Product Description

Vivid, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one of the most startling military episodes in history: the overthrow of Montezuma's doomed Aztec Empire by the ruthless Hernan Cortes and his band of adventurers. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, himself a soldier under Cortes, presents a fascinatingly detailed description of the Spanish landing in Mexico in 1520 and their amazement at the city, the exploitation of the natives for gold and other treasures, the expulsion and flight of the Spaniards, their regrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124904 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-26
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Spanish historian Bernal Diaz del Castillo (c.1492-1584) was a soldier in the army of the conquistador Cortes in the attack on the Aztecs. J M Cohen translated widely from French and Spanish, including for Penguin Classics Montaigne's Essays and Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Customer Reviews

Couldn't put it down. Fact with the grip of fiction.
The translator, Cohen, has drawn the salient facts from someone who was actually there, Bernal Diaz.

Helps you to understand the scale of what was achieved, how it was achieved, and what drove them to achieve.

Excellent. Written in a straightforward manner. Read it, then read it to my children who found it gripping.

Conquest of a Continent
Bernal Diaz's account of his expirences in New Spain (i.e, Mexico and the Aztec Empire) is one of the key texts associated with the expansion into and colonisation of Central and South America by the Spanish in the Sixteenth Century. His first hand account of the Mexica and the practices of the Aztecs, as well as his description of the events leading up to the eventual defeat of the once mighty Aztec Empire by a small band of Spanish adventurers provides important and interesting information about this period and on South American History.

While there are notable inaccuracies and biases in Diaz's account, the editor (J.M. Cohen)provides an excellent interpretation of this primary document and points the reader in the right direction as far as what interpretation to give Diaz's text (written when the former soldier was a very old, and probably bitter, man). However, through no fault of the editor, Diaz suffers from considerable verbal diahorea and much of his account is neither intersting or relevant. Nevertheless, this is one of the most important and complete contemporary documents on the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, and also one of the few to survive.

Absolutely superb insight into the life of an ordinary Spanish Conquistador
Over the last couple of years I've been quite interested in the Spanish conquest of South America, and I had heard this book referred to a couple of times, so thought I would pick it up.

Anyone with even just a passing interest in South America history should grab a copy. It's easily one of the most gripping and interesting books I've ever read.

The story is translated from the original Spanish of a soldier who traveled with Hernan Cortes and his small band of soldiers, who eventually overthrew a rich and powerful civilisation.

Bernal Diaz' story starts with his involvement in a couple of early investigations of the Mexican coast, moving onto his expedition with Cortes. He explains the movements and battles in detail, meetings between 2 cultures who didn't really know what to make of each other, building towards the incredible climax of fearsome resistance and house to house fighting in the fall of Tenochtitlan.

A truly amazing book that is a must read for anyone with an interest in history.