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, Cortes, 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 ...
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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, Cortes, 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. Restall also shows that the Spanish Conquest relied heavily on black and native allies, who provided many thousands of fighters, vastly outnumbering the conquistadors. In fact, the native perception of the Conquest differed sharply from the Spanish version-they saw it as a native civil war in which the Spaniards played an important but secondary role. 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.
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Add this copy of Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest to cart. $19.31, good condition, Sold by BooksRun rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Oxford University Press.
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Add this copy of Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest to cart. $94.76, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Oxford University Press.
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Add this copy of Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest to cart. $44.50, good condition, Sold by Austin Book Shop LLC rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Richmond Hill, NY, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Oxford.
Restall's book, "Seven myths of the Spanish Conquest," is very useful in getting rid of all the pseudo-scholarly ideas about the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. I grew up in that country and found the Conquest as presented in a conservative school system incomprehensible. Many years down the road I began to collect books and try to make sense out of this historical fact. Restall's book was a brightly burning light as he exploded myth after myth. Cortés as the exceptional man (my reading of history classified him as an extraordinarly manipulative man and one lacking both conscious and consistency.) Restall explains Cortés deeds in such a way that they make sense in the greater historical context. He proceeds to explode the myth of the King's Army (Conquistadores), the "White" conquistador (somehow white skin makes one better or maybe a god?) The myth of completion... no, the Conquest did not take place in two years... the Mayab and northern mexico were not conquered until the 1800 and 1930 respectively (that's the Nayares for those who wonder), and the myth of Malinche as a communicator or mis-communicator. With the help of this book I came to a much better understanding of the mechanisms and the importance and lack thereof of the many players in the conquest.
