Customer Reviews

Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

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4 star:		(7)
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2 star:		(1)
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In a letter quoted by Buddy Levy in his magnificent Conquistador, Hernan Cortes confesses that he and his men suffer from a particular "disease of the heart": a lust for gold and power. The tale of the unhappy outcome of that disease, the destruction of one of the New World's mightiest empires in an astoundingly short time by an astoundingly small handful of adventurers, is the most apparent storyline in Conquistador. Levy tells it with eloquence and accuracy.

But there's another storyline in the book that I find just as fascinating. The disease of the heart which afflicted Cortes and his men also troubled Montezuma, for the Aztec Empire, despite its achievements in science and art, was also a bloodthirsty machine that subjugated native peoples, sacrified tens of thousands to pitiless gods, and created caste systems in which the many were ground under the feet of the few. What Levy gives us, then, is a double portrait of two invalids suffering from similar illnesses. One, a European captain with fewer than 500 men, the other a divine emperor with life-or-death power over 15 million people. In the end, both of them died from their diseases, Montezuma and his empire literally, Cortes morally and (despite his sporadic religious zealotry) spiritually. Curiously, neither of them seemed to have quite the necessary stamina to survive their illness.

In telling the story of the clash between these two men, Levy explores the tactics by which Cortes managed to defeat Montezuma: a combination of bluster, good luck, superior technology, alliances with disgruntled indigenous peoples, and hard fighting. His description of La Noche Triste, the night in which Cortes and his men were forced out of the royal city of Tenochtitlan by rallying Aztecs and nearly destroyed, is surpassed only by his account of the 2-month siege that retook and destroyed the city. (Cortes, for example, dug a one-mile canal to launch battle ships in the lake surrounding Tenochtitlan. Over 200,000 Aztecs, including Montezuma, perished in the resulting fight, which Levy describes with the gusto of Homer's account of the fall of Troy.) Afterwards, Cortes built his palace on the ruins of Montezuma's.

The relationship between Montezuma and Cortes has always been a strange one, with both men appearing both attracted and repulsed by the other. Levy suggests that part of the ambivalence may've been because Montezuma, overpowered by the splendor of the invaders, fell victim to the Stockholm Syndrome (a sense of loyalty to one's oppressors). It's a fascinating suggestion.

All in all, a splendid book that combines historical narrative with much insight about how diseases of the heart can bring down both individuals and empires. Something to think about.

The book is well written and it is a readable account of the Conquest of the Mexica empire. Unfortunately, in my opinion the author fails to situate the episode in its temporal and cultural context; it feels more like an adventure story than history. It is also full of innacuracies, which suggest that the author is only superficially familiar with its topic. For example, Levy writes that the ancient city of Tula is located in what is today Mexico City, when in reality is in the state of Hidalgo, some 40 miles away. We are also told that Nahuatl was a Maya language, when in fact it belongs to a different language family altoghether.
In my opinion, Hugh Thomas' account Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico is a far superior piece, succeding in giving a better feel of the clash of two completely different worlds, with the main characters far better placed in their temporal and cultural context.

Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs by Buddy Levy. 448 pages. 2008.

The Conquest of Mexico was not a single event, it was not the result of disease, treachery, technology, or evil it was a long two year slog of battles won and battles lost. Too often the events surrounding the Conquest are simplified to issues of technology or disease and to a demonizing of the Spaniards. The reality is of course more nuanced and the simplification denigrates all sides.

This book does an admirable job of introducing the History and some of the issues related to the Conquest in an honest way. It draws on sources from all sides, including modern research and legacy studies. It presents the events in a complete enough narrative to tell the story with out getting bogged down in the details, some of which can be quite gory.

There are many other books available on this same topic but they tend to be one-sided or focused n on a single topic. When for instance a writer tries to make the case that Spanish victory was predicated on superior technology the writer would denigrate Spanish tactics, Aztec adaptations to technology and tactics. The focal point of this book is on the two leaders, Cortes and Montezuma.

The image of Cortes presented is a fairly complete image. This image may very well surprise many casual readers. Cortes was a real person and defies simple demonizing. He was physically very brave almost to the point of abject recklessness. The travail he endured is astounding. Cortes did not win every battle he presided over the long retreat from Mexico City and he proved capable of learning and adapting to the methods and abilities of his opponents. This natural military ability is something that is often overlooked in rash judgments which focus on technology or disease. The simple truth is that the majority of Cortés's forces were not Spanish they were locals. The gaining of local support speaks to another side of Cortes which gets overlooked and that is his diplomatic skills. His ability to discern fissures in the Aztec world and exploit them, creating a unified force of opposition, a coalition of the willing. We also see the darker side of Cortes, the side we are more apt to be familiar with the earnest religious zealot and the gold hungry adventurer.

The Aztec ruler is also fleshed out and we meet a troubled man at the height of his powers who has been a priest and a successful warrior. He is in church of a society built up on the shoulders of a triple federation, tribute, fear, and faith. Too often we get a glamorized image of the Aztecs, the kind that is popular in Mexico today ... which is often far from the truth.

This book ends really with the birth of a son to Cortes and to his native interpreter mistress. In a way this is fitting as there in lays the creation of modern Mexico a blend of two civilizations moving forward together.

All told this book is an excellent introduction the casual reader and beginning scholar of a story which seems at times more fiction then truth, but which really happened

This book covers the Cortes expedition, from the landing along the coast through the destruction of the Aztec capital, with a short wrap up of the featured players. I was glad that the author resisted the temptation to go on and on. He found his ending point and took it. For those wanting more, there is extra information about the important characters and chronologies in several appendices at the end.

Levy writes in a readable style that is befitting the book's popular audience. It is a narrative account more than academic treatise. Although Montezuma gets equal billing in the title, the book is largely written from Cortes' point of view. No doubt his person is better sourced, but it is also a choice of the author. It is Cortes who drives the action, landing in a foreign land basically on the run from the authority in Cuba. His courage, determination, diplomacy, and charisma gathers native allies and even Spaniards sent to arrest him. The encounter with Montezuma is almost anti-climatic, as he is an almost passive character once in Cortes' presence. Once he is off stage the real resistance begins and the Last Stand of the Aztecs arrives and is recounted with a keen eye towards explaining tactics and narrating battles, without bogging down in the details.

If I liked this book, why am I not giving it more stars? One reason is that there are a few scenes and characters that cry out for more detailed explanations or musings -- such as the passivity of Montezuma or the politics and motivations of Cortes' native allies. I appreciate the author's readable style and modest length, but some key points suffer from his relative brevity. A related issue is the relative lack of discussion of dissenting views or scholarly disputes. This may add to the readability of the book, but at perhaps too high a price.

Another reason is the curious tendency of the author to employ a judgmental tone towards Cortes while explaining away the gruesome practices of human sacrifice, cannibalism, and skinning (and wearing human skins) that was at the center of Aztec religion and culture. By their own accounts, the Aztecs could sacrifice tens of thousands of human beings during one religious festival. Many of the victims were infants, children, and women. The Aztecs required tribute of human sacrifice victims from the peoples it conquered. Their hearts were cut from their living bodies and shown to the victim. To get a dramatized portrait of how this might have looked, check out the sacrificial scene from Apocalypto.

Cortes, understandably, was horrified by this and no doubt used these practices to justify his own conquest and domination of the natives. It strikes me as overcompensation, however, for the author to devote a lengthy footnote to the "hypocrisy" of Cortes which "cannot be overlooked or overstated" because of Spanish practices of the Reconquest and the Inquisition. Perhaps I am not as able to escape my Western perspective, but comparisons of tens of thousands of human sacrifices a year, including infants and children, versus an Inquisition that may have committed around 3,000 sanctioned murders over 150 or so years seems misplaced.

The comparison is especially interesting given the author's more nuanced understanding of ritual human sacrifice on what is likely the largest scale in human history. Take this passage as an example, "After his priests sacrificed a dozen children, believing that the survival of the universe depended on them, Montezuma would kneel before flickering firelight and pray for vision, for truth." Notably, up to this point, the author had reminded his audience several times that the Aztecs justified their human sacrifices as being required by the gods for the sun to come up, the rains to come, and the harvests to be successful. Setting aside for the moment the fact that the Spanish Inquisitors where no doubt just as sure they were doing God's bidding, dropping this "reminder" just after a very unpleasant fact associated with the Aztec religion comes across as misplaced excuse making. In short, there is a double standard of "cultural context" which condemns the West but absolves others.

"Conquistador" reads like a science-fiction novel: two vastly different cultures, completely ignorant of each others' existence, clash in one of the most fascinating conflicts in human history.

Levy writes with the gusto of a great swashbuckling epic, going into vivid detail of each battle and tense meetings of the two sides, while taking care to keep the facts straight. Cortes is lauded as a genius in both military and, more impressively, psychological warfare against the Aztecs, yet criticized for his religious zealotry and moments of shocking cruelty. Montezuma and his followers are depicted not as primitive jungle people, but as a highly advanced civilization commanding their empire from the beautiful Technotitlan (at the time, the most populated city on the planet) who were nonetheless overcome by the deadly triumvirate of horses, smallpox, and firearms.

This book makes for a fantastic companion piece to "Guns, Germs and Steel"; where that landmark book explains *why* the civilizations of the Americas were at an inherent disadvantage to Eurasian civilizations, this book shows us the results of millenia of separate cultural evolutions.

Or, in short, why the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, when if only a few variables had been different, the opposite could well have happened.

First, Conquistador is well-written and moves at a good pace. It provides sufficient amount of information for an introduction to this subject, and if you're interest is piqued, you can explore other, more in-depth sources.

The book is even-handed and not some P.C. 'look what the evil Europeans did to the peaceful and gentle Native Americans.' The Spanish atrocities are documented along with the Aztecs' relentless sacrificing of humans. As the Aztecs heavily taxed tribes and demanded sacrficial victims, it's no wonder so many alligned with Cortes.

Truth be told, I came away from this book with respect and I'll go ahead and say it - an admiration for Hernan Cortes. The way he outmaneuvered not only the Aztecs and their Native American enemies and allies, but also his Spanish rivals in the New World is truly remarkable. He didn't conquer Mexico just because smallpox wiped out many of the Aztecs. The way Cortes used combined forces of calvary, cross-bowmen, harquebusiers and even boats in conjunction with Native American allies would've impressed military planners of today. In fact, they would do well to study not only his military tactics, but also the way he used bribes and manipulation in dealing with the native population.

Whatever you think about Cortes, this book serves as a great telling of what he did and how he did it.

This is an extremely interesting book! I read nearly half of it in one sitting. Although most of the book focuses on the actions of the Spanish (hence the title), the author gives both the Spanish and the Aztecs fair treatment in terms of not villifying or glorifying either side. The story of the conquest of Mexico is related in a very comprehensive, informative, and readable way. Be warned, however, that this book does give some rather detailed descriptions of violence and human sacriface, so you may want to stear clear of this one if you're sqeumish about reading that sort of thing. The book is well referenced, and provides an abundance of suggestions for further reading.

I had a hard time putting this book down, often reading when I should have been sleeping. The clash of these two cultures is historic in its time. Buddy Levy informs the reader, chronicling daily hardship and violent battles with meticulous detail. This book sparked my interest in the subject. I truly enjoyed it.

"Men of God and men of war have strange affinities" Levy quotes Cormac McCarthy at the outset of this fascinating narrative of Hernàn Cortés and Montezuma. The quote could hardly be more appropriate, since both men were undoubtedly, each in their own way, exactly that: men of war and men of God. It makes for a heady mix: Cortés a pious Spaniard who unhesitatingly committed mass murder, Montezuma the absolute ruler of an empire both capable of civil achievements and horrendous human sacrifice. The author's achievement is to relate the chain of events in a fascinating, eyewitness-quality way that leaves the reader marvelling at the audacity, ruthlessness and uncanny luck of the Gran Conquistador, whose character gave me the shivers, even while I found it impossible not to admire his competence. Cortés was his own man who made his own decisions, while Montezuma, for all his power, looked to me a prisoner of his elevated position, his advisors, his high priests and his gods. He certainly made the tragic mistake of not being as ruthless from the start as his opponent was, every moment of every day. This is a most enjoyable book, a great read even for those familiar with the story of the Spanish conquests in the Americas. It is also mercifully free of irritating references to future, unrelated events, of the kind that Michael Wood so liberally sprinkles his book 'Conquistadors' with, even going so far as to label them the precursors of today's economic globalisation. Buddy Levy is not guilty of any opinion-mongering: he leaves the reader to make up his own mind. It's very respectful of him, and I respect him the more for it.

Loved this book!!!! I couldn't put it down from page 1. If you like history, you will love this book.