Research Catalog
Death in the snow : Pedro de Alvarado and the illusive conquest of Peru
- Title
- Death in the snow : Pedro de Alvarado and the illusive conquest of Peru / W. George Lovell.
- Author
- Lovell, W. George (William George), 1951-
- Publication
- Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2022]
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 23-1060 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- xv, 237 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, facsimiles, maps; 24 cm.
- Summary
- "Pedro de Alvarado is best known as the right-hand man of Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico (1519-21) and the ruthless conqueror of Guatemala some years later. Far less known is his intent to intrude in the conquest of Peru and lay claim to Quito, a wealthy domain in the far north of the Inca Empire. To this end, Alvarado constructed a massive fleet, which sailed south from Central America to what is now Ecuador, making landfall on 25 February 1534. Engaging both the European and Indigenous contexts in which Alvarado operated, George Lovell illuminates this gap in the record, narrating a dramatic story of greed and hubris. Upon reaching Ecuador, Alvarado's formidable entourage--some five hundred Spanish combatants and two thousand Indigenous conscripts--marched from the Pacific coast to the Andean sierra. Though Quito was his intended destination, he never made it. During a treacherous transit across the mountains, Alvarado's party was engulfed by heavy snowfall and numbing cold, which proved the expedition's undoing. Those who survived the ordeal discovered that other Spaniards--Diego de Almagro and Sebastián de Benalcázar, acting in allegiance with Francisco Pizarro--had reached Quito before them, thereby claiming first right of conquest. Believing he had no option, if strife between rival sides was to be avoided, Alvarado sold his costly machinery of war-- men, horses, weaponry, and ships--to those who had beaten him to the prize. All but ruined, he returned humiliated to Central America. Death in the Snow brings to light the delusions of one headstrong conquistador and mourns the loss of untold Indigenous lives, casualties of Alvarado's lust for fame and fortune."--
- Series Statement
- McGill-Queen's Iberian and Latin American cultures series ; 5
- Uniform Title
- McGill-Queen's Iberian and Latin American cultures series ; 5.
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Biographies.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Call Number
- JFE 23-1060
- ISBN
- 0228014409
- 9780228014409
- OCLC
- 1309960452
- Author
- Lovell, W. George (William George), 1951- author.
- Title
- Death in the snow : Pedro de Alvarado and the illusive conquest of Peru / W. George Lovell.
- Publisher
- Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2022]
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Series
- McGill-Queen's Iberian and Latin American cultures series ; 5McGill-Queen's Iberian and Latin American cultures series ; 5.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Chronological Term
- 1522-1548
- Other Form:
- Online version: Lovell, W. George (William George), 1951- Death in the snow. Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2022 0228015464 9780228015468 (OCoLC)1335161878
- Research Call Number
- JFE 23-1060