![]() ![]() ![]() If like me you only had an approximate idea of what the Spanish conquest of what is modern Peru meant for the local population, this book will shock you. ![]() While remaining an objective narrator, Hemming nonetheless implies a number of political and moral lessons which are, I suspect, relevant today. The book is written in a beautiful lucid prose which portrays faithfully and objectively the inevitable destruction of a civilisation and yet it retains a sense of drama. With the Incas themselves the tiny and vulnerable Vilcabamba State teetered on the edge of survival under the leadership of Manco and his followers but was destroyed in the end owing to foolish actions of its final rulers. And always we see the human element-the odd combination of religiosity and hideous greed of the conquistadors, the equally strange mixture of contempt for the Indians and a willingness to exploit them as well as a paternalistic concern for their welfare in Viceroy Toledo. It has a remarkable precision of detail, depth of analysis, and epic scope that make it difficult to put down. "Conquest of the Incas" is certainly one of the finest-perhaps the finest-large-scale Historical study I have ever read. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |