Title: BBC - History - The Story of the Conquistadors
Headings: The Story of the Conquistadors
The Story of the Conquistadors
Introduction
Colombian exchange
The Aztecs
Conquistador regret
New identities
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Content: For the first time, people discovered the true scale and shape of the earth. We are blasé about the pace of change in our own day, but has history, and our ways of seeing the world, ever moved so fast as it did in the 16th century? The conquest of much of the New World by Spanish conquistadors during those few years was surely one of history's turning points. Indeed, as Karl Marx and Adam Smith claimed, perhaps it was the greatest event in history. There were many who thought so at the time. 'When has it ever happened, either in ancient or modern times, that such amazing exploits have been achieved? Over so many climes, across so many seas, over such distances by land, to subdue the unseen and unknown? Whose deeds can be compared with those of Spain? Not even the ancient Greeks and Romans.' - Francisco Xerez, Pizarro's secretary, in his Report on the Discovery of Peru
The conquistador-turned-historian Pedro de Cieza de Leon agreed: