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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.
From Booklist
Renowned for his popular works on a series of historical subjects, documentarian Wood turns his attention to the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Retracing the legendary paths of the sixteenth-century conquistadors, he juxtaposes his contemporary journey with the travels and adventures of Cortes, Pizarro, Orellana, and de Vaca. In addition to outlining the destruction of both the Aztec and the Incan empires, he examines the moral, cultural, and spiritual consequences of the European invasion. Accompanied by a series of striking color photographs, the digestible narrative provides a provocative overview of a historical episode that was both magnificent and shameful. Sure to be in demand when PBS airs a four-part companion series. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
New York Times, Arts & Leisure feature story on PBS series
"A good deal of extra history can be found in Mr. Wood's illustrated companion book . . . "
Booklist
"[T]he digestible narrative provides a provocative overview of a historical episode that was both magnificent and shameful."
Publishers Weekly
"With photos, maps and illustrations . . . the book examines records of the conquests both by the invaders and the native peoples . . . "
Houston Chronicle
"A handsome, lucidly written narrative of events that were, for the most part, a triumph of greed, brutality and blood."
Baton Rouge Advocate
"Wood's companion book is a good stand-alone work and doesn't need the television show to be enjoyed."
ForeWord magazine
"This impressively illustrated companion volume to a [PBS] TV series on the destruction of the Aztec and Inca civilizations."
New York Times, Arts & Leisure feature story on PBS series
"A good deal of extra history can be found in Mr. Wood's illustrated companion book."
Houston Chronicle
"A handsome, lucidly written narrative of events that were, for the most part, a triumph of greed, brutality and blood."
Book Description
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. 100 color illustrations, 11 black-and-white illustrations, 5 maps
From the Back Cover
"This is historical narrative of a very high quality. The prose is lucid, the descriptive episodes powerfully drawn. Wood describes fairly and sensitively the vast gulf that separated these Bronze Age [Aztec and Inca] cultures from the Western behemoth that overwhelmed and destroyed them, stressing in particular the near total inability of each society to comprehend the mores and values of the other."-Gene Brucker, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Berkeley
About the Author
Michael Wood has worked as a journalist, broadcaster, and filmmaker, and is author of several highly acclaimed books, including Domesday (1986), In Search of the Dark Ages (1987), Legacy (1995), In Search of the Trojan War (California, 1998), and In Search of England (California, 2000). He has over sixty documentary films to his name, among them Legacy, Saddam's Killing Fields, and In the Footsteps of Alexander The Great, for which he also wrote the accompanying book.
Excerpted from Conquistadors by Michael Wood. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
FROM THE PROLOGUE: Just before 3 a.m., we gulp down several cups of hot coca tea and then each of us carefully packs a ball of coca leaves inthe cheek. Outside the ground is white with frost. It is bitterly cold, and we cram on every available layer of clothing. A deep breath, then on with the rucksack. Hieronymo, the jolly horse-handler, has four helpers to carry the heavy gear, the tripod and boxes, though we have cut the shooting kit down to the minimum. I take the rucksack for my cameras, and soon regret it. Any extra weight becomes a struggle. FROM THE BOOK: The Incas had never seen horses before, and the Spanish, realizing that many of the king's entourage were frightened of the animals, made a deliberately threatening gesture to unnerve them--just as they had done in the first exchanges with Montezuma. Hernando de Soto rode right up, spurring his horse so close to Atahuallpa's face that its breath tousled the crimson tassels on the Inca's royal headband. Atahuallpa, however, was unmoved and unblinking, and ordered those who had panicked to be killed. Such lack of courage was demeaning in the staff of a great king. Atahuallpa knew how to be a king.
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