When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History

Written by:
Matthew Restall
Narrated by:
Steven Crossley

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
4
Narrator
3
Release Date
January 2018
Duration
16 hours 6 minutes
Summary
A dramatic rethinking of the encounter between Montezuma and Hernando Cortés that completely overturns what we know about the Spanish conquest of the Americas

On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. This introduction—the prelude to the Spanish seizure of Mexico City and to European colonization of the mainland of the Americas—has long been the symbol of Cortés’s bold and brilliant military genius. Montezuma, on the other hand, is remembered as a coward who gave away a vast empire and touched off a wave of colonial invasions across the hemisphere.

But is this really what happened? In a departure from traditional tellings, When Montezuma Met Cortés uses “the Meeting”—as Restall dubs their first encounter—as the entry point into a comprehensive reevaluation of both Cortés and Montezuma. Drawing on rare primary sources and overlooked accounts by conquistadors and Aztecs alike, Restall explores Cortés’s and Montezuma’s posthumous reputations, their achievements and failures, and the worlds in which they lived—leading, step by step, to a dramatic inversion of the old story. As Restall takes us through this sweeping, revisionist account of a pivotal moment in modern civilization, he calls into question our view of the history of the Americas, and, indeed, of history itself.
Reviews
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Greg S.

As the book drags on, is becomes rather unlistenable. The narrative that traditional history is a lie in general as well as specifically the Cortez/Montezuma story seems to be what the author is most interested in. It is full of conjecture, wishful thinking and outright guessing presented as truth seemingly just for the sake of being iconoclastic. After two hours I couldn’t stand the lecture and skipped around looking for what the cover promised - a true story of the meeting of the Spanish and Aztecs. I was disappointed at every turn. Pass.

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Anonymous

Solid approach.

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