The Conquest Of Mexico - Tapa blanda

Hugh Thomas' account of the collapse of Montezuma's great Aztec empire under the onslaughts of Cortes' conquistadors is one of the great historical works of our times. A thrilling and sweeping narrative, it also bristles with moral and political issues. After setting out from Spain - against explicit instructions - in 1519, some 500 conquistadors destroyed their ships and fought their way towards the capital of the greatest empire of the New World. When they finally reached Tenochtitlan, the huge city on lake Texcoco, they were given a courtly welcome by Montezuma, who believed them to be gods. Their later abduction of the emperor, their withdrawl and the final destruction of the city make the Conquest one of the most enthralling and tragic episodes in world history.

Hugh Thomas studied History at Cambridge and Paris. His career encompassed both America and Europe, and history and politics, as a professor at New York and Boston Universities and as Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies in London. He was awarded a peerage in 1981. Hugh Thomas is the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War, which won him the Somerset Maugham Prize; Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom; An Unfinished History of the World, which won the National Book Award for History; Armed Truce: The Beginnings of the Cold War; The Conquest of Mexico; The Slave Trade; and most recently Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire.