Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

AUDIBLENOCALL | An astonishing work of scholarship that reads like an adventure thriller, historian Buddy Levy records the last days of the Aztec empire and the two men at the center of an epic clash of cultures.

“I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold.” —Hernán Cortés

It was a moment unique in human history, the face-to-face meeting between two men from civilizations a world apart. Only one would survive the encounter. In 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived on the shores of Mexico with a roughshod crew of adventurers and the intent to expand the Spanish empire. Along the way, this brash and roguish conquistador schemed to convert the native inhabitants to Catholicism and carry off a show more fortune in gold. That he saw nothing paradoxical in his intentions is one of the most remarkable—and tragic—aspects of this unforgettable story of conquest.

In Tenochtitlán, the famed City of Dreams, Cortés met his Aztec counterpart, Montezuma: king, divinity, ruler of fifteen million people, and commander of the most powerful military machine in the Americas. Yet in less than two years, Cortés defeated the entire Aztec nation in one of the most astonishing military campaigns ever waged. Sometimes outnumbered in battle thousands-to-one, Cortés repeatedly beat seemingly impossible odds. Buddy Levy meticulously researches the mix of cunning, courage, brutality, superstition, and finally disease that enabled Cortés and his men to survive.

Conquistador is the story of a lost kingdom—a complex and sophisticated civilization where floating gardens, immense wealth, and reverence for art stood side by side with bloodstained temples and gruesome rites of human sacrifice. It’s the story of Montezuma—proud, spiritual, enigmatic, and doomed to misunderstand the stranger he thought a god. Epic in scope, as entertaining as it is enlightening, Conquistador is history at its most riveting. |

SA - https://www.librarything.com/work/1897546/book/286420877 | https://www.librarything.com/work/21246/book/269728588 | https://www.librarything.com/work/30109552/book/249092340 |
RT - Colonization
BT - Pioneering
NT - Conquest
UF - The author documents the history of the conquest of Mexico.
SN - This PDF was downloaded from the internet server/database where the work is stored. (This entry does not reference a hierarchical list) show less

Prescott's magisterial study remains the standard work on the conquest of the Aztec empire by Hernan Cortes. Thomas's is the standard modern study, incorporating scholarship since Prescott and abandoning Prescott's 19th-century biases. But you won't find find a better narrative history of this astonishing campaign than Buddy Levy's recent book -- superbly written and gripping from start to finish. No matter how many times you read the story of this surreal clash of empires and cultures, your mind simply boggles at the strangeness of it all, at the courage and brutality shown by both sides, and above all at the audaciousness of Cortes and the magnitude of what he accomplished in so short a time. It's stirring, heartbreaking, incredible show more stuff. show less

An amazing story given its due.This is a somewhat complex story but one of high interest and great adventure. It's almost hard to believe. Calling it an adventure may not be politically correct in light of the death of a significant culture, but that is how people at the time saw it and the end result is the birth of modern Mexico, a violent merger of cultures. As in River of Darkness Levy focuses on combat but also provides bigger picture and politics. One can see patterns that would replay well into the 20th century between Europeans and natives.

A concise, easy to read book on the conquest of the Aztec Empire. The takeaway - don't bet against Hernan Cortes. A master politician with both "sides," Spanish and the Native Americans. Master of all things military (tactical, operational, strategic). I found the way he politically outmaneuvered his Spanish opponents to be the most entertaining. The appendices are very helpful, though the book could have included more maps on the area around Tenochtitlan.

Well researched and balanced. I love how the author quotes primary sources as part of a well-written narrative. This book is a great blend between historical research and story telling. Although the events in this book are not easy to read (human sacrifice, cannibalism, civilian massacre, torture, etc.), they are necessary elements to the narrative, and show that both the conquistadors and the Aztecs were barbaric (the Conquistadors less so).

A fine narrative account of the conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernando Cortés. Levy has done his work here, admirably going through all the printed primary sources and standard secondary works. Prescott's old study was good in the nineteenth century, and Hugh Thomas's thick brick of a book is as well-written as this one, but dense, scholarly, erudite, and it drags in places. Thomas's is where you need to go to as a scholar; Levy is where you need to go to for a delightful, quick read. Levy tells the story from the Aztec and Spanish side, without leaning to hard on either side or condemning either side. An admirable account. This is history for the general reader.

A little hard to follow who's where at what ancient city but overall great book. Fascinating, though ultimately tragic, book about European desire to dominate and ruin other south and central native cultures. Just really hard to read about how we treated natives(and still do)