Fernando Cervantes - Conquistadores: A New History

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First published by Allen Lane in 2020

Copyright Fernando Cervantes, 2020

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover artwork: Hernando Cortes landing in Mexico in 1519 British Library Board
All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Image
Cover design by Richard Green

ISBN: 978-0-241-24215-5

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

To Brendan and Annabel

Early Modern Spain

Columbuss Four Voyages

Hispaniola

Darin

Fernandina (Cuba)

Cortss Journey from Cuba, 1519

Cortss March to Tenochtitlan, 1519

Cortss Escape Route After the Noche Triste

Tenochtitlan and the Lacustrine Cities

Mendicant Foundations in Central Mexico by the Middle of the 16th Century

The Route of Cabeza de Vaca

Alvarados Invasion of Guatemala

Montejo in Yucatan

Inca Expansion

Pizarros Route from Panama to Cusco, 15313

Cusco at the Time of Pizarros Invasion

Quito and Tumipampa

Manqo Inka

The Hernando de Soto Expedition, 153943

The Expeditions of Jimnez de Quesada, Federmann and Benalczar

Photographic credits are shown in italics.

Monastery of St Mary of the Victory in Batalha, Portugal. Alamy.

Genoa, illustration from Sebastian Mnster, Cosmographia, 1552. Albion Prints.

Coat of arms of Christopher Columbus, 1498. Archive of the Indies of Seville. Juan Garcia/Dreamstime.

Mapamundi, 1507, by Martin Waldseemller. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

The University of Alcal de Henares, Spain. Wikimedia Commons/Superchilum CC BY-SA 3.0.

Charles V, c.1515, Flemish School. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Bridgeman Images.

Device and motto of Charles V on the reverse of a coin minted in Mexico, 154256. Numisbids/Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC

Portrait of a Man (Alfonso de Valds), c.1531, by an associate of Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen. National Gallery, London.

The Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan, from Praeclara Ferdindi Cortesii de Noua maris Oceani Hyspania narratio [], 1524. Newberry Library, Chicago, IL (Ayer 655.51.C8 1524d).

Stone disc depicting a dismembered Coyolxauhqui, c.1473, Aztec. Museo Del Templo Mayor, Mexico City. Getty Images.

Quecholli, from Juan de Tovar, Historia de la benida de los yndios apoblar a Mexico [], c.1585. John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Codex Ind 2, folio 154 r).

Panquetzaliztli (ibid). John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Codex Ind 2, folio 154 v).

Tititl (ibid). John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Codex Ind 2, folio 155 v).

Tlacaxipehualiztli (ibid). John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Codex Ind 2, folio 147 r).

Tonatiuh, depicted in the Codex Borgia, late Post-Classic period, Aztec. Reproduced by permission of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with all rights reserved (Borg.mess.1, page 19).

The Ahuehuetl of the Noche Triste, 19th century, by Jos Mara Velasco. Private Collection. Alamy.

Tzitzimtl, depicted in the Codex Magliabechiano, mid-16th century, Aztec. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence (CL. XIII. 3 (B. R. 232) fol 76r).

Calmecac, depicted in the Codex Mendoza, 15411650. Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1, fol. 61r).

Telpochcalli (ibid.) Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1, fol. 63r).

Charles V, 1548, by Titian. Prado, Madrid. Getty Images.

Nezahualpilli, depicted in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, Mexican, late 16th century. Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris (Ms. Mex. 6571, fol. 106r).

Hernn Corts, illustration from Christoph Weiditz, Trachtenbuch, 1529. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. Alamy.

Friar Bartolom de las Casas, 16th century, by an anonymous artist. Biblioteca Colombina, Seville. Bridgeman Images.

Monte Albn, Oaxaca, Mexico. Ben Pipe Photography.

Detail from the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan, c.153040, Nahua school. Museo Regional Casa de Alfeique, Puebla, Mexico. Universidad Francisco Marroqun/Geosistemas y Tecnologa Avanzada, S.A.

Mask, turquoise mosaic on wood, 14001521, Mixtec. Trustees of the British Museum, London (Am,St.400).

The Mass of St Gregory, feather mosaic, 1539, School of San Jos de los Naturales. Muse des Amriques, Auch.

Carving of an angel, 16th century, Mixtec. Convent of SS Peter and Paul, Teposcolula, Mexico. Alamy.

Hernn Corts greets Friar Martn de Valencia, mural, mid-16th century. Parish of the Immaculation Conception, Ozumba, Mexico. Wikimedia Commons/Alejandro Linares Garcia CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bridge of the Apurimac, illustration from Ephraim George Squier, Peru; incidents of travel and exploration in the land of the Incas, 1877.

The Inca Road near Cuzco, Peru. Shutterstock.

Double ceremonial vessel, ceramic, 15th or early 16th century, Inca. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (Acc. No. 1979.206.1149).

Male figurine, gold-silver alloy, 14001533, Inca. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift and Bequest of Alice K. Bache, 1974, 1977 (Acc. No. 1974.271.7)

Juan de Pareja, c.1650, by Diego Velzquez. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, Fletcher and Rogers Funds, and Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (18761967), by exchange, supplemented by gifts from friends of the Museum, 1971 (Acc. No. 1971.86).

You are no city: You are a universe. These are the words with which the Renaissance poet Fernando de Herrera addressed his native Seville in the middle of the sixteenth century. With brilliant brevity, they evoke a change of unprecedented proportions: in a mere few decades this Andalusian city on the fringes of Europe had been transformed into the de facto capital of the greatest empire the world had yet seen. Under the rule of the Habsburg Charles V, it spanned medieval Christendom and, stretching across the Atlantic, the New World of the Americas. The story that underpins Sevilles dramatic rise is very familiar to us. In 1492 an eccentric Genoese sailor named Christopher Columbus, hoping to sail to India across the Atlantic, stumbled across some islands in the Caribbean. A flurry of expeditions followed, culminating in the astonishing conquests of two formidable civilizations: the Aztecs of Mexico, conquered by Hernn Corts in 1521, and the Incas of Peru, conquered by Francisco Pizarro just over a decade later. Both men styled themselves conquistadores, subduing, killing and establishing their dominion in the name of the Habsburg emperor and of God himself.