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The story of a man who accomplished the impossible—and the world he transformed.
With a new introduction by Fernando Cervantes.
Five hundred years ago, in 1526, Hernán Cortés became the first governor of New Spain, a polity that would not have existed were it not for his profoundly improbable conquest of the powerful Aztec Empire, which dominated the region that is now Mexico. However one evaluates his accomplishments, few people have had a greater impact on the history of the Americas than did Cortés.
In this biography, first published in 1941, Salvador de Madariaga, one of the greatest Spanish historians of the twentieth century, provides a thrilling and balanced account of Cortés’s life and times. Madariaga grapples with both the Aztecs and the Spanish in the context of their times and on their own terms. He pulls no punches and is unafraid to make informed judgments. The result is a bracingly honest biography that refuses to engage in whitewashing, ritual condemnation, or hagiography.
Anyone who wishes to transcend today’s highly tendentious and one-sided histories of the period in which Cortés made his mark must read this refreshingly candid classic.
Introduction, by Fernando Cervantes
Chapter 1 Prologue: The Return of Quetzalcoatl
Part I: Self-Discovery
Chapter 2 Hernán Cortés Lands in the New World
Chapter 3 The Nest of Hawks
Chapter 4 Cortés Watches Two Men Fail as Conquerors
Chapter 5 Love and Revolt in Española
Chapter 6 Cortés Watches Two More Men Fail as Conquerors
Part II : Cortés Conceives the Conquest
Chapter 7 Cortés Rises to Leadership
Chapter 8 A Portrait of the Man
Chapter 9 From Spanish Knight to Mexican God
Chapter 10 Cortés Founds Veracruz and Breaks Away from Velázquez
Chapter 11 Cortés “Burns” His Ships
Part III: The First Conquest
Chapter 12 Victory over Tlaxcala
Chapter 13 Victory over His Own Army
Chapter 14 The Massacre of Cholula
Chapter 15 At the Gates of the City of Mexico
Chapter 16 The Meeting of the Two Worlds
Part IV: Cortés Throws Away His Conquest
Chapter 17 The Seizure of Moteçuçuma
Chapter 18 Moteçuçuma Gives Away His Sovereignty
Chapter 19 Cortés Throws Away His Conquest
Chapter 20 Narváez Comes to Avenge Velázquez
Chapter 21 The Defeat of Narváez
Part V: The Second Conquest
Chapter 22 The Massacre of Mexico
Chapter 23 The Flight from Mexico
Chapter 24 Rise after the Fall
Chapter 25 Cortés Prepares the Siege of Mexico and Enters into Legend
Chapter 26 The Siege and Fall of Mexico
Part VI: Self-Conquest
Chapter 27 The Conqueror Conquered by His Conquest
Chapter 28 Captain General and Governor of New Spain
Chapter 29 Cortés Goes to Las Hibueras and Loses Mexico
Chapter 30 The Marquess of the Valley
Chapter 31 The Marquess vs. the Viceroy
Chapter 32 Beyond the Conquest
Notes
Acknowledgments
Spelling of Names
Portraits
Bibliography
Notes to the Chapters
General Index
Special Index on Hernán Cortés
Illustrations
Frontispiece: Hernándo Cortés, from an oil painting in the Hospital de Jesus Nazarene, City of Mexico
Map of Part of Mexico, Showing the Route of Cortés from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico
Lagoon of the City of Mexico with Its Several Cities