The Conquistadors

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Collins, 1986 - History - 224 pages
This enthralling study which examines the impact of the Spaniards upon the Aztec and Inca worlds is dominated by the personalities involved, in particular Cortes and Montezuma. Their confrontation in the Aztec lake-city of Tenochtitlan is a moving drama of human conflict revealing the dilemma and the enigma of the Indians. It is a story of battles and voyages, full of strange episodes - Cortes burning his ships, Pizarro drawing a line with his sword, saying Gentlemen, this line represents toil, hunger, thirst, weariness, sickness and daring them to cross it, and Atahualpa nursing his wound in the hot springs of Cajamarca and watching, with his army, the tiny band of Spanish adventurers descending the green slopes of the Andes.

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Contents

The EightHundredYear Crusade page
7
Birth of an Empire
16
PART TWO Cortés 3 Prelude to Conquest
27
Copyright

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About the author (1986)

Author Ralph Hammond Innes was born in Horsham, England on July 15, 1914. He attended Cranbrook School in Kent, but left in 1931 to work as a journalist. He published his first novel, The Doppelganger, in 1937. During World War II, he served in the Royal Artillery and published a number of books. In 1946, he became a full-time writer and wrote over thirty novels, children's books, and travel books throughout his career. He published children's books under the pseudonym Ralph Hammond until 1953. Four of his novels were made into films. He was awarded a C.B.E. (Commander, Order of the British Empire) in 1978 and received the Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement award in 1993. He died on June 10, 1998 and left a bulk of his estate to the Assoication of Sea Training Organisations.

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