Conquistador is Mr. Levy's startling account of the fall of the Aztec Empire. Mr. Levy frames his tale around what we know of its conquerer, Cortez, who, in 1519, came to shore with 11 ships, 500 men and dubious legal authority. In fact, at the time, he and his men were considered mutineers. However, after exploring the empire and adopting an ingenious strategy of cultivating alliances, and igniting hatreds between, various tribes, Cortez was able to conquer one of the world's mightiest empires in less than two years, achieving in the deed legitimacy in the eyes of his Spanish betters.
Though we look back now upon this time of European conquest with revulsion, noting in particular the cruelty that was a daily practice of conquerers of the period, it is difficult not to marvel at what, even now, seems an impossible feat. To conquer millions of people with but 500 soldiers, no matter the pre-existing divisions within the empire... That is a remarkable, if morally bankrupt, endeavor. Mr. Levy educates us on the deprivations Cortez and his men endured, the tribes they encountered, the battles they fought and, to his credit, the obscenities they wrought upon a people who welcomed them with open arms. The passages in which Mr. Levy describes the desecration of Aztec temples were particularly difficult to read. And yet, it is important to know that we are all capable of such cruelty when, armed by an insensitivity to the pain of others, we allow ourselves to be driven by the hunger to taste greatness. (4/5 Stars)
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