This one wasn’t even close.
If you like well researched epic adventures, larger than life personalities, timely interdiction of the gods, far away cultures clashing in life and death winner-take-all struggles, unimaginable treasures and riches, and political intrigue involving monarchy’s from one side of the world to the other, well then, have I got the book for you!
Previously, my favorite adventure tales were “Don Quixote” and J.R.R. Tokien’s “The Silmarillon". Whereas Don Quixote was at once a fabulous, incredible and fantastically funny and creative tale, The Silmarillon concerned itself with the history of Middle Earth while setting into motion the eventual backdrop from which “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” would raise their clutch like tentacles upon the imaginations of real earth.
Both tales were fantastically written, proving that the human imagination knows no bounds. But as is always the case, in the final analysis, truth is stranger than fiction. You could not come up with a tale more tragic than “Conquest”, by Hugh Thomas, winner of the 1994 New York Times Editor's Choice Award. Has there ever been a tale with more blood, tragedy, devious maneuvers and destruction? I simply doubt it, or at least hope that such is the case, although I already know that Pizarro and DeSoto probably were responsible for equal or greater numbers of dead and the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World holds greater quantities of blood within her depths. Can we also forget the complete carnage in Belgium's "Congo"? The point is, this tale belongs right up there with the worst of 'em.
To be fair, I supposed one could make the argument that compared to Ghengis Khan, Cortes was Mother Teresa. Ghengis' choice was to summarily surrender all treasures, females and resources, or face the loss of all of the above in addition to the lives of the entire population.. Luckily, this adventure has much more to it than carnage. It also chrnoicles the loss of something that can never be had back.
It is with a peculiar sense of sadness that this tale unfolds. As the Spanish run roughshod over the Aztecs, it's as if we are watching the equivalent of children shredding the only remaining copy of the new testament to make confetti.
The heart of this tale is the fall of The Aztec Ruler, Montezuma, the rise of Hernan Cortes and the end of one of the two last great civilizations in the Americas. In this tale, Hernan Cortes, a rather ordinary Spaniard, seeking wealth, fortune and a name for himself in the new world finds himself plucked from relative obscurity to lead an expedition. Not satified with this, Cortes sets about plans for a grand conquest. He sees his mission as a mandate, and seems to also have a peculiar sense of destiny and focus as he re-cast himself in the role of virtual King of the New World.
Cortes soon proves himself to be a more than able ruler. His ability to lead, deceive, con and strategize reveals a cunning rarely seen in the great rulers of the world, especially since less than a year prior to his expedition, he was little more than another "Jose Blow". Honestly, Cortes was nothing other than the 5th or 6th choice to lead what was supposed to be an exploratory expedition.
Make no mistake; from any angle the fall of the Americas was inevitable. No ruler, no matter how mighty had the wherewithal to defeat the inevitable encroachment of the worlds European powers; however, in Cortes, the Spanish found a man that was able to set that demise into motion a full 10-20years earlier than anyone had the right to hope.
The book itself is a masterpiece of research. The book does not begin with Cortes marching into Tenochtitlan, rather, it begin from the Aztec side, from their own histories with the very first sightings of Spanish ships off of their coast. Apparently Montezuma had premonitions of his own demise, and from the first reports of strange visitors and ships off his coast, he fell headlong into a panic which went unabated until he was finally put out of his pitiful, pathetic misery.
What facts are in support of this account by Hugh Thomas (author of “The Spanish Civil War”) you may ask? To name but a few sources, The Florentine Codex, The documentos Cortesianos and Juicio de residencia of 1524 (numbering 6,000 exhaustive pages on every possible detail of the conquest). Also examined in this book were writings by many of those who took part in the conquest, shoulder to shoulder with Cortes; Fr. Diego Dorian, Fr. Sahugun, Fernando Alvarado Tzozomoc and Fernando Alva Ixthixochitl…. I think you get the point.
The Spanish wrote a lot and the bloodshed by Cortes (as well as the desire to unearth all of the treasures he looted) lead to several official inquiries into his methods and actions. Somehow Hugh Thomas was able to unearth never before found archival treasures to give us a work that supplants the work of William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859), whose work was so comprehensive in sweep that it was used s a field guide by the US. in the Mexican-American war
That notwithstanding, my whole motivation in reading this book sprang forth from one small question. I had read many stories of how Europeans had defeated many a Native tribe, all over the world, from Africa to India, to the New World, to the Philippines. I wondered, how did they communicate with these tribes? How did they seemingly almost immediately upon landing, have capable and dependable translation services? I just couldn’t really get my head around it, so I bought this book.
My question was answered rather quickly, but by then, I was hooked, the translation thing seemed unimportant. The story was simply fascinating.
But to answer how the Spanish were able to get interpreters, what they would do, is land on shore, set out a quick expedition, kidnap a few natives and retreat for several months to a year. In that time, they would force the captives to learn their language, and in turn, question them as to the kingships, cultures, riches, practices, armies, etc, of their native territory. In this way, they gained valuable intelligence about all manner of important detail about heir soon-to-be defeated enemies.
Not only did Cortes have to content with numerous bloody battles with various lordships on the way to his date with destiny at Tenochtitlan, but he also had to battle Spanish authorities who suddenly recognized the vast sums of treasure, and subsequent political power to be doled out to the supreme conquistador (Cortes). ironically, the fact that Cortes had to leave the captive Montezuma with subordinates while he traveled to dispatch his Spanish brethren, is a major precipitator in the tragic events that lead to Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) being razed to the ground.
I cannot re-count the untold number slain, massacred and mutilated by the Spanish. Also, untold numbers of natives were killed by their own native captors in blood sacrifices, as well as by being eaten in cannibalistic ceremonies.
Near the end, the ruthlessness of Cortes, the needless destruction, the cruelty, the genocide and culturicide is incredibly painful to slog through. But by that point, the repercussions of this clash have already stunned you into supplication and acknowledgement that this book and the story it tells, is truly one of the most important tales ever told in the Americas.
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