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Synopsis
The audiobook behind the famed PBS and BBC production Conquistadors.
The Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century was one of the most important and cataclysmic events in history. Spanish expeditions endured incredible hardships in order to open up the lands of the New World, and few stories in history can match these for drama and endurance. In Conquistadors, Michael Wood follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest of the Spanish adventurers, traveling from the forests of Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, the deserts of North Mexico, the snow peaks of the Andes, and the heights of Machu Picchu. He experiences the epic journeys of Cortés, Pizarro, Orellana, and Cabeza de Vaca, and he explores the turbulent and terrifying events surrounding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.
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Review
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 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
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- PublisherAudiogo
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 1482101629
- ISBN 13 9781482101621
- BindingAudio CD
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages1
- Rating
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Conquistadors
Seller: Ergodebooks, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
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Audio Book (CD). Condition: New. 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 Hernan Cortes, 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 Orellanas extraordinary voyage of discovery down the Amazon and of Cabeza de Vacas arduous journey across America to the Pacific. Few stories in history match these conquests for sheer drama, endurance, and distances covered, and Woods gripping narrative brings them fully to life.Wood reconstructs both sides of the conquest, drawing from sources such as Bernal Diazs eyewitness account, Cortess own letters, and the Aztec texts recorded not long after the fall of Mexico. Woods 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.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. Seller Inventory # DADAX1482101629
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