Masako, Crown Princes of Japan, wife of Crown Prince Naruhito, heir apparent to the Chrysanthemum Throne. By Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra Matthew Restall’s When Montezuma met Cortés delivers a blow to the basic structure of all current histories of the conquest of Mexico. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Moctezuma and Cortes met for the first time outside the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. This book is a work of superb historical scholarship that goes against the grain of mainstream narrative that often glorify Cortés. And the Spanish preserved few if any memories of how things really were before their arrival, wiping it all clean. In Restall’s telling, Montezuma’s monumental miscalculation—allowing Cortés into Tenochtitl á n—led not only to his own demise but also to the end of his empire. Drawing on rare primary sources and overlooked accounts by conquistadors and Aztecs alike, Restall supplies a … Takes apart what we know about the infamous meeting between Cortes and Montezuma (not much for certain it turns out) and reveals the way that the focus on that meeting has obscured historical understanding of the Spanish-Aztec War and the colonization of Mexico more generally. Matthew Restall’s book, When Montezuma Met Cortez, ends with a chapter titled ‘The Halls of Montezuma’ symbolizing the hall of history in which we can peer back in time to see what actually occurred. Refresh and try again. Furthermore, when King Moctezuma's ambassadors met up with Cortés, the Spaniard was mistaken for the god Quetzalcoatl. A dramatic rethinking of the encounter between Montezuma and Hernando Cortés that completely overturns what we know about the Spanish conquest of the Americas On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capit What emerges from this telling is more a messy, brutal, lengthy, and chaotic war than a simple conquest. Much of what we think we know of the Aztecs and the Spanish conquest of Mexico is wrong. There is nothing like reading a history or biography book and being so completely transported to another time and place that you find... A dramatic rethinking of the encounter between Montezuma and Hernando Cortés that completely overturns what we know about the Spanish conquest of the Americas. So be it! A dramatic rethinking of the encounter between Montezuma and Hernando Cortés that completely overturns what we know about the Spanish conquest of the Americas On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. Paper books being relegated to the few privileged people who can afford to travel by air. Now comes Matthew Restall, a professor of history at Pennsylvania State University, to take aim at this version of the narrative, branding it “one of human history’s great lies.”, Employing a vast array of primary and secondary sources in a half-dozen European and Native American languages, Restall completely recasts the story of the fall of the Aztec empire. OK, back up. The Spanish did not win so much as their constant, uncontrollable presence and destruction of many of the leading aristocracy so destabilized the Nahua society that it collapsed. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. When Montezuma Met Cortés: the true story of the meeting that changed history, by Matthew Restall (HarperCollins, 2018). When Montezuma Met Cortés: the true story of the meeting that changed history, by Matthew Restall (HarperCollins, 2018). HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. The rest is footnotes, cast of characters etc. No nothing. A dramatic rethinking of the encounter between Montezuma and Cortés that completely overturns what we know about the Spanish conquest of the Americas. As the victors, Cortés, his lieutenants, and Spanish priests then produced their own “history” of the conflict, one that glorified their roles in the “conquest” and that justified their genocidal war against native peoples in the name of “civilization.”, In When Montezuma Met Cortés, Restall succeeds in deconstructing the traditional narrative of European military superiority overwhelming a naive and barbarous indigenous ruler. To see what your friends thought of this book, This book's mission is actually a very cool one: it exposes the story of "Montezuma welcoming Cortez as the reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl" as a long, storied fabrication that actually began with the confusion of the conquistadors themselves. In truth, according to Mesoamerican custom, Montezuma was showing his dominance over the newcomers. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. John Malkovich, actor (Places in the Heart), producer (Juno), director, fashion designer. Long story short: Cortés was not the brilliant, courageous, visionary, world-striding conqueror he has long been presented as. A historically revisionist account seeking to recast the traditional Conquest of Mexico story as the Spanish-Aztec War wherein the mythistory of Hernan Cortes is decentered while his fellow conquistadors and the Nahua people themselves are elevated to principal roles in the narrative. But organization & readability I’d be generous in giving it 2 stars. This book makes a strong case of how people even today have not look at him and his claims critically enough even by those who teach history. John Cassavetes, actor (The Dirty Dozen), film director, screenwriter (Faces). Historian Restall of Pennsylvania State University has delivered an exhaustively researched, forcefully argued and compelling reconsideration of the conquest of Mexico. What if everything you heard about the Conquistor Hernando Cortés and the Aztec emperor Montezuma was incorrect? So this book is about 550 pages. The best history books let the story tell itself. Matthew Restall is a historian of Colonial Latin America. Next year will be the 500th anniversary of Cortes's entrance into Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec peoples of Mesoamerica. By Bill Clegg. Rethinking “the conquest of Mexico” from the native point of view—the “Spanish-Aztec War.” It’s fascinating but very tough because there is so little to go on from the Aztec side since they had no formal written language and records. Rather than engineering a military victory, Restall writes, Cortés merely managed to survive a civil war (partly of his own making) among the many indigenous peoples against the imperialist Aztecs. A whole different perspective on the Spanish invasion of Mexico. “The parallel is inescapable: General Scott is Cortés, and General Santa Anna is Montezuma; the two acts of surrender in Mexico City echo, illuminate, and legitimize each other, representing resonant moments in the march of progress that is “American” history.”, “The clash of civilizations, the conquest wars, the protracted process of colonization are all eclipsed and elided into a single symbolic moment.”, Best recent books about the Conquest of Mexico, Readers’ Top Histories and Biographies of the Last 5 Years. For a history book, it was pretty good. On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. At the entrance to the capital, the two men exchanged gifts and greetings, and Montezuma then invited Cortés and his hundreds of followers into the city as his guests. Such a long span of time helps explain the story's blurring. I did study the history of Central America when I was in college along with other. In peeling back the myth we get closer to the truth of what actually happened in history between Cortés and the Aztecs. I was lured in by the step pyramid of these at the Denver Airport. Restall destroys myths and legends I didn’t know existed. November of this year marked the 500th anniversary of the fateful meeting of these men. Worth finishing. All stories of conquest are polarizing; victor writes the history, etc., until recent pushback has gotten more vanquished tales in print. He is the author of Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Have students read Document A and complete the corresponding section of the Guiding Questions. MARSHALL C. EAKIN is a professor of Latin American history at Vanderbilt University. But why? William Lipscomb, chemist; awarded Nobel Prize in 1976. It is very heavily researched and footnoted. 4) of MHQ—The Quarterly Journal of Military History with the headline: Book Review | When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History. This book should be of interest to any history buff. So, I had to read this work. Diseases imported from Europe (chiefly smallpox) also played a role in what Restall calls the Spanish-Aztec War. The author throughly unravels the traditional, whitewashed myth that has long surrounded the history of the Conquest of Mexico. January 30th 2018 3 hand out Document a and the Guiding questions. The divergence into the Cortes myth throughout western culture for the past five hundred years is not so stimulating. The English made propaganda warfare the most effective way to destroy and conquer. He is an ethnohistorian and a scholar of conquest, colonization, and the African diaspora in the Americas. On November 8, 1519, Aztec Emperor Moctezuma and Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes met for the first time outside the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. Having skirmished their way along the coast, and met with Montezuma’s emissaries, Cortés and the conquistadors set out for Tenochtitlan from their settlement of Vera Cruz. So, I had to read this work. Kirk Douglas, American actor (Spartacus). In Restall’s view, Cortés was “a mediocre captain,” incredibly lucky, and, most important, a survivor. He is currently Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Anthropology, and Director of Latin American Studies, at the Pennsylvania State University. I learned a lot of new stuff despite having avidly read about the conquest of Mexico since I was an adolescent in 1962. The two great men looked at each other with a keen interest. Although I've been looking forward to reading this for weeks now, I found myself zoning out through certain chapters as the text can be a bit dense and meandering. Matthew Restall is Sparks Professor of History and Director of Latin American Studies at Penn State. It's meticulously researched and Restall brings up some interesting ways in which to think about history, I'll give him that. Restall argues against the traditional story of an all-conquering Spanish invasion (and all-submissive Nahua surrender) in favor of a complex, multifaceted war between not only the Spanish and the Nahua but also between the Spanish themselves and competing Nahua city-states all vying for power in sixteenth century Mesoamerica. Montezuma’s native language, Nahuatl, was a reverential mode of speech. Excellent revisionist history. Not a novel. First, the author pokes some serious holes in what he calls the "traditional narrative" of the meeting of Cortés and Montezuma, and the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortés and his conquistadors. When Montezuma Met Cortés The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History (Book) : Restall, Matthew : A dramatic rethinking of the encounter between Montezuma and Hernando Cortés that completely overturns what we know about the Spanish conquest of the Americas On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance … But organization & readability Id be generous in giving it 2 stars. This book is a work of superb historical scholarship that goes against the grain of mainstream narrative that often glorify Cortés. The reason that I point this out is that this is a HISTORY book. Back in high school I read Captain from Castile - a fictionalized account of the life of Cortes and being from New Mexico I was better acquainted with the history of Mexico than most but there are volumes to read and study about the history of Mexico. Publisher's Summary. Explain to students that they will read and corroborate two documents about what Moctezuma actually said to Cortés when they first met. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Restall calls his history a revisionist one because he tries to correct the misperceptions and exaggerations which have grown from the various histories written about those events. Of course, the farther the hall is, the blurrier it gets to our modern eyes. Jean de Brunhoff, illustrator and author, creator of the Babar series of books. Montezuma was not a blithering, cowardly, effeminate loser. They just added Spanish names to their own. The truth will never be known. Montezuma very graciously welcomed Cortes to his city, and Cortes answered with great respect, adding many thanks for all the Mexican's gifts. And the Spanish preserved few if any memories of how things really were before their arrival, wiping it all clean. I find myself skipping parts, going ahead and then going back. Dick Van Patten, actor; best known for his role on the TV series Eight is Enough. The reverse: Cortés was a mediocre, not very enterprising, lower level conquistador with talents for self-promotion and survival. Overall this book is an excellent investigation of the meeting that occurred between Montezuma and Cortez in Tenochtitlán in 1519. No nothing. On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capital city of Tenochtitlan.Montezuma, on the other hand, is remembered as a coward who gave away a vast empire and touched off a wave of colonial invasions across the hemisphere. But that's about it. Matthew Restall is a historian of colonial Latin America. The story of Cortés landing in Mexico, being treated as a god, and accepting Montezuma’s “surrender” to the great king of Spain is fiction. For his scholarship & research I give it 5 stars. With their formidable allies consisting of horses, dogs, gunpowder, armor, scabbards, and of. One answer to this question lies in the difference between the way Cortés and Montezuma communicated, based on their cultural tradition. On a side note: the Nahua names are so complicated I gave up trying to keep them separate, let alone try to pronounce them: Tetlahuehuetzquititl; Nezahualcoyotl; Izhuetzcatocatl; Ixtlilxohitl. At the heart of his revisionism is the demystification of Hernando Cortés, which he achieves by puncturing the popular image—originally created by Cortés himself through his letters to King Charles V—of a hero who leads a small band of Spaniards to conquer millions of “hostile” Indians. 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