Conquest

Starred review from January 31, 1994
British historian Thomas's epic, spellbinding narrative history of conquistador Hernan Cortes's destruction of Montezuma's Aztec empire is a stunning meditation on Christian Spain's cataclysmic encounter with native American civilization. Thomas ( The Spanish Civil War ) plunges us into the cultural milieu of the Aztecs' militarized, collectivist, rigidly stratified society, one free of beggars or crime, but where human sacrifice was a sacred rite. He portrays Aztec emperor Montezuma as a tragic figure, an inflexible, fatalistic man who, in 1519, became Cortes's hostage, agreeing ``to stay with the Castilians until the truth were known'' about the killing of one of Cortes's lieutenants. Under the influence of his captors, Montezuma lost power and the respect of his people, who ultimately stoned him at a public appearance in 1520. Montezuma, we are told, was mesmerized by Cortes to the end, developing a ```kind of affection . . . which victims of kidnappings often have for their captors.'' Although not above murder, torture and massacres, Cortes considered himself a devout Christian and believed he was performing a service by offering the Aztecs a new spiritual world. Illustrations not seen by PW .