Warlords of Ancient Mexico: How the Mayans and Aztecs Ruled for More Than a Thousand Years by Peter J. Tsouras

 

Book Review - Five Stars

Warlords of Ancient Mexico: How the Mayans and Aztecs Ruled for More Than a Thousand Years by Peter J. Tsouras

Imperialism was brought to Mexico by the Aztecs who were not builders, creators or innovators but exploiters. Bloody war with human sacrifice and cannibalism was brought by the invading Toltec who influenced the Aztecs and next brought their blood letting sport to the Yucatecan Mayan.

Next Inquisition crazed Cortés a military leader, who finished driving the Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula ending a 700 year war, took on the Aztec empire using Spanish military tactics.

Read this amazing book and learn how this all was accomplished.

Excerpts:

Cuitláhuac, the ninth emperor or tlatoani of the Mexica, inflicted the greatest single defeat on European arms in the entire conquest of the Americas when he drove Cortés and his combined Spanish and native army out of Tenochtitlan in 1520, killing over 1,200 Spaniards and 4,000-5,000 Indian allies.

Spanish tongues could not pronounce Náhuatl words. Cortés consistently mangled names. Cuauhnahuac (Near the Trees) became Cuer-navaca. Tollan became Tula. I have tried to use the spelling that most closely corresponds to the original name, hence Huexotzinco instead of Huexotzingo and Tlaxcallan instead of Tlaxcalla.

Cortés reinforced his own contingent and divided it into three separate elements, each of which had as many as 10,000 allies attached. A few desperate Mexica escaped to tell Cortés that each night a horde of people picked over the ruins for something to eat. He ambushed them in the early dawn, killing over 800 women and children, a stratagem in which he took much pride.

the Mexica were dying daily of hunger by the thousands

Alvarado captured a district of the city with a thousand houses; the allies butchered the 12,000 inhabitants of the district against orders. As victory beckoned, Cortés found he had less and less control of his native allies, who were determined to exterminate the Mexica. The city was resembling a vast slaughter house, and the actual perpetrators of the Mexica genocide were their own fellow Indians.

Now instead of Tlaxcallan barbarities, they suffered the gauntlet of Spanish greed.

Women were stripped to find any gold hidden on them. Young men were branded for slavery, and the comely, light-skinned young women carried off. Spanish mastiffs were set upon the priests to tear them to pieces.

Review by John M. Grimsrud

In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Book Review - Five Stars

In the South Seas is authored by Robert Louis Stevenson, one of the most distinguished communicators of our time whose extraordinary prestigious vocabulary makes his narration pleasurable.

I loved this book that touched on a variety of subjects ranging from cannibalism to tropical topography, and personal profiles of personalities with insightful detail.

Excerpts:

We have all read of the swiftness of the day’s coming and departure in low latitudes; it is a point on which the scientific and sentimental tourist are at one, and has inspired some tasteful poetry. The period certainly varies with the season; but here is one case exactly noted. Although the dawn was thus preparing by four, the sun was not up till six; and it was half-past five before we could distinguish our expected islands from the clouds on the horizon. Eight degrees south, and the day two hours a-coming. The interval was passed on deck in the silence of expectation, the customary thrill of landfall heightened by the strangeness of the shores that we were then approaching. Slowly they took shape in the attenuating darkness. Ua-huna, piling up to a truncated summit, appeared the first upon the starboard bow; almost abeam arose our destination, Nuka-hiva, whelmed in cloud; and betwixt and to the southward, the first rays of the sun displayed the needles of Ua-pu. These pricked about the line of the horizon; like the pinnacles of some ornate and monstrous church, they stood there, in the sparkling brightness of the morning, the fit signboard of a world of wonders.

The Paumotuan not only saves, grudges, and works, he steals besides; or, to be more precise, he swindles. He will never deny a debt, he only flees his creditor.

He is always keen for an advance; so soon as he has fingered it he disappears. He knows your ship; so soon as it nears one island, he is off to another. You may think you know his name; he has already changed it. Pursuit in that infinity of isles were fruitless.

Review by John M. Grimsrud