Beyond Cortés and Montezuma: The Conquest of Mexico Revisited(IMS Culture and Society)

Beyond Cortés and Montezuma examines both European and Nahuatl texts and images that shed light on the complex narrative of contact and the ensuing conflict, negotiation, and cooperation that continued well after the colonial period.   A diverse group of scholars from Europe, Mexico, and the US with varied methodological backgrounds—linguistics, history, art history, and cultural studies—query the “conquest,” or rather conquista, of Mexico through a series of case studies that interrogate how historians, especially in Europe, Mexico, and the US, understand and interact with this concept. They consider the language used to encapsulate the event in Nahuatl documents from the colonial period, how the Spanish veterans led the transition to settlement in taking land for themselves, and the legacy of the conquista in discrimination against Tlaxcallans in modern Mexico.   Beyond Cortés and Montezuma is a compilation of nuanced reflections on the language, narratives, and memories of the conquista that balances the crimes of Spanish colonialism and asymmetries of power that existed within early New Spain with the abilities of Native peoples to resist, negotiate, and survive.    

About the Author :
Vitus Huber is professor of early modern history at the University of Fribourg. He is the author of two books on the coercive encounter between the so-called Old and New Worlds. A recipient of several research grants, he was a senior researcher and lecturer at the Universities of Munich, Bern, and Geneva as well as a visiting fellow at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, CSIC, in Madrid; Colegio de México in Mexico City; John Carter Brown Library in Providence; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris; Università degli Studi di Padova; Harvard University; and the University of Oxford.   John F. Schwaller is emeritus professor of history at the University at Albany, SUNY, and a research associate in history and Latin American studies at the University of Kansas. He is author and editor of several books as well as numerous articles on the secular clergy in early colonial Mexico, the history of the Catholic Church in Latin America, and the Nahua and Nahuatl language. He is editor of The Americas and former director of the Academy of American Franciscan History. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Ethnohistory in 2022 and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity from State University of New York in 2020.  

Review :
“In the wake of its quincentennial, the Spanish invasion of Mexico has become a dynamic and rapidly evolving field of study—of which this volume is resounding proof. The dozen skilled scholars of Beyond Cortés and Montezuma move beyond old assumptions and tropes to offer lively debate and thoughtful analysis of key aspects of this pivotal moment in world history.” —Matthew Restall, author of Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest and When Montezuma Met Cortés   “Beyond Cortés and Montezuma showcases some of the most recent historical work on the ‘Spanish conquest of Mexico.’ The authors continue to dismantle the dishearteningly sturdy narratives that erase, romanticize, or distort both Mesoamerican and European histories of this confrontational moment. In the process, they ably demonstrate that the research possibilities opened by the New Conquest History are far from exhausted.” —Laura Matthew, Marquette University