Conquistador Voices (vol I): The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as Recounted Largely by the Participants

The Spanish Conquest: What Really Happened?

Conquistador Voices is for readers who might like to learn more about events related to the 15^th-century “discovery” of the Americas by Europeans, events that were likely broad-brushed and sanitized in their schoolbooks.  This two-volume set tells the stories of four important Spanish explorers or military leaders—Columbus and Cortés in vol I, and Pizarro, Soto, and Cabeza de Vaca in vol II.

The two volumes are not only informative but easy to read, because they don’t offer the usual dry historical descriptions of past events, but are instead built around the lively accounts of the participants themselves, eyewitness accounts that are held together by a narrative calculated to deliver an appealing and readable story.  

Conquistador Voices neither glorifies these controversial men nor censures their actions, preferring to leave such moralizing to the reader.  What it strives to do is to deepen the reader’s knowledge of actors and events whose influence is still being felt today, and to do so in an engaging and entertaining fashion.