I am specifically asking in regards to Cortez scuttling his ships after arriving in Mexico and how it relates to the following passage in "The Art of War:"
"Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight. If they will face death, there is nothing they may not achieve. Officers and men alike will put forth their uttermost strength. Soldiers when in desperate straits lose the sense of fear. If there is no place of refuge, they will stand firm. If they are in hostile country, they will show a stubborn front. If there is no help for it, they will fight hard."
To me it sounds like Cortez did have an understanding which I am trying to prove in a paper, but I am lacking the sources to prove my claim. I have looked for sources into the subject matter but so far have come up empty handed.
The first translation of the Art of War from Chinese was produced in 1782: and that was a translation so awful that its content bore little to no resemblance to the Chinese original. It wasn't until the early 1900s that actual, legitimate translations of the book was produced.
So no, Cortez who lived centuries before the art of war was first translated into a European language is unlikely to have read the book.