Matthew Restall

"On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. This introduction--the prelude to the Spanish seizure of Mexico City and to European colonization of the mainland of the Americas--has long been the symbol of Cortés's bold and brilliant military genius. Montezuma, on the other hand, is remembered as a coward who gave away a vast empire and touched...

The Maya have lived in parts of Mexico and Central America for thousands of years, forging one of the greatest societies in the history of the Americas -- indeed, of humankind. Long before European contact, Mayas built spectacular cities, created complex agricultural systems, mastered the visual arts, and developed a sophisticated writing system that recorded calendrical, mathematical, and astronomical knowledge. Yet there was never a Maya empire...

With startling speed, Spanish conquistadors invaded hundreds of Native American kingdoms, took over the mighty empires of the Aztecs and Incas, and initiated an unprecedented redistribution of the world's resources and balance of power. They changed the course of history, but the myth they established was even stranger than their real achievements. This Very Short Introduction deploys the latest scholarship to shatter and replace the traditional narrative....