When Montezuma Met Cortes Audiobook By Matthew Restall cover art

When Montezuma Met Cortes

The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

When Montezuma Met Cortes

By: Matthew Restall
Narrated by: Steven Crossley
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $26.99

Buy for $26.99

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

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' 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' 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.

©2018 Matthew Restall (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Europe Expeditions & Discoveries Indigenous Peoples Mexico Politics & Government United States Ancient History