The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other

The Conquest of America is a fascinating study of cultural confrontation in the New World, with implications far beyond sixteenth—century America. The book offers an original interpretation of the Spaniards’ conquest, colonization, and destruction of pre—Columbian cultures in Mexico and the Caribbean. Using sixteenth—century sources, the distinguished French writer and critic Tzvetan Todorov examines the beliefs and behavior of the Spanish conquistadors and of the Aztecs, adversaries in a clash of cultures that resulted in the near extermination of Mesoamerica’s Indian population.