Research Catalog

Title

Conquest : the destruction of the American Indios / Massimo Livi-Bacci ; translated by Carl Ipsen.

Author

Livi Bacci, Massimo

Publication

Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity, c2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 317 p., [24] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps; 23 cm.

Summary

The author shows how not only the 'imported' diseases but also a series of economic and social factors played a role in the disastrous decline on the native populations in the Americas.

Uniform Title

Conquista. English

Alternative Title

Conquista.

Subject

• To 1830
• Geschichte 1492-1600
• History, Modern 1601-
• History, Early Modern 1451-1600
• Demography > history
• American Indian or Alaska Native > history
• Indians > Population > History
• Indians > First contact with other peoples
• Indians, Treatment of > Latin America
• Latin America
• America > Discovery and exploration > Spanish
• Spain > Colonies > America
• Latin America > History > To 1830

Genre/Form

• History
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-292) and index.

Language (note)

• Translated from the Italian.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• In which are described three voyages that changed the face of a continent, the American population at the time of contact, the demographic catastrophe of the Indios, the sorrowful increase of the Africans, and the expansion of the Europeans -- A humble Franciscan, two combative Dominicans, an Italian humanist at the court of Spain, a remorseful viceroy, a naturalist 'alcalde', a Europeanized Inca and an Inca fallen on hard times, a conquistador observer ... different witnesses and a common analysis of the catastrophe -- A tireless traveler disrupts a continent, but a quarter century too late. From the Caribbean to Perú: a brief history of a long voyage and of the suspected assassin of Huayna Capac, father of Atahuallpa. The true and presumed sins of smallpox and other crowd diseases --
• A golden nose ring and the tragic destiny of the Taíno. An Indio follows a deer and discovers a mountain of silver. A people in constant movement, over 1,000 miles and at an elevation of 4,000 meters, and the wealth of Potosí. Deeds and misdeeds of gold and silver -- Hispaniola, the terrestrial paradise of Columbus and the imagination of modern scholars. One hundred thousand or ten million Taíno? The catastrophe of the Antilles as seen from close up and a credible Leyenda Negra. People die while animals flourish -- A great and rich city, dreamed of by Columbus and destroyed by Cortés. The modern dispute over the population of Meso-America. Tributaries, tributes, and population. Thirteen brigantines hauled overland and a tunnel in the rocks. Men and beasts --
• The Incas and many millions of subjects. A quarter century of wars: Indios versus Indios, Spaniards versus Indios, Spaniards versus Spaniards. "Quipo" pen and ink. A viceroy who counts, measures, and acts. Epidemics: the moderns debate them, the ancients ignore them -- Colonists and "Paulists" hunting down Guaraní between the Paraná and the Uruguay. One hundred Jesuits for 100,000 Indios. Steel axes and security in exchange for Christian habits. Monogamy and reproduction stronger than crowd diseases.

ISBN

• 9780745640006 (hbk.)
• 0745640001 (hbk.)
• 074564001X (pbk.)
• 9780745640013 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 156812626
• SCSB-10808265

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library