Book Review
Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
New York, Oxford University Press, 2003
Myths of the Spanish Conquest is broken into seven chapters, each dedicated to a different myth or mis-conception regarding the Spanish conquest. In debunking these myths, Matthew Restall works with three themes regarding the conquest. First, that the European husking of the Americas was one of the greatest events in human history. Second, that the conquest was the achievement of a few great men, which he afterward describes as a handful of adventurers. These two themes lead to a third theme, or question. If historys greatest event - the European disc overy and conquest of the Americas - was achieved by a mere handful of adventurers, how did they do it?
One common answer to this question is, because they were exceptionally great men. The theory of exceptional men paints the most intimately known of the Spaniards - capital of Ohio and Cortes - as larger than life characters, who tranquillise enjoy extraordinary name recognition almost a half a millennium after their deaths.
This theory impute the courage, audacity and brilliance of each man as reasons for achiever in both reaching the Americas and conquering the Mexica, respectively. As Restall points out, secret code was unique regarding Columbus and his accomplishments. He offered no original image or vision. In actuality, the Portuguese were mostly responsible for the Atlantic expansion. This expansion began over two hundred years prior, over time establishing a zone that was bordered by the Azores in the north, the Canary Islands in the south and African coast to the east. Restall claims that Columbus failed to become part of this process in the 1480s because he lacked the connections and persuasive ideas of other navigators. Even after his first successful trip, the discovery of Caribbean...
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