The Conquest Of The Incas

The Conquest of the Incas (1973) by John Hemming – Book Club Associates

History has a habit of making enormous catastrophes sound terribly tidy.

“Conquest”, for instance, is a wonderfully compact word for what was in reality an extraordinary collision of ambition, violence, disease, politics, betrayal, courage, greed, religion and some truly spectacular misunderstandings.

John Hemming’s The Conquest of the Incas, published here by Book Club Associates in 1973, tackles one of the most dramatic episodes in world history: the Spanish overthrow of the Inca Empire in the sixteenth century.

And dramatic really is the word.

The Incas ruled a vast and highly organised empire stretching across much of the Andes, with roads, administration, agriculture, armies and cities operating on a scale that astonished the Europeans who encountered them.

Then along came Francisco Pizarro and a comparatively tiny group of Spaniards, who somehow managed to involve themselves in an imperial civil war, capture an emperor, demand an enormous ransom, execute him anyway and set in motion the destruction of one of the great civilisations of the Americas.

It is the sort of sequence of events that would sound implausible in fiction.

Hemming examines the conquest in depth, drawing on contemporary records and later scholarship to reconstruct the personalities, conflicts and extraordinary circumstances that shaped the fall of the Inca state.

This is not simply a story of Spaniards marching efficiently across a continent while everyone else politely surrendered.

Far from it.

The conquest was messy, chaotic and prolonged, involving shifting alliances, indigenous resistance, internal divisions and repeated attempts by the Incas to recover their independence.

The geography alone deserves respect.

The Andes are not exactly gentle campaigning country.

Armies, messengers, horses and supplies had to move through mountains, valleys and high-altitude terrain that would make most modern travellers reconsider whether the trip was really necessary.

Hemming also gives proper attention to the Inca side of the story, making this more than a straightforward tale of European adventure.

The result is a richer and more complex account of conquest, resistance and cultural destruction, with all the uncomfortable contradictions that come with it.

There are moments of astonishing bravery.

There are moments of appalling cruelty.

There are diplomatic manoeuvres, betrayals, sieges, rebellions and enough political intrigue to make a modern cabinet reshuffle look relaxing.

Published in the 1970s, this edition also has that pleasingly substantial feel common to serious historical works of the period.

It is the sort of book that expects the reader to settle in.

No ten-point summary.

No “five things you need to know”.

Just history, properly complicated.

This copy is in Good condition, making it a solid and readable example for anyone interested in the Incas, the Spanish conquest, colonial history or the wider history of South America.

It is ideal for readers who enjoy history with plenty of human drama, political complexity and the occasional reminder that civilisation can change very quickly when ambitious outsiders arrive with steel, horses and extremely flexible attitudes toward diplomacy.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where empires rise, empires fall, and old history books continue occupying shelf space with remarkable resilience.

ISBN: None
Condition: Good

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