The historian and academic Carlos Martínez Shaw analyses the polemical figure of the Spanish conquistador based on significant events in his biography such as the conquest of Mexico, his relationship to governor Diego Velázquez and the Emperor Moctezuma and the administration of his court in Cuernavaca. Hernán Cortes conducted a ruthless military campaign in which he demonstrated his political and diplomatic ability, building the kingdom of New Spain on the principles of the cross-fertilisation of the Mexica and Spanish cultures, the establishment of the Catholic religion and the prevalence of metropolitan organisation.