Cortés: Conquer or Die

This guy was so committed to winning he literally sank his own ships, leaving his men

no choice but to conquer or die. When Hernán Cortés and his conquistadors first reached the

massive Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, they were welcomed. But things went south,

and they were brutally driven out during the "La Noche Triste," losing hundreds of men.

Instead of sailing home defeated, Cortés regrouped. He made a crucial alliance with the

Tlaxcalans, a rival tribe who hated the Aztecs. Then he did the unthinkable: he

built a fleet of small warships on Lake Texcoco to besiege the island city.

After a brutal 93-day siege, aided by a devastating smallpox epidemic, the once-mighty