Conquistadors Kindle Edition

I really enjoyed this book. In contains descriptions of the campaigns of Cortes (Aztec/Mexico), Pizarro(s) (Inca/Peru), Orellana (Amazon river exploration), and Cabeza de Vaca. It includes views from both the conquistadors and the native americans which they encountered and sometimes slaughtered. It also includes a travel log of "following in the footsteps" of the conquistadors, with excellent (atmospheric) descriptions of the locales and what happened there. I especially found the section of Cabeza de Vaca interesting. Shipwrecked, he went native over a period of years, then managed to make his way back to a spanish settlement. He first encountered a spanish slaver, and tried to intercede on the side of the natives. Originally a conquistador/colonist himself, as the book says, he was about to meet his old self (the spanish slavers). An excellent book - I really enjoyed it.

If you are like me and have always wanted to know how a small group of men subdued such civilizations with their armies that numbered in the thousands then this is a great read for you. The ability, even today, to capture and hold the leader of any country, and bend them to your will is perhaps a great lesson. The raping of a people and a country to bring the material wealth back to the country, perhaps in my lifetime WWII , with the Japanese invading China and Korea, is the closest example I can think. And that is exactly what this book does to anyone reading it. It makes you think and feel. Excellent and well done.

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.

This book is a great treatise on a few of the best known conquistadors. Giving a great wealth of information but concisely, without all that extra baggage of needless minute details that bog down a good biography. VERY well written.Do not be fooled by the narrow-mindedness of the few that badmouthed this great book. Wood treats the subject of the Spaniard's incredible cruelty towards the natives in total objectivity, in fact it should have gone into more detail of the inhumane barbarism perpetrated by the Conquistadores in this sad period of history, read Las Casas and you'll understand. It was pure genocide with unbelievable torture and suffering.But the book also covers Cabeza deVaca, the only conquistador that was truly a Christian, and realized the Indians were human beings and deserved humane and equal treatment... so much so that he, later on, actually put his own life in jeopardy in their protection from other conquistadors. I'm of direct Spanish descent, so I have no axe-to-grind here, just straight-forward honesty about a very dark period in history of some vey brave, but evil men.I've read MUCH on the subject, and loved this book.

What drove the conquistadores? What was the state of the civilizations they found in what was called the new world? How did the indigenous people react to meeting others they had no idea existed? This is an amazing read into the history of the 16th century. If you can get the audio version that is a great listen on a long trip.

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.

I LOVED this book.. It's one of the best ever about the Spanish conquistadors. The knowlegde and obvious love the writer has for the subject shows on every single page. It's almost like a Lonley Planet guide combined with a James Clavell epic, since the writer traces the expedition of Fransico Pizarro and his conquistadors in Colombia, Equador and Peru mainly. What a fantastic book! If you want to broaden your knowledge on what the most famous conquistadors did, I highly recommended this absolute stunning page turner! 5 stars, I wish I could give even more than that.

OMG!!! I can read a hundred books about this subject. The Mexica culture in its self is massively fascinating. And then you got a bunch of smelly post-reconcquista Spaniards that stumble upon a new continent while being superiorly armed. Sadly they collectively suffer from this terrible gold-fever. And then as icing on top there are these spectacular divisive characters , Cortes in particular .. he is so badass!!, one wouldn’t have conjured it up. But also the side characters in the shape of Moctezuma, Bernal Diaz and Malinche - its almost too rich. And the story doesn’t stop there as the next part of the book takes you to the lesser-known story/adventure of Pizarro’s journey into the Inca empire and down the Amazon.What can I say? all the tragedy, the scheming the boldness, the suffering..Legend.

“… if all the snow turned to gold and silver it would not satisfy them.”Michael Wood’s book to accompany his TV series on the conquistadores is up to his usual high standards. This is a review of the original hardback edition of 2000, fully illustrated in colour. (If previous experience still applies, those wanting to buy Wood’s book would do well to consider buying a good second-hand copy of the fully-illustrated hardback edition rather than a new paperback edition that is short on illustrations.)Wood’s book consists of a prologue, six chapters, and an epilogue. In his prologue he writes, when witnessing a pre-Spanish ceremony that has survived, how “In history there is no going back – and blame or regret are pointless. All we can do is try to understand.” Later he will write that, “How to see the Other is at the heart of our story.” (Note the use of the word ‘our’: Wood, like Simon Schama, is one of those writer-presenters who, rather than lecture to the audience, attempts to bring them along into the heart of their journeys.)As in the episodes of the TV series, each chapter is devoted to an individual conquistador. First up is Cortes, who takes up the first two chapters. Wood follows in Cortes’s footsteps in his conquest of the Mexican Aztecs, but this is only a very small part of his telling the wider story. Wood critically weights the evidence of differing texts to arrive at a reasonable view of the truth. He muses on the disunity of the Aztecs that contributed to their defeat and ponders on what might have been.Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Incas of Peru is the subject of chapters three and four, where Wood quotes Pedro de Cieza de Leon’s 1545 chronicle – “And to think that God should have permitted something so great [as the Inca empire] to remain hidden from the world for so long …” Here, along with disunity and the ravages of smallpox, Wood identifies complacency as the cause of Atahualpa’s downfall. He also covers the later revolt of 1536, “one of the greatest wars of resistance waged by the natives against colonial powers in the Americas.”The fifth chapter looks at the journey of Francisco Orellana in his search of El Dorado. Starting out under the command of Gonzalo Pizarro (Francisco’s half-brother), “the one-eyed Orellana would turn out to be both hero and villain in the amazing adventure.” Wood follows in his footsteps across the Andes and down the Amazon, describing the adventures of a man who surely must have been the inspiration for Herzog’s movie ‘Aguirre, Wrath of God.’The final chapter’s story is probably the least well-known but is no less fascinating and extreme (in all sorts of ways) as the others. Wood refers to it as “’The Tempest’ and ‘King Lear’ rolled into one.” Cabeza de Vaca’s adventures saw him land in Florida in 1528 and end up on the Pacific coast of Mexico eight years later.Wood’s richly annotated reading list at the book’s end is designed for those wishing to explore all these journeys and adventures further.

Fascinating tales of the brutal conquest of South and Central American civilisations in the sixteenth century told from a basis of historical and archaeological discovery but with great imagery and passion in the storytelling. These are seismic events in human history, the echoes of which reverberate today, as the culture of domination based on a notion of (European) cultural and religious superiority backed up by greater killing technology, has continued to influence the balance of global politics and economics. Wood walks the ground and breathes the air, telling these fascinating tales that left my mind reeling with the enormity of the fallout from two world's colliding. A most engaging read.

Hard not to give this book five stars, to be honest. It's an easily accessible read that details the fall of the Aztecs, the Incas, the search for Eldorado (that ended up being a voyage down the Amazon) and some other ventures made by the Spanish in and around the 1500s.The initial impression you get is of a simple and thorough rape of the New World by the Spanish, and it is only later you can dwell on the fact that this was the course of settlement both before and after by many civilizations (even in the UK we had Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans........). Even the Aztecs and the Incas took over lands in their continents.One issue that does hit you hard, and Wood dwells on it too, is the question 'What if?'. What if the Incas and Aztecs had come through. What if we had examples of the wonderful gold art they made - too bad it was all melted down by the Spanish. The greed of the Spanish is frighteningly portrayed - as one Inca said 'Even if all the snow on the mountains was Gold they would not be satisfied'. The fact that the rape was literal, too, shows a horrendous trail of destruction.However one thing Wood firmly states is this was no conquest without resistance as often portrayed. The Aztecs would live sacrifice Spanish captives in full view of their fellow soldiers.Have to agree that the book drags on the 'let's follow the trail' bits. It does not sit well with the history and might be better suited to a 'Follow the Conquistadors' trail book than plopped in here and there as it is. There was a similar book on Genghis Khan I read a while back that tried to do the same, and it simply does not work. Be a history book or a travel book. In this case Wood's 'travels' are sparingly detailed, but still hinder.Almost fours stars as I felt this could have been a longer tome with more detail, but as said, this is a pointer for future reading.Looking forward to some of his other books.

I knew very little about the conquests but had a lifelong interest in the Inca. This book puts my little knowlinto context and raises so many questions in my mind about humanity and its ills. A great book to help students of the Americas and of humanities.