Author: Sylvia A. Johnson
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN: 1467703826
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 158
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Book Description
Can the conquest of one city change the world? In 1519, two powerful empires - Spain and Mexica (Aztec) - were hungry for expansion in central Mexico. Led by emperor Motecuzoma II, the Mexica people had subdued their native enemies and now controlled a sprawling territory with the great city of Tenochtitlán at the center. Then the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés led an attack on the Mexica empire. Although the Spaniards had horses and guns, both unknown in the Americas, the Mexica outnumbered them five hundred to one. The Spaniards had no chance of success without the help of native allies unhappy with Mexica rule. What followed was a desperate war that lasted two years, cost thousands of lives, and left Tenochtitlán in ruins. In 1521 Cortés declared Mexico a colony of New Spain. In so doing, he laid the groundwork for the expansion of European power throughout the Americas and changed the world forever. The Spanish conquest of Mexico is one of world history’s pivotal moments.
Author: William Hickling Prescott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mexico
Languages : en
Pages : 442
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Book Description
Author: William Hickling Prescott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mexico
Languages : en
Pages : 438
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Book Description
Author: José López Portillo
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 9780929398358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416
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Book Description
When Hernán Cortés and his explorers and their horses encountered the Aztecs under Moctezuma the violent collision of two worlds occurred: one mysteriously bound by the prophecy of the return of Quetzalcóatl and the other on a grand adventure without equal. This translation, written and illustrated by a former president of Mexico, takes the side of the Indian and through dramatic historical narrative, which displays the flavor of Mexico as it actually was in 1519, reveals the Indians' history of the Conquest. Through the author's clever juxtaposition of Cortés and Moctezuma and the love story of Marina and her Captain-General, we know more about how this strange land was conquered.
Author: William Hickling Prescott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aztecs
Languages : en
Pages : 546
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Book Description
Author: Hugh Thomas
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439127255
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 836
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Book Description
Drawing on newly discovered sources and writing with brilliance, drama, and profound historical insight, Hugh Thomas presents an engrossing narrative of one of the most significant events of Western history. Ringing with the fury of two great empires locked in an epic battle, Conquest captures in extraordinary detail the Mexican and Spanish civilizations and offers unprecedented in-depth portraits of the legendary opponents, Montezuma and Cortés. Conquest is an essential work of history from one of our most gifted historians.
Author: Matthew Restall
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199839751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403
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Book Description
Here is an intriguing exploration of the ways in which the history of the Spanish Conquest has been misread and passed down to become popular knowledge of these events. The book offers a fresh account of the activities of the best-known conquistadors and explorers, including Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro. Using a wide array of sources, historian Matthew Restall highlights seven key myths, uncovering the source of the inaccuracies and exploding the fallacies and misconceptions behind each myth. This vividly written and authoritative book shows, for instance, that native Americans did not take the conquistadors for gods and that small numbers of vastly outnumbered Spaniards did not bring down great empires with stunning rapidity. We discover that Columbus was correctly seen in his lifetime--and for decades after--as a briefly fortunate but unexceptional participant in efforts involving many southern Europeans. It was only much later that Columbus was portrayed as a great man who fought against the ignorance of his age to discover the new world. Another popular misconception--that the Conquistadors worked alone--is shattered by the revelation that vast numbers of black and native allies joined them in a conflict that pitted native Americans against each other. This and other factors, not the supposed superiority of the Spaniards, made conquests possible. The Conquest, Restall shows, was more complex--and more fascinating--than conventional histories have portrayed it. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest offers a richer and more nuanced account of a key event in the history of the Americas.
Author: R. Conrad Stein
Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Publishing
ISBN: 9781599350547
Category : Mexico
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Since Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztec empire in the sixteenth century, Mexico had been ruled by the kingdom of Spain. They treated the once mighty land as a colony, exploiting its people and tightly controlling the affairs of the nation to keep it from growing strong. Any talk of freedom or revolution was strictly barred by law. But as the philosophical movement called the Enlightenment swept through Europe, and revolutions toppled oppressive monarchies in America and France, the people of Mexico began to think of driving out the Spanish and establishing their own country as a very real possibility. It was a priest from a distant and tiny parish named Father Manuel Hidalgo who started Mexico's War of Independence, leading an ever-growing army of Mexican people against the massive force of the Spanish army. It was Jose Maria Morelos, another priest and a onetime student of Hidalgo, who took up the reins of the revolution when Hidalgo could no longer lead the people. The Spanish were not about to give up their prized colony without a fight though, and they retaliated against the revolutionaries with brutal viciousness. Before long, all of Mexico was wrapped in a war that would decide the future of two nations. Book jacket.
Author: Amber Brian
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271072067
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 154
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Book Description
For many years, scholars of the conquest worked to shift focus away from the Spanish perspective and bring attention to the often-ignored voices and viewpoints of the Indians. But recent work that highlights the “Indian conquistadors” has forced scholars to reexamine the simple categories of conqueror and subject and to acknowledge the seemingly contradictory roles assumed by native peoples who chose to fight alongside the Spaniards against other native groups. The Native Conquistador—a translation of the “Thirteenth Relation,” written by don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl in the early seventeenth century—narrates the conquest of Mexico from Hernando Cortés’s arrival in 1519 through his expedition into Central America in 1524. The protagonist of the story, however, is not the Spanish conquistador but Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s great-great-grandfather, the native prince Ixtlilxochitl of Tetzcoco. This account reveals the complex political dynamics that motivated Ixtlilxochitl’s decisive alliance with Cortés. Moreover, the dynamic plotline, propelled by the feats of Prince Ixtlilxochitl, has made this a compelling story for centuries—and one that will captivate students and scholars today.
Author: Hugh Thomas
Publisher: Harvill Press
ISBN: 9781844137435
Category : Mexico
Languages : en
Pages : 848
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Book Description
Hugh Thomas' account of the collapse of Montezuma's great Aztec empire under the onslaughts of Cort's' conquistadors is one of the great historical works of our times. A thrilling and sweeping narrative, it also bristles with moral and political issues. After setting out from Spain - against explicit instructions - in 1519, some 500 conquistadors destroyed their ships and fought their way towards the capital of the greatest empire of the New World. When they finally reached Tenochtitlan, the huge city on lake Texcoco, they were given a courtly welcome by Montezuma, who believed them to be gods. Their later abduction of the emperor, their withdrawl and the final destruction of the city make the Conquest one of the most enthralling and tragic episodes in world history.
