Conquistadors [Hardcover]

Michael Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

Following in the footsteps of the greatest Spanish adventurers, Michael Wood retraces the path of the conquistadors from Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, and from the deserts of North Mexico to the heights of Machu Picchu. As he travels the same routes as Hernán Cortés, and Francisco and Gonzalo Pizarro, Wood describes the dramatic events that accompanied the epic sixteenth-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires. He also follows parts of Orellana's extraordinary voyage of discovery down the Amazon and of Cabeza de Vaca's arduous journey across America to the Pacific. Few stories in history match these conquests for sheer drama, endurance, and distances covered, and Wood's gripping narrative brings them fully to life.
Wood reconstructs both sides of the conquest, drawing from sources such as Bernal Diaz's eyewitness account, Cortés's own letters, and the Aztec texts recorded not long after the fall of Mexico. Wood's evocative story of his own journey makes a compelling connection with the sixteenth-century world as he relates the present-day customs, rituals, and oral traditions of the people he meets. He offers powerful descriptions of the rivers, mountains, and ruins he encounters on his trip, comparing what he has seen and experienced with the historical record. A wealth of stunning photographs support the text, drawing the reader closer to the land and its people.
As well as being one of the pivotal events in history, the Spanish conquest of the Americas was one of the most cruel and devastating. Wood grapples with the moral legacy of the European invasion and with the implications of an episode in history that swept away civilizations, religions, and ways of life. The stories in Conquistadors are not only of conquest, heroism, and greed, but of changes in the way we see the world, history and civilization, justice and human rights.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

First the Trojan War, then the eras of Alexander the Great and King Arthur. Now, in this companion volume to the BBC/PBS television series, the indefatigable writer-filmmaker Michael Wood turns his lens and pen on the restless, sometimes homicidal men who established Spain's empire in the Americas.

"The conquest opened up the world," Wood writes, "marking the beginnings of a globalization which was not only commercial, but also ideological and philosophical, a remaking of mental horizons no less than a redrawing of physical geography." Grand themes all, but Wood is less interested in sweeping statements than in exploring the particular circumstances surrounding the careers of Spain's freebooter-warriors. Following in their footsteps, Wood takes his readers first to the dusty, bleak Spanish province of Estremadura, which gave rise to a remarkable generation of conquerors, hungry for land and wealth and well schooled in the arts of war. One of those men, Hernán Cortés, was also schooled in law--or so his contemporaries thought--and he was able to turn a talent for fighting and learned disputation into a great personal fortune made first in Cuba, then in Mexico, which he won not so much with weaponry but with great cunning. Another, Francisco Pizarro--a distant cousin of Cortés--recruited a semiprivate army to capture the great Inca empire, relying on force more than guile. Wood also follows the paths of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and Francisco Orellana, accidental wanderers who helped open the interiors of North and South America to conquest. His latter-day, low-tech journeys underscore the difficulties the conquistadors faced in their time, and they help readers appreciate the sheer scale of their often bloody achievements. The story of the conquest, Wood writes, "never wearies in the retelling," and he proves it in this accessible, literate, and lively book. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

In Conquistadors, journalist and filmmaker Michael Wood (In Search of the Trojan War) travels the routes of the Spanish explorers and conquerors (and often by the same means, including a homemade balsa raft on Coca River rapids) the length and breadth of South and Central America and some of North America as well. With photos, maps and illustrations adorning nearly every page, the book examines records of the conquests both by the invaders and the native peoples. A 1613 letter from Peruvian historian Waman Poma to the king of Spain appealing for humane treatment of Indians, Gonzalo Pizarro's catalogue of the infamous El Dorado misadventures, Cabeza de Vaca's account of crossing North America and Geronimo de Aguilar's diary of the Night of Tears (when Aztecs fought back and killed 600 Spaniards) are among the numerous firsthand accounts Wood presents. (Univ. of California, $27.50 288p ISBN 0-520-23064-7)

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; Illustrated. edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520230647
• ISBN-13: 978-0520230644
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,042,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trekking the paths of the Conquistadors, January 9, 2002

By 

Jonathon Flegg (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conquistadors (Hardcover)

This exciting and well illustrated read traces the incredible expeditions of some of the most famous Spainish Conquistadors. Michael Woods travels along the tropical Amazon and to Everglades of Florida in search of the original route of the likes of Cortez and Pizarro. But this is not just an adventure story but also an accurate conveyance of history and the personalities of the time. He also manages to discuss the history on a thematic level - approaching issues such as human rights and colonialism. The illustrations are beautiful and add to the sense of wonder first experienced when viewed for the first time from European eyes.

5 stars - thoroughly worth purchasing for any history buff!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, August 17, 2001

By 

Timothy Perkins (Rockwall, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Conquistadors (Hardcover)

I fully expected this to be another dry, somnolent history book. Was I ever wrong! Michael Wood has written a conversational account of some of the most gripping yet unreported events in this hemisphere. Trust me on this: you will love his style and his expertise. Wood puts you in the mind of Cortes, Pizarro, and de Vaca and passionately paints the history created by these men. This book will make you want to walk in their footsteps.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Fortune favors the bold" Virgil (70-19 BC), July 1, 2005

By 

Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Conquistadors (Paperback)

Some books you read and toss; others you read and give away; and then others you read & keep, This is a book you will read & keep.

Michael Wood has captured the history of the sixteenth century conquest of the Aztecs (Mexico) by Hernan Cortez, and conquest of the Incas (Equador to Chile) by Francisco Pizarro. This is not history for the faint of heart. Michael Wood writes critically about both Cortez and Pizarro. He discredits the false bravado that is so often built around the Conquistadors.

For Wood the Pizarro clan (Francisco and his three half-brothers) were nothing more than "ruthless opportunists" who blatantly butchered, tortured, raped, and destroyed the Inca civilization in the name of the King Charles V and militant Catholicism. His commentary about Cortes was not much better. Wood takes space to give the reader a glimpse into the pathology of both Cortes and Pizzaro. It is a psychological nibble and one wishes for more. For both men were psychopaths and considered the gold rich Aztecs and Incas as undeserving of any human rights, and no more than subhuman heathens.

Wood captures the historical side of the Aztec and the Inca - soul-rending . The vanquished were filled with despair and dread, for they saw only an insatiable hunger for gold and women in the conquistadors' souls. They watched the rape and murder of their people under the shadow of the crucifix. In reality Cortes, Pizarro and their colleagues committed nothing short of genocide. When you read Wood's historical account of the conquistador, these men make the war atrocities of the 20th century pale in comparison.

But, there are two judgements that history has passed on these Conquistadors. The first judgement is in regards to their inhuman treatment of the Inca's and Aztecs. The second judgement is regarding them as warriors. These Conquistadors were: bold, courageous, fanatical fighters. They were, on all accounts, superior tacticians. They had state-of-the-art steel swords and armor, horses (mobility) and fearful weapons (harquebus & mechanical crossbows) and knew how to use them. In reality, the Spanish were the greatest soldiers of their age; for a century and a half no Spanish army was ever defeated in pitched battle. And, in the history of war, never have so few conquered so much, so fast. It stuns one to consider that Spaniards were out numbered by perhaps a 1000 to 1 (in the case of Pizzaro). How could Pizarro (or Cortez) conquer vast empires with a small band of Spanish soldiers? The ethno-historian Nigel Davies stated best in his book, `The Inca', "These men thrived on adversity and always displayed an absolute resolve to retain the initiative."

Wood also writes about Orellana's two year voyage from Quito, down the Amazon, and Cabeza de Vaca's eight year journey to Mexico City. Nearly every page has photos, maps and illustrations and the bibliography lists key books, including Indian narratives. This is a must read for anyone traveling to Mexico, Equador or especially Peru, and especially for students of Latin America. Highly recommended.