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Author Restall, Matthew, 1964- author.

Title Seven myths of the Spanish conquest / Matthew Restall
Published New York : Oxford University Press, [2003]
©2003

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Description 1 online resource (xix, 218 pages) : illustrations, map
Contents A handful of adventurers: the myth of exceptional men -- Neither paid nor forced: the myth of the king's army -- Invisible warriors: the myth of the white conquistador -- Under the lordship of the king: the myth of completion -- The lost words of La Malinche: the myth of (mis)communication -- The Indians are coming to an end: the myth of native desolation -- Apes and men: the myth of superiority
Summary Here is an intriguing exploration of the ways in which the history of the Spanish Conquest has been misread and passed down to become popular knowledge of these events. The book offers a fresh account of the activities of the best-known conquistadors and explorers, including Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro. Using a wide array of sources, historian Matthew Restall highlights seven key myths, uncovering the source of the inaccuracies and exploding the fallacies and misconceptions behind each myth. This vividly written and authoritative book shows, for instance, that native Americans did not take the conquistadors for gods and that small numbers of vastly outnumbered Spaniards did not bring down great empires with stunning rapidity. We discover that Columbus was correctly seen in his lifetime-and for decades after-as a briefly fortunate but unexceptional participant in efforts involving many southern Europeans. It was only much later that Columbus was portrayed as a great man who fought against the ignorance of his age to discover the new world.; Restall also shows that the Spanish Conquest relied heavily on black and native allies, who provided many thousands of fighters, vastly outnumbering the conquistadors. In fact, the native perception of the Conquest differed sharply from the Spanish version-they saw it as a native civil war in which the Spaniards played an important but secondary role. The Conquest, Restall shows, was more complex-and more fascinating-than conventional histories have portrayed it. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest offers a richer and more nuanced account of a key event in the history of the Americas
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-207) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Print version record
SUBJECT Lateinamerika gnd
Subject Spaniards -- America -- Historiography
Myth.
myths.
HISTORY -- General.
HISTORY.
Historiography
Myth
Spaniards -- Historiography
Tradition
Entdeckung
Geschichtsschreibung
Eroberung
Mythos
Veroveringen.
Spanjaarden.
Mythevorming.
Geschiedschrijving.
História da américa.
História latino-americana.
Colonização (historiografia) -- América.
Espanhóis (historiografia) -- América.
SUBJECT Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540 -- Historiography
Latin America -- History -- Errors, inventions, etc
Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85084574
Subject America
Latin America
Mexico
Amerika
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780198036432
0198036434
9781280503184
1280503181
9781602565234
1602565236
9780195184624
0195184629
9786610503186
6610503184