The Conquest of New Spain
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Product Description
Plain, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one of the most startling military episodes in history: the overthrow of Montezuma’s doomed Aztec Empire by the ruthless Hernan Cortes and his band of adventurers. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, himself a soldier under Cortes, presents a fascinatingly detailed description of the Spanish landing in Mexico in 1520 and their amazement at the city, the exploitation of the natives for gold and additional treasures, the expulsion and flight of the Spaniards, their regrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital.
About the Leader
Spanish historian Bernal Diaz del Castillo (c.1492-1584) was a soldier in the army of the conquistador Cortes in the attack on the Aztecs. J M Cohen translated widely from French and Spanish.
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This was a pretty excellent book. It was very informative. It may be unbefitting for younger readers, but I establish it inriching.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
You can take all the faux adventure movies cobbled together with computer graphics and franchise action stars, roll them into a wad, and chuck them out the window. This simple book remains one of the most gripping, heart-in-your-mouth adventures ever written. It’s history, but it’s pure fiction.
The past part is straightforward. A band of marauding Spaniards conquered the New World for the greater glory of money, slaves, the queen, and god, in that order. They fought off superior numbers, disease, incessant war, mutiny, plots, and desperate odds to subdue and enslave an entire continent. They rammed their foreign gods down the throats of the natives on the point of a sword, and by their victory turned Spain into one of the world’s greatest powers.
The fiction is more astounding, of course, than the history. Bernal Diaz truly believes, at least in his ancient age, that murder, rapine, and enslavement were acts of fealty to Christ. He sees the treachery of Cortes as being more than offset by the horrific practices of human sacrifice practiced by the Aztecs. He sees the subjugation of the New World as the very just fee of European progress and civilization.
Between the past reality of Cortes’s military victory and the fictional account that justifies the war and its atrocities lies a gripping narrative that will shock and daze you with its simple prose and matter of fact description of battles won, lives lost, and a continent brought under force of Spanish arms. This is both the best past work I’ve ever read and one of the finest tales of pure fancy and imagination in Western literature.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve wanted to read this book since doing, `The European Empires Overseas’ course at Macquarie Uni. You could see the lecturer still got a buzz talking about pirates on the high seas and the like, and he recommended this incredible recollection of Diaz’, a soldier who served with Cortes (this translation’s spelling) in the early 1500s, extant two expeditions from Cuba onto the mainland near Mexico before, and the incredible one afterwards where Cortes, with a few hundred soldiers against tens of thousands of locals, manages to eventually capture (and ruin) the enormously rich and customary capital.
The style of the book is, consciously, not that of an accomplished writer. Diaz really abandoned his reminiscences, but resumed them upon reading additional accounts that were more stylish but less accurate (he was really there). There are a hundred scenes and characters in his pages that could be gloriously open for drama, humour, nobility, tragedy, last minute relief, action, philosophical/ethical debate … but he just notes things down in a very featureless style. But since the content itself is so wild – and (pretty much) factual, you are still interested. A name else could write (and probably has) a cracking book based on Diaz’ facts, but the liberties they’d have to take would probably still place it as less than the original.
This is not to say that Diaz doesn’t have biases. But there is a naivety in his writing so that even when, for example, he may be exaggerating just how constantly pious the soldiers were in risking their own lives to oppose the local practise of human sacrifice, you are still well aware of the utter spiritual conviction of the Conquistadors. And they don’t hide their lust for gold. Or even for women – somehow they see no contradiction between their Christianity and long-suffering or even taking local women as wives or concubines. Cortes accepts several it seems, impregnating the odd one – and this is not seen as needing any defence or apology despite him having a Spanish wife at home. There’s no need to mistrust much of what he says, because he’s not writing to try to appease a modern audience. Rather he’s writing for his peers, people with the same convictions as himself, so he’s not trying to hide attitudes that he assumes of everyone.
But this is much of the game with this text. Everyone now will bring their judgements to it. The most common one students would make today I imagine would be outright condemnation: the Spaniards were nothing more than a (slightly) more organised and resourced bunch of pirates, exploiting the innocent locals for gold, causing massive loss of life, and forcing their own absurd religious beliefs on a populace with their own highly developed religion. And in a lot of ways they would be absolutely right. Yet, for me as a Christian, I can’t utterly condemn these guys who did consistently (and strategically unwisely – regarding questing for gold and militarily guaranteeing their own survival) witness to the locals. Cortes regularly risks his own safety by challenging their idolatry and practise of human sacrifice.
The latter is condemned as `we’re all brothers’. Yet while there was respect shown for the Indians, they were seen as second class – the death of an Indian wasn’t seen as nearly as significant as that of a Spaniard. Moreover the go was permanently towards the best the Indians could hope for was to end up as vassals. But there are contradictions: Diaz earlier condemns a name for contemplating the evil thought of enslaving free men – who were Indians. Yet some Indians who opposed them in battle were branded as slaves.
Were the Indians better or worse off after the invasion? Some of them benefited because Mexico was the superpower extracting a brutal tribute of women and riches – the conquistadors capitalised on persons disaffected (Cortes was overjoyed when he heard that there was challenger to Montezuma). But it was hardly a simple thing of walking in, blasting off a gun, pointing to your strangely white skin, and having the locals worship you and hand over all their gold. Before they gained any local backing they had to fight against much greater numbers. Their artillery, steel and cavalry helped, of course – but it was hardly a carefully researched, resourced and executed invasion. It was really a huge mess, with courageous/greedy/rash people just grabbing at a half-chance to improve their lot.
This was the edge of the empire – lead the way country. The rule of law was pretty thin here. Cortes barely managed to get the backing to place together a tiny fleet, and he charged out ASAP because he knew the backing would falter at any time (it did, and the administrator confirmed him an bandit nearly as soon as he’d left). Cortes knew he had to make excellent his chance so that even the king of Spain was impressed, or return to be place in chains. Thus after some very narrow victories when the sensible thing would be to count your blessings, return to base to chat about sensible approaches in the light of much new knowledge, and replenish men and resources … Cortes torches the fleet! This way no-one CAN turn back and change alliances, they’re stuck with Cortes and must be loyal to have any chance of extant.
I’m talking virtually all plot now, but this is History much more than a novel. As a novel it’s very poorly written. The thing is essentially content.
Back to the question – were the Indians better off? Well, many just exchanged one oppressor for another (that’s History say many). But as a Christian, many did learn the truth and were delivered from idolatry (or, in their corrupted version of Christianity, exchanged one idol for another). The human sacrifice practice would have been momentously cut-rate or even halted. I suppose you’d have to read about the next couple of hundred years to know.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
When I first read the 1800 English translation, I could not place it down. Here are the first lines–a real grabbers! “In the year 1514, I left Castile (Spain) in company with Pedro Arias de Avila, who was then appointed administrator of Tierra Firma (east sou’wester)…but afterwards suspicious that his son-in-law had an intention of revolting, he caused him to be beheaded.”
Bernal’s description of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan is incredible: “To many of us it appeared doubtful whether we were asleep of awake; nor is the manner in which I prompt myself to be wondered at, for it must be considered, that never yet did man see, hear or dream of anything equal to the spectacle which appeared to our eyes on this day.”
And how about this magnificent line: “And now, let who can, tell me, where are men in this world to be establish, except ourselves, who would have hazarded such an attempt.”
And here is the horrific vision the Spaniards be alleged when they climbed to the top of the fantastic Aztec temple-pyramid. Remember that nearby, and looming up like a nightmare, was the stupendous “tzompantli,” or skull rack. By careful Spanish count, it contained the smiling remains of 136,000 human beings.
“In this place they had a drum of most enormous size, the head of which was made of the skins of large serpents: this instrument when struck resounded with a noise that could be heard to the distance of two leagues, and so doleful that it deserved to be named the composition of the infernal regions; and with their horrible sounding horns and trumpets, their fantastic knives for sacrifice, their human victims, and their blood besprinkled altars, I devoted them, and all their wickedness to God’s vengeance, and thought that the time would never arrive, that I should escape from this scene of human butchery, horrible smells, and more detestable sights.”
The Conquest takes on a different color when seen through the eyes of the Spanish. Yes, they were greedy and cruel, but the scale of human sacrifice practiced by the Aztecs was beyond imagination. It is said that some twenty thousand people were sacrificed for the dedication of the Temple of the Sun. The Aztec priests worked for hours on end cutting out human hearts. They worked until they collapsed from exhaustion.
Bernal’s history is also appealing for another entirely different reason. Joseph Smith (born 1805), the Mormon prophet, came of age during the period of English translations of Spanish histories (Bernal’s in 1800 in London, and 1803 in the US, and Clevigero’s “History of Mexico” in 1806 in Virginia and 1817 in Philadelphia).
Therefore, the golden splendor of the Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru was fresh on everyone’s mind, especially because the Spanish colony of Florida had become an American state (1821).
Thus, any notion that Americans were unaware of the fantastic civilizations of very ancient America is lacking foundation in real history. Very ancient civilizations in America were so on the mind of people that in 1816, Solomon Spaulding wrote a history about a white and dark race in very ancient America. His novel, “Manuscript Establish,” had the white race of mound builders ruined by a darker-skin race.
Read my review of Robert Silverberg’s magnificent book, “The Mound Builders of Very ancient America: The Archaeology of a Myth.” A must-read for anyone interested in the archaeology and myths about very ancient America. Click here: Mound Builders
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
What is fascinating here is the fact that it was written by a Spaniard who was really with Hernan Cortes during the Conquest.of Mexico in 1519. Bernal Diaz del Castillo was only 25 years ancient at the time and was with the Conquistadors during the landing at the Mexican mainland in Yucatan and onward to the conquest of the Aztecs(the Michicas or Mexicans) and their magnifcent capital, the city of Tenochtitlan. The city was built right on the center of a lake with incredible foundations and connected to the surrounding mainland by causeways. The splendor and magnificence of Tenochtitlan amazed the Spaniards. These Europeans had never seen before such a “marvel” so that they started to “pinch” or “slap” each additional to question each additional if they were dreaming or not.Suggest that you “Google” Tenochtitlan for further details. The only disappointment( although minor) that I encountered in Bernal’s chronological narrative of the Conquest was the section about Pedro de Alvarado( one of Cortes’ officers) and his slaughter of the Aztec priests and supporters during the festival celebrating the horrible-looking Aztec god Huitzilipochtli. This is the principal Aztec god that bloody human sacrifices are offered to. Alvarado’s salughter of the Festival’s Indians was based on panic and dread since they were only a handful of Spaniards (surrounded by thousands of dancing and drum-beating Aztecs) left behind by Cortes to guard the city while he embarked to go to Vera Cruz. Bernal merely touched on that incident. In synopsis, Bernal’s account of the Conquest is so fascinating and exciting that the reader would feel that he/she
is really in the expedition. Sometimes it would seem like a fairy tale but
it is as authentic as any right documentary. By the time Bernal wrote and published his tale, he was about 80 yrs’ ancient but his memory was just as excellent.How can one forget such a remarkable experience of about a handful (about 300 0r 400)Spaniards launching an exploration/expedition against the UNKNOWN to the heart of an Empire ( Aztec Empire)to conquer the territory of a million or more fierce warriors! It is suggested that the reader “google” the conquest of Mexico before reading this book to be more familiar with the Aztec Empire. We are just too saturated with the Roman,Greek,Chinese,Persian,Egyptian or any additional Ancient World Empires. It’s time we become more fascinated by our New World Empires ( Mexico and Peru) which in my opinion are much more fascinating than
the Ancient World…..magnificent unbelievable cities and structures built with human engineering ingenuity and labor WITHOUT the use of wheels, horses or any additional large beasts of burden,etc. After Apocalypto, we marvel why Hollywood is not engaging itself to produce movies about our incredibly incredible New World Empires.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5