Customer Reviews

Conquistadors

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

This was the book that really ignited my passion and interest in New World exploration. Woods combines contemporary quotes and descriptions with his own modern-day journeys in detailing the adventures of four seminal Spanish explorers - Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizzaro, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, and Francisco Orellana.

This book was written as a companion piece to Woods' PBS documentary, but it stands alone fine without the video. While recounting the adventurers and their adventures, Woods (and his crew) follow parts of their routes and finds connections with each journey.

While this device isn't all that unique, it provides a very modern connection with these distant stories. It's a reminder that these events didn't actually occur very far away in either time or place. He blends the historical with the modern and all of the stories read very smoothly. Accompanying each tale are a series of color images - historical artwork, as well as photos from the trips that followed in the footsteps of these conquerers.

The book isn't intended to dive deeply into each adventure. But the detail is more than adequate and certainly whetted my desire to learn more.

I highly recommend this book.

This is an extremely well-written book that gives a cursory history of the Spanish conquest of Latin America. We read of the fall of the Aztecs and the Incas, as well as other trips of discovery undertaken by the Spanish explorers in the early part of the 16th century. The book is too short to give a detailed discussion of each of these events, but it does "hit the highlights", as it were. For anyone interested in further reading or study, there are a multitude of works available, but for the casual reader, this is an excellent introduction to what may be considered the beginnings of Europen-style civilization on this continent.

when i read the first chapter, i was like WOW!!! i was amazed at how deeply detailed Michael Wood wrote this.. it has alot of information on the conquistadors also the natives.

This was a well written and very informative book. It covers the travels of four of the most prominent adventurers of the 16th century-- Cortes, Pizaro, Orellano and Cabeza de Vaca-- conquistadors whose exploits would be almost incredible, if not backed and fully documented in the history of the Americas. The book is well illustrated and is certainly not in the typical genre of a history text. As a matter of fact, it incorporates a sense of travelogue and unusual feeling of reality, because author Michael Wood actually retraces the steps of the gentlemen he writes about. The scenes are vividly described (and often illustrated) as Wood makes many discoveries himself. The book was later created as a PBS video.

As you read this book, you can imagine it being Michael Wood's speaking script for his TV program.

As well as the stories you would expect about Cortes & Pizarro, I was pleasantly surprised to read of 2 explorers I'd never heard of - Orellana & de Vaca - which made this different to many other books of the same theme.

Conquistadors by Michael Wood is the companion book to the BBC/PBS series of the same name. This is a wonderful book and one which changed my way of thinking about the place of Columbus and those who followed him to North and South America.

From the guile and brutal pragmatism of Cortez to the 16th century equivilant of The Sopranos found in the Pizarro family Wood paints a detailed, exciting, and mostly sad picture of Spain's conquest of the New World. But, the reader will be moved by the bravery of Orellana, he who first navigated fully the Amazon River. And even more moving is the shipwreck, travels, and discovery of our common humanity in the adventures of de Vaca.

In this book you will read the good and the bad. You will also come to the conclusion, as I did, that the English and French incursions into North America pale compared to what the Spanish did and accomplished, for good and bad, in the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, Central America and South America. And like the last Conquistador you will conclude that the Spanish conquest of America was indeed a crime against humanity. This book contains great photographs and wonderful descriptive commentary by the author. It is a must for every history lovers library and should be in every American school.

In this latest work on the Spanish conquistadors, an adaptation from the BBC television series, by Michael Wood, we have a whole new aspect of how the conquistadors behaved with their control over the New World.

It is almost as if Wood had once been a conquistador himself, as he retells of those brave soldiers walking in this alien terrain and fighting for their lives in an effort to civilize (or ethnically cleanse, perhaps?) those savage Indians who don't know better. While this may come as a shock to some, from a historical and even cultural aspect, the readers gets an entire one-sided view of what the conquistadors thought of the Indians.

This glossy book, full of color photos, drawings and paintings, as well as an in-depth index, represents a useful historical source for anyone's rich library, especially if they have a viewpoint in any way similar to Woods.

Originally published on November 12th 2001.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.

For over 500 book reviews and exclusive author interviews, go to [...]