The Conquest of Mexico
Non-fiction , 1993
Hutchinson/ Planeta
Published in USA as Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico,
this is an account of the collapse of Montezuma's Mexican Empire under the onslaughts of Cortes's Conquistadors. At the beginning the reader is introduced to the capital city of the Aztecs, or Mexica –a massive edifice, far larger than any city in Europe at the time, and the centre of a culture which enshrined warfare and human sacrifice at the heart of the State. With the arrival of the Spanish, this civilization, seemingly so powerful, collapsed. This is an account, full of mutual incomprehension, cupidity for gold, duplicity, ruthlessness and casual contempt for human life.