporters of property and rights.
He conducted numerous expeditions of conquest into the northwestern areas of Mexico, enslaving thousands of Indians and shipping them to the Caribbean colonies.
In the resulting power struggles where he also made himself an enemy of important churchmen, Guzmán came out the loser. In 1537, he was arrested for treason, abuse of power and mistreatment of the indigenous inhabitants of his territories, and he was sent to Spain in shackles.
His subsequent reputation, in scholarship and popular discourse, has been that of a cruel, violent and irrational tyrant.
His legacy has partly been colored by the fact that history was written largely by his political opponents such as Hernán Cortés, Juan de Zumárraga and Vasco de Quiroga.