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Cortes and Diaz, Saints or Savages: The Truth About Their Search For Gold, God And Glory
Paperback
General World HistoryMexican History
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ISBN13: 9798189725913
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 29 2026
Pages: 154
Weight: 0.47
Height: 0.36 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 29 2026
Pages: 154
Weight: 0.47
Height: 0.36 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Two men crossed into Mesoamerica in search of gold, God and glory. One became the celebrated architect of conquest. The other became the eyewitness determined to stop him taking all the credit.
Hernan Cortes and Bernal Diaz del Castillo helped bring down the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan and open the way for Spanish rule. Yet the familiar story of a tiny European force defeating a mighty empire hides a more complicated reality: indigenous alliances, local rivalries, translators, coercion, faith, ambition and calculated violence all shaped the outcome.
Hernan Cortes and Bernal Diaz del Castillo helped bring down the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan and open the way for Spanish rule. Yet the familiar story of a tiny European force defeating a mighty empire hides a more complicated reality: indigenous alliances, local rivalries, translators, coercion, faith, ambition and calculated violence all shaped the outcome.
Cortes and Diaz, Saints or Savages asks the question at the heart of their legacy. Did the conquistadors bring law, Christianity and a new political order - or did they use those ideals to legitimise plunder, massacre and domination?
Andrew Waldron follows the campaign from the culture of imperial Spain and the first encounters on the coast to Tlaxcala, Cholula, Moctezuma, the siege of Tenochtitlan and the colonial system that followed. Along the way, he examines Cortes as strategist and self-made commander, Diaz as participant and unreliable witness, and the indigenous peoples whose choices made conquest possible without making its consequences just.
Accessible, questioning and morally serious, this is a history of conquest without easy heroes or convenient villains. It is for readers interested in the Mexica and Maya worlds, the Spanish Empire, indigenous resistance, early modern warfare and the uneasy relationship between civilisation and brutality.
Andrew Waldron follows the campaign from the culture of imperial Spain and the first encounters on the coast to Tlaxcala, Cholula, Moctezuma, the siege of Tenochtitlan and the colonial system that followed. Along the way, he examines Cortes as strategist and self-made commander, Diaz as participant and unreliable witness, and the indigenous peoples whose choices made conquest possible without making its consequences just.
Accessible, questioning and morally serious, this is a history of conquest without easy heroes or convenient villains. It is for readers interested in the Mexica and Maya worlds, the Spanish Empire, indigenous resistance, early modern warfare and the uneasy relationship between civilisation and brutality.
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