Authors: Tzvetan Todorov
ISBN-13: 9780061320958, ISBN-10: 0061320951
Format: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: January 1997
Edition: Reissue
Fascinating study of cultural confrontation in the New World, with implications far beyond sixteenth-century America, The Conquest of America has become a classic in its field. It offers an original interpretation of the discovery of America by Columbus and of the subsequent conquest, colonization, and destruction of Mexico and the Caribbean by the Spaniards at the beginning of the modern era.
Using sixteenth-century sources, the distinguished French writer and critic Tzvetan Todorov examines the beliefs and behavior of both the Spanish conquistadors and the Aztecs, adversaries in a clash of cultures that resulted in the neat extermination of Mesoamerica's Indian population.
Absorbing, intelligent, and responsible in its call for a much-needed dialogue between different cultures, The Conquest of America evokes a drama that set the pattern for much of the history of Western colonialism.
Foreword | ||
1 | Discovery | 1 |
The Discovery of America | 3 | |
Columbus as Interpreter | 14 | |
Columbus and the Indians | 34 | |
2 | Conquest | 51 |
The Reasons for the Victory | 53 | |
Montezuma and Signs | 63 | |
Cortes and Signs | 98 | |
3 | Love | 125 |
Understanding, Taking Possession, and Destroying | 127 | |
Equality or Inequality | 146 | |
Enslavement, Colonialism, and Communication | 168 | |
4 | Knowledge | 183 |
Typology of Relations to the Other | 185 | |
Duran, or the Hybridization of Cultures | 202 | |
Sahagun and His Work | 219 | |
Epilogue | 243 | |
Las Casas's Prophecy | 245 | |
Bibliographic Note | 255 | |
References | 259 | |
Index | 265 |