Conquistador: Cortez, Montezuma, and the last stand of the Aztecs

[GK4Herd]

If you are interested in the history of the Spanish Inconquisition I recommend this book greatly. Hernan Cortez, for all of his greed and brutality was an amazing person. Montezuma presided over an empire that was greater than anything seen in Europe minus steel and horses in my opinion. The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan near present day Mexico City was astonishingly advanced.

This book gives a first hand account of Cortez's conquering of Mexico as seen through first hand accounts by Cortez, Montezuma, the Aztecs, and Spaniards. I think Keep would be interested in the religious aspect of the Aztecs and a glance at their practice if human sacrifice and worshipping of multiple deities.

Make no mistake about it, in spite of their barbaric religious practices, this was an amazing civilization.

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=hqw0oJyzNf0C&source=productsearch&utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&gclid=CIeWjpSs-MMCFQozaQodD7YAuw&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[wvkeeper(HN)]

Jared Diamond has some crazy theories bordering on straight-up racism, but Guns, Germs, and Steel does a good job of showing why Cortez et al were able to take down these large empires largely without much trouble.

 

[HerdandHokies]

I'm about halfway through 1491 right now and I recommend it for anyone not familiar with the Americas before contact. It doesn't go into a ton of detail about any one subject (it's a survey of two entire continents for thousands of years) but it is very informational and easy to read.

 

[GK4Herd]

The germ part of Guns, Germs and Steel was the most important in my opinion. I read part of that book Keep and that will be my next read. But the small pox that swept through the natives both weakened them and robbed them of their leadership. This gave the immune Spaniards the deciding advantage in my opinion. The Aztecs just had such a numerical advantage that without the small pox likely wouldn't have succeeded.

H&H..,is 1492 Netflix? I thought I saw something with the French actor (Gepardeau with hacked spelling?) of that title.

 

[wvkeeper(HN)]

H&H is right. Good book.



Link

 

[HerdandHokies]

Originally posted by wvkeeper(HN):
H&H is right. Good book.

Have you read the follow up, 1493? I need to add to my backlog of history books.


War Before Civilization is a pretty good one too. It's not only focused on the Americas but it ends up largely being focused there due to how much we know about pre-civilization Americas versus pre-civilization Europe.

 

[GK4Herd]

Oops...thought you were talking about a show. Got it now...a book.

 

[wvkeeper(HN)]

Originally posted by HerdandHokies:

Originally posted by wvkeeper(HN):
H&H is right. Good book.

Have you read the follow up, 1493? I need to add to my backlog of history books.


War Before Civilization is a pretty good one too. It's not only focused on the Americas but it ends up largely being focused there due to how much we know about pre-civilization Americas versus pre-civilization Europe.

I have not read that...in my que at Amazon

 

[HerdandHokies]

Actually while we are at it I've got these two in my queue on Amazon. Anybody read either?

The Anglo-Saxons by James Campbell

Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070 by Robin Fleming

 

[wvkeeper(HN)]

Anglo-Saxons was awesome.

Also despite it being historical fiction Bernard Cornwell's "Saxon Tales" is a really good look into pre-1000AD Britain.