The Conquest of New Spain (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Author), John M. Cohen (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: August 30, 1963

Vivid, 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 other treasures, the expulsion and flight of the Spaniards, their regrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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, including for Penguin Classics Montaigne's Essays and Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Product Details

• Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (August 30, 1963)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140441239
• ISBN-13: 978-0140441239
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > History > Europe > Spain
  • #18 in Books > History > Americas > Mexico
  • #27 in Books > History > Americas > South America

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bernal in the eyes of Luis Cardoza y Aragón....., April 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Conquest of New Spain (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Let me share with you one of the most beautiful reveiws of Bernal's epic, writen by the great Guatemalan writer and poet Luis Cardoza y Aragón (from his book "Guatemala: The Lines of Her Palm", translated into English by Michelle Suderman): I started leafing through The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico at my student's desk, at night by lamplight. I skimmed summaries, the odd page, then began my reading in an orderly fashion. Tirelessly, I penetrated further and further into the enchanted forest, mesmerized by the story and by this encounter with my warrior culture, with the conquest. I was entering a distant and fascinating world. I witnessed and experienced the legendary campaign. I saw and heard it. I smelled its odor of iron, gunpowder and tired bodies. I was awed by the descriptions of Tenochtitlan, the markets and Moctezuma's court. The blood looked fresh on the steps of the pyramids. As Humboldt points out, the exhilaration of a newly discovered world is better transmitted by chroniclers than by poets. My first contact with this work was positively prodigious. Exhaustion came after reading for many hours without being able to stop. Captivated by descriptions and memories, I kept going, reading a little more, just a little more. I finally left off when the light of the new day began singing in my window. This is the most comprehensive work on the conquest of America, though it speaks only of New Spain. It contains a wealth of information, and details of all orders, that we do not find in posterior writings on related events-not even adding them together. It was written in Antigua Guatemala, where Díaz del Castillo took up residence in 1545 at the age of forty-nine, and where he died in 1584 after having lived there for about thirty-nine years. He was an old man when he wrote his Discovery and Conquest, nearly half a century after the siege of Mexico Tenochtitlan and the conquest of Guatemala. Bernal Díaz del Castillo's chronicle is the most important and engaging of all, the most truthful and comprehensive account of the conquest of America. He wrote it not only in his quest for truth, to refute the chronicles of Cortés's chaplain, Gómara, and his followers, but out of a need to relive the conquest, out of the same hunger that engendered Don Quixote in Cervantes. Old wounds were opened as he wrote: he himself confesses that he slept with his arms loaded, and that in his old age, he slept fully dressed, accustomed to the exhausting days he spent in Mexico. He was twice conqueror, but the true conquest was the one he carried out seated at his desk, still wearing armor, but no longer wielding the saber.

There are very close ties between this work and the author's life. There was nothing else he could have written. His heart was spilling over with it. Chroniclers would write of the Peru campaigns, campaigns against Turkey, Flanders or Italy, of strangers fighting strangers. Díaz del Castillo wrote about his life and about the land where he placed it at risk countless times. That is what makes his work unique, superior to the writings of historians for the perfect spontaneity of his testimony. He is the unknown soldier, the sweating troops bearing their arms and spoils, walking alongside the chief's mount; through him, they were given a voice, immortality. Pen in hand, he became the great adventurer, with the same fury as when he wielded his sword, with the faith that made his companions envision St James slaughtering Indians in the name of the Lord. He left us the conquest, fresh and bloody, gasping for all eternity.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The soldier's tale, May 16, 2004

By 

events3 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conquest of New Spain (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Governor of Santiago de Guatemala, wrote his account of the conquest of Mexico while an old man because he felt that many of the works concerning the conflict were little more than de facto hagiographies of Hernando Cortes. Considering his feelings regarding the then-published writings of Bartolome de Las Casas, it is probable that he was equally concerned with rebutting the latter's colorful account of the conquest. Diaz's account is straight-forward and without literary pretensions, presenting a pleasing contrast to the smoother narrative of Cortes' letters and the unbridled passion of Las Casas' BRIEF ACCOUNT. In other words, it makes for quite pleasurable and interesting reading!

One of the recurring themes is how the Spaniards are treated by non-Aztecans as they travel toward Mexico City. Many of the states which were more distant from Montezuma's capital were quick to side with the Spaniards in the hopes of throwing off the Mexican yoke and ending their military threat. When the Spaniards appeared to be successful and strong, their allies became more committed to them and when they were shown to be vulnerable their allies began to question the basis of loyalty to the new occupiers. Once the Spaniards gained the upper hand, numerous subject peoples, finding that the Aztecan soldiers were no longer able to rape and plunder them or take their sons & daughters to be sacrificed, began seeking the aid of the Spaniards and providing them with support. Throughout, the Tlascalans were their most powerful and consistent allies (and were quickest to adopt the faith of the apparently powerful Christian divinity).

Arriving at Cholula, a client-state of the Aztecs, the soldiers are nearly massacred and determine to make an example of the Cholulans in order to prevent similar occurrences by others who might be pressed to kill the Spaniards to please Montezuma. Here we see an account which is fairly similar to that of Cortes as provided in his letters (which is not always the case) and which differs markedly from the 2nd- or 3rd-hand account by Las Casas in his BRIEF ACCOUNT. After the leaders who attempted to get rid of the Spanish occupiers were killed (and Cortes was finally able to end the atrocities of his Tlascalan allies), Cortes forced a peace agreement on the Tlascalans and the Cholulans and the populace of the city soon returned. Briefly mentioning Las Casas' BRIEF ACCOUNT, Diaz points out that the Franciscans personally visited the area and determined that Diaz's (and Cortes') account - and not Las Casas' - was consistent with the statements of the natives.

In Mexico City, the Spaniards were treated well as Montezuma and his advisors debated what to do with the newcomers. They were allowed their own place to worship and were fed and clothed by the Mexicans. Finding themselves trapped in the city with an inceasingly hostile population (which had found that the Spaniards were vulnerable) and indications that they were in danger, they took Montezuma into custody. This combined with attempts to force the local populace to conform to less violent religious practices pushed much of the Mexican secular and religious leadership, as well as the populace, into a more hostile mode. Violence escalated, a new leader was chosen by the Aztecs & Montezuma was killed by darts and stones thrown at him and his Spanish captors. The Spaniards manage to escape the city, then return with a large number of allies from the peoples formerly subjected by Montezuma and his recent ancestors. After a violent conflict which severely damaged the once beautiful city of Mexico, the Spaniards win the day. In the process, Cortes privately has the new Aztec leader, Guatomoc tortured to give up his treasury (which Cortes wants to keep largely for himself).

This informative and fairly dispassionate account of the conquest is gritty, realistic and deliberately shows the best and the worst of the Spaniards, the Aztecs and the subjected peoples who saw the coming of the Spaniards as a means of liberation from Aztec oppression.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and Compelling, February 19, 2001

By 

Gerald Ford "pho_kin" (The Jack n' the Box at the corner) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conquest of New Spain (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading this book for several reasons. Generally Bernal Diaz has been criticized for his bias in writing about what happened in the conquest of New Spain. However, on closer inspection, you find that he is genuine is his feelings and attitude about the events. He is not the most eloquent writer (afterall he is a soldier, and nearly 80 when writing), but he just writes what he saw.

Anyhow, in regards to the format of this book, I think Penguin did a good job editing the sections and summarizing the sections that detracted from the story. What you are left with are the essential parts of Bernal Diaz's text, and with it, and exciting story of a small band of Conquistadors who took on a huge empire and won.

I felt that I also learned a great deal about the Aztecs themselves from this book. Bernal, when writing, was very attendant to detail, and really painted a fascinating picture of a culture entirely seperate from the Old World, but no less grand.

I definitely recommend this book. There is simply no better way to find out what happened when Spain came to the New World than from the eyes of a Conquistador who was there.