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Title details for Conquistadores by Fernando Cervantes - Available

Conquistadores

A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest

by Fernando Cervantes
Luis Soto
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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A sweeping, authoritative history of 16th-century Spain and its legendary conquistadors, whose ambitious and morally contradictory campaigns propelled a small European kingdom to become one of the formidable empires in the world
 
“The depth of research in this book is astonishing, but even more impressive is the analytical skill Cervantes applies. . . . [He] conveys complex arguments in delightfully simple language, and most importantly knows how to tell a good story.” —The Times (London)
 
Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus's first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most powerful civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers that took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. But centuries later, these conquistadors have become the stuff of nightmares. In their own time, they were glorified as heroic adventurers, spreading Christian culture and helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. Today, they stand condemned for their cruelty and exploitation as men who decimated ancient civilizations and carried out horrific atrocities in their pursuit of gold and glory.
 
In Conquistadores, acclaimed Mexican historian Fernando Cervantes—himself a descendent of one of the conquistadors—cuts through the layers of myth and fiction to help us better understand the context that gave rise to the conquistadors' actions. Drawing upon previously untapped primary sources that include diaries, letters, chronicles, and polemical treatises, Cervantes immerses us in the late-medieval, imperialist, religious world of 16th-century Spain, a world as unfamiliar to us as the Indigenous peoples of the New World were to the conquistadors themselves. His thought-provoking, illuminating account reframes the story of the Spanish conquest of the New World and the half-century that irrevocably altered the course of history.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 14, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593289105
      • File size: 436037 KB
      • Duration: 15:08:24

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Actor Luis Soto excels in this new, scrupulously researched history of the Spanish discovery and conquest of the Americas, a complex story with many linguistic and listening challenges. Once treated as romantic and valorous, the Spanish conquistadores are more recently seen as rapacious and genocidal, their adventures a shameful episode in imperialist greed. Author Fernando Cervantes weighs a range of elements--religious, geopolitical, individual--for a narrative crowded with early European and Indigenous American people and place names. Soto rolls through these thickets with an ease and grace that are truly impressive, and wonderful to hear. But some listeners may get lost in a bewildering profusion of unfamiliar syllables. Still, the essence of the story is perfectly clear, and once heard, impossible to forget. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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