Alonso de Mendoza

Alonso de Mendoza ( – 26 June 1549) was a Spanish captain, conquistador, and the founder of the city of Nuestra Señora de La Paz. He was appointed by Pedro de la Gasca, the "Peacemaker," to found the city to commemorate the peace in the Peruvian colonies after the defeat of the Pizarro brothers. Early life Alonso de Mendoza was born between 1471 and 1476 in Garrovillas de Alconétar, Spain. He left the peninsula attracted by the news about the wealth of the New World, and by the Adventures of Pizarro and Almagro, who had conquered the Inca Empire. New World Alonso de Mendoza fought as a soldier in Germany and Italy before moving to the New World. It is believed that he settled in Cuba when Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar was the governor, as the name of one Alonso de Mendoza appears in a document signed in Guanuco and dated 1520. Then he appears in Mexico serving under Hernán Cortés, and in San Sebastián del Puerto, from where he was later banished, accused of being an agitator.