In an astonishing work of scholarship that reads like an adventure thriller, historian Buddy Levy records the last days of the Aztec empire and the two men at the center of an epic clash of cultures.

"I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold." -- Hernán Cortés

It was a moment unique in human history, the face-to-face meeting between two men from civilizations a world apart. Only one would survive the encounter. In 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived on the shores of Mexico with a roughshod crew of adventurers and the intent to expand the Spanish empire. Along the way, this brash and roguish conquistador schemed to convert the native inhabitants to Catholicism and carry off a fortune in gold. That he saw nothing paradoxical in his intentions is one of the most remarkable -- and tragic -- aspects of this unforgettable story of conquest.

In Tenochtitlán, the famed City of Dreams, Cortés met his Aztec counterpart, Montezuma: king, divinity, ruler of fifteen million people, and commander of the most powerful military machine in the Americas. Yet in less than two years, Cortés defeated the entire Aztec nation in one of the most astonishing military campaigns ever waged. Sometimes outnumbered in battle thousands-to-one, Cortés repeatedly beat seemingly impossible odds. Buddy Levy meticulously researches the mix of cunning, courage, brutality, superstition, and finally disease that enabled Cortés and his men to survive.

Conquistador is the story of a lost kingdom -- a complex and sophisticated civilization where floating gardens, immense wealth, and reverence for art stood side by side with bloodstained temples and gruesome rites of human sacrifice. It's the story of Montezuma -- proud, spiritual, enigmatic, and doomed to misunderstand the stranger he thought a god. Epic in scope, as entertaining as it is enlightening, Conquistador is history at its most riveting.

Praise for Conquistador

"Prodigiously researched and stirringly told, Conquistador is a rarity: an invaluable history lesson that also happens to be a page-turning read." -- Jeremy Schaap, bestselling author of Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History, and Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics

"Sweeping and majestic... A pulse-quickening narrative." -- Neal Bascomb, author of Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin

• We started tracking this book on June 24, 2015.
• This book was £8.86 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 101 times in the past 3,387 days.
• The current price of this book is £7.49 last checked 2 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past 90 days is £5.99.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £0.99.
• The lowest price to date was £0.99 last reached on April 15, 2024.
• This book has been £0.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £12.11 last reached on April 8, 2016.
• This book has been £12.11 2 times since we started tracking it.

• HistoryAmericas
• HistoryEurope

• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 507 Pages
• File Size: 3,580 KB