In this account of the naval aspect of Hernando Cortes's invasion
of the Aztec Empire, C. Harvey Gardiner has added another dimension
to the drama of Spanish conquest of the New World and to Cortes
himself as a military strategist. The use of ships, in the
climactic moment of the Spanish-Aztec clash, which brought about
the fall of Tenochtitlan and consequently of all of Mexico, though
discussed briefly in former English-language accounts of the
struggle, had never before been detailed and brought into a
perspective that reveals its true significance. Gardiner, on the
basis of previously unexploited sixteenth-century source materials,
has written a historical revision that is as colorful as it is
authoritative. Four centuries before the term was coined, Cortes,
in the key years of 1520-1521, used the technique of "total war."
He was able to do so victoriously primarily because of his courage
in taking a gamble and his brilliance in tactical planning, but
these qualities might well have signified nothing without the
fortunate presence in his forces of a master shipwright, Martin
Lopez. As the exciting story unrolls, Cortes, Lopez, and the many
other participants in the venture of creating and using a navy in
the midst of the New World mountains and forests are seen as real
personalities, not embalmed historical stereotypes, and the
indigenous defenders are revealed as complex human beings facing
huge odds. Much of the tale is told in the actual words of the
protagonists; Gardiner has probed letters, court records, and other
contemporary documents. He has also compared this naval feat of the
Spaniards with other maritime events from ancient times to the
present. Naval Power in the Conquest of Mexico as a book was itself
the result of an interesting combination of circumstances. C.
Harvey Gardiner, as teacher, scholar, and writer, had long been
interested in Latin American history generally and Mexican history
in particular. During World War II, from 1942 to 1946, he served
with the U.S. Navy. As he relates: "One day in early autumn 1945,
while loafing on the bow of a naval vessel knifing its way
southward in the Pacific a few degrees north of the Equator, my
thoughts turned to the naval side of the just-ended conflict, and
in time the question emerged, 'I wonder how the little ships and
the little men will fare in the eventual record?' Then, because I
was eager to return to my civilian life of pursuit of Latin
American themes, the concomitant question came: 'I wonder what
little fighting ships and minor men of early Latin America have
been consigned to the oblivion of historical neglect?' As I began
later to rummage my way from Columbus toward modem times, I seized
upon the Mexican Conquest as the prime period with pay dirt for the
researcher in quest of the answer to that latter question."
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
