Conquest: Brief Book Review
History, from the Beginning (Book #10)
In 2018 I realised my knowledge of history was plain bad. This series charts my re-education, starting from the big bang and working my way to present day one book at a time. (Learn more)
There are moments in history when the future rests on the actions of a small number of people in a select period of time. Where the fate of the world pivots on its axis like a weather vane in a gale. In Hernan Cortez’s case, the wind was not blowing in his favour.
Indeed, Conquest documents one of the most remarkable and unlikely series of events ever to be committed to history. It is also remembered as one of humanity’s greatest tragedies. In it, Hugh Thomas tells of the voyage of ~500 Spanish soldiers led by Hernan Cotrez as they journeyed into the heart of South America’s dominating native empire: the Mexica (remembered today as the Aztecs).
The Mexica were not a primitive people. In fact their capital city of Tenochtitlan, located in present-day Mexico City, was bigger in population than almost any European city of the time. The Mexica boasted a fully functioning mercantile economy, universal education, an organised military, system of law, yearly schedule of religious festivals, art and poetry. Upon entering the city for the first time, Cortez’s men were in “awe”.
This vision of a long-lost civilisation developed in complete isolation from the known world helps underscore the calamitous events that follow. Conquest is a true tale that still remains stranger than fiction.
