Ross Hassig

This is a book it took bravery if not foolhardiness to write. Mesoamerican arms and armour are reasonably well known from archaeological finds and artistic depictions*, but for tactics, organization, recruitment and the integration of warriors into the wider society Hassig has to build his account on decidedly shaky foundations: laconic Maya inscriptions, less well understood when this was published in 1992 than today; native traditions written down after the conquest, which may be accurate enough for the Aztec period but veer into the mythological for preceeding centuries and millennia; typological parallels; and necessarily subjective interpretations of art, which may anyway depict what should have been rather than what was.

The reader is thus well advised to take many of Hassig's specific conclusions with a helping of salt. That said, I found the book interesting enough, and a starting point for looking for more recent scholarship.

* Though even here there are important differences in interpretation. For example, a boomerang-shaped implement frequently depicted in the hands of Toltec warriors is taken by Hassig as a obsidian-edged "sword", a precursor to the Aztec macuahuitl; other scholars have interpreted it as a throwing stick, a specialized defensive tool for parrying darts, or a badge of rank without any particular practical use.… (más)

The historical narrative in this book focuses mostly on military events, but there is some political history as well, for those don't who don't care so much about the range of Spanish harquebuses. The point which interested me most was how divided the natives were, not only city against city but also between elite factions in each city. The author succeeds quite well in describing how Cortes lucky game of native alliances worked in his favor.

However, a little more detail would have been needed in some places. For instance, how was it possible for Cortes to take king Moteuczoma hostage right in the heart of his city? The author says merely that Cortes "went before Moteuczoma and seized him" (p 87), which raises more questions that it answers. He does discuss many reasons for the Aztecs' initial passivity, but a pivotal event like this would perhaps have deserved more attention. But in general this is a very informative book, especially with regard to Indian motives. The two final chapters nicely show how this conquest, which started more like a coup, ended up being one of the big watersheds in history.… (más)