Conquest
In Conquest one of the most distinguished modern historians has written the first major history of the conquest of Mexico since Prescott's classic account, published over 150 years ago. Cortes' conquest of Mexico in 1519-1521 is one of the most famous stories in the world. Macaulay wrote that the way Aztec emperor Montezuma died was one of the two things that every schoolboy knew. The story of the 500 conquistadores landing near Vera Cruz, the subsequent burning of the boats, the march up to the Aztec capital, the extraordinary battles and ruses en route, the welcome by Montezuma, the later quarrels, the Spanish withdrawal, the bloody fighting, and the eventual apocalyptic victory can never fail to excite the imagination. Drawing on newly discovered sources and taking into account information not available to earlier scholars, Hugh Thomas, author of the bestselling The Spanish Civil War and The History of the Cuban Revolution, presents a full and balanced history of one of the most significant events of Western civilization, a subject and an era of continued fascination to millions of readers. Here, in a brilliant and detailed narrative, full of the sound and fury of great events and the clash of empires and personalities, is a book that rivals Prescott's for its sweeping view of history, but is written with a new respect for the civilization and culture that Cortes ruthlessly destroyed.
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3recommend
4mentions
3people
2022–2024years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I recommend Conquest by Hugh Thomas and its long list of notes and citations. A few podcast episodes isn't nearly enough to understand the nuances of the Aztec conquest.
The best sources aren't their diaries but all the depositions and testimony they made while fighting over the spoils. Anyone who survived the expedition spent the next decade fighting over it in Spanish court.
- Conquest by Hugh Thomas, probably the best book on Cortes' conquest of the Mexica people (Aztecs) and my gold standard for non-fiction - it's got almost 200 pages of notes and sources, for example, and most of them are available via Project Gutenberg.
This book really drove home the effects of European imperialism without all the "woke" rhetoric found in contemporary discourse. The Mexica performed human sacrifices at a horrifying scale but they were otherwise as close to a utopian society as I've ever read about, built on completely different cultural mores including a religion that almost deified the emperor far beyond Europe's "divine right of kings." Since their entire war machine was built around capturing prisoners for these sacrifices with obsidian weapons meant to wound rather than kill, they were completely unprepared for the armor and horses.
It's hard not to see Montezuma as a tragic figure whose indecisiveness led to the conquest of all of Central America. Cortes' expedition was an unmitigated disaster from day one but once the New Spain beachhead was established, the writing was on the wall, even though some tribes like the Mayans held out for a few hundred more years. I often wonder how different the world would look today if Cortes and his conquistadors were slaughtered by the Mexica before they even reached Tlaxcala. Instead Cortes walked right in the front door and decapitated an entire civilization.
- - Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas , because he brings history to life and the story of the Spanish and the Mexica is stranger than fiction, more subtle and terrible than you might think, and has many lessons on human behavior applicable to today.
- Ecclesiastes by Qoheleth: In my opinion, superior to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. "Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white; let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going." (Eccles 9:11)
- Amusing ourselves to death by Neil Postman: We thought we had to worry about 1984 and big brother. We were wrong. We are living in Huxley's Brave New World where digital media has made us dumber, distracted and cut our connections with one other. Our smartphones substitute rosaries and entertainment becomes the dogma.
- Structure and Intepretation of Computer Programs by Hal Abelson and Gerlad J. Sussman: Need I say more? This books makes me fall in love all over again with programming every time I pick it up.
- Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle: What does it mean to live well? How can we be happy? Aristotle makes the striking claim that everyone knows how to be happy, but we have to create the habits that are in accord with reason and right judgement in order to get there. Also, happiness is not a state but rather the result of our active will and right ordering of desire. Required reading for any political leader.
- Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser: Javascript frameworks come and go, language standards change, Computer platforms rise and fall, but math and the underling concepts of computation stay the same. Knowing what computation is, what its properties are, etc. will not only make you a better programmer but a better thinker. Church-Turing Thesis essential reading for anyone serious about algorithm design and analysis.
- This is very useful as I've been reading Hugh Thomas' epic, "Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico"[1] and having a good understanding of these deities is fundamental to understand the life and culture of the Mexica people.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Cortes-Montezuma-Fall-Mexico...
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