As the first governor of the island, he established several municipalities that remain important to this day and positioned Cuba as a center of trade and a staging point for expeditions of conquest elsewhere.

[2] Velázquez settled on the island of Hispaniola and survived the early hardships which killed many colonists or drove them back home.

[2][3] When Diego Columbus became governor in 1509, he was instructed by King Ferdinand to explore, conquer, and colonize the neighboring island of Cuba in hopes of obtaining new sources of gold and Native labor.

Miguel de Pasamonte, the king's treasurer in the Caribbean, was influential in seeing that Columbus selected Velázquez to lead the expedition.

He assembled a small fleet of four ships and three hundred men among whom were several relatives, debt-ridden encomenderos, and a few who would later become notable, including Hernán Cortés and Pedro de Alvarado.

The Spaniards were opposed by a Taíno force led by Hatuey, formerly a chief from Hispaniola who fled to Cuba and helped the local Natives organize resistance to the incursion.

Later that year, Velázquez was joined by Pánfilo de Narváez who brought thirty Spanish archers and Native auxiliaries from Jamaica.

[10] After a slow start, the conquest of Cuba accelerated dramatically in 1513 when Velázquez organized three expeditions to proceed west, explore the island, and establish a Spanish presence.

Initially, these rumors were merely the subject of idle speculation and the king instructed Velázquez to remain focused on the governance of Cuba and especially the production of gold.

However, as the demand for labor grew, slaving expeditions explored the region in search of natives to work the Cuban ranches and gold mines.

[16] Interest in exploration and conquest intensified in 1516 when a slave ship returned carrying 20,000 pesos of gold seized from the natives living on the Guanajes, a series of small islands off the coast of Central America.

[17] Velázquez quickly commissioned Francisco Hernández de Córdoba to lead an expedition which sailed in February 1517, with instructions to explore certain neighboring islands.

Initial encounters with the Mayans living along the coast turned into armed conflict; 25 Spaniards were killed and many more wounded, including Córdoba himself.

In February 1519, he left Havana for Mexico with ten ships and about 500 fighting men, effectively declaring himself free of Velázquez's authority.

[24][25] In August 1519, Velázquez received word that Cortés had sent a ship to Spain carrying Aztec treasure and a request to be recognized as the rightful leader of the new territory.

Pánfilo de Narváez was selected to lead the force with instructions to arrest Cortés and assume the government of the new territory on behalf of Velázquez.

The failed adventure was a disaster for Velázquez; he lost a substantial fortune invested in the fleet and left Cuba seriously depopulated and vulnerable to a Native uprising.

Diego Colón perhaps sensed that Velázquez was politically vulnerable; he sent Alonso Zuazo to Cuba in January 1521, to replace the governor and conduct his residencia.

[29] In 1522, Carlos I formally recognized Cortes as governor of New Spain, thus ending Velázquez's claims to the newly conquered territory.

When Cortes heard of this plot, he wrote a letter of protest to the king and then dispatched his agents to Honduras where they eventually killed Olid.

[30][31] At the time of his death at the age of 59, Velázquez was "the richest Spaniard in the Americas," despite financial losses on the expedition of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and of Hernán Cortés.