American Historical Writing on the History of the Conquest of Mexico
William H. Prescott is remembered as the first American scientific historiographer. Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico with a Preliminary view of the Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror, Hernando Cortez Vol. 1 analyzes the politics of the multiple correspondences between the Spanish conquistador party and the Aztecs from their initial meeting to the fall of the Aztec empire in modern day Mexico. Prescott includes thoughtful discussion of the influence the conquest had on the birth of Ancient Mexican civilization.
Prescott’s account in this five-hundred-page first volume of three was authenticated by manuscripts taken from the Royal Academy of History in Madrid. Thus, the book itself is important for learning about the dynamics between the indigenous peoples and Spanish foreigners. In the first picture, you can see the multitextured marbled cover with golden embroidery indicating that this book was made with a lot of importance and value, although, its condition is starting to deteriorate. The second image is of the cover page, featuring a portrait of Cortés.
Prescott takes a favorable view of the conquest of Mexico because of what it represented, namely how civilizations evolved from what he would describe as barbarianism to peak political, social, and cultural functioning. This item falls into a subtheme of the exhibition of Reckoning with history, identity, and defining national cultures because it mainly works to draw out lessons that can be learned from the history of the Hispanic World and starts to define an emerging
American perspective within it.
-- Joel Varner
Bibliography
Jaksic, Ivan. The Hispanic World and American Intellectual Life, 1820-1880. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.