Both books are great.

Loved the revelation of planted food forests.

Also "The Conquest of New Spain" .. written as a first hand account by a soldier for Cortes.

Obviously cruel and exploitative what the conquistadors did, but it's an example how fact can be sometimes more incredible than fiction.

How a small band of soldiers got in way over their heads and had to bluff and bully their way through, or would have certainly been killed.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/108490.The_Conquest_of_N...

Of course, another major factor there is that just about everyone subject to the Aztecs hated them for a variety of reasons, but most obviously all the raiding/kidnapping and blood sacrifice. That's not to say the Spanish Empire was necessarily better, but their opportunities would have been much slimmer if the Aztecs had been even a little bit less all-around cruel.

if you enjoyed that, i very much recommend this work of historical fiction:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127938747-you-dreamed-of...

Strongly second these recommendations. I enormously enjoyed them for both their information density, but also their extremely clear and proficient writing style. Absolute class journalism.

Also great is The Fall of Civilizations' episode about Tenochtitlan [1].

The podcast is the work of a British historian named Paul M. M. Cooper, who's also published a book derived from the podcast. Each episode is really well researched, incorporating recent discoveries rather than uncritically repeating old tropes. No filler, no theatrics, just really well-told history, backed by real sources.

Another excellent history podcast is The Rest is History [2], who also devoted an excellent (albeit much shorter) episode to the same topic.

[1] https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/

[2] https://therestishistory.com/episodes/

Is it politics free? As in, no left rewrite of the noble savage? Because all those tribes that instant-joined the conquistadors still negate all that "utopia destroyed by evil europeans" story.

Despite being relatively conservative, I don’t think The Rest is History would appeal to someone who thinks any telling of history that doesn’t fit a far-right worldview is “political.”

There’s no such thing as politics-free history.

But such a world-view wrapped in tales, eternalizes suffering and does refuse to intervene in toxic cultures stuck? Take the middle east- there where two attempts at a two state solution, and the victims of the story, rejected both, wanting a "final" jew free solution. How does one feel contributing to progress - when reality moves so obviously orthogonal to the stories you tell yourself?

I think the rest is history did a great job of providing a balanced take in their multi part series on Cortez. They didn't shy away from the brutality on either side of the conquest. That is to say, they explored the context for why so many logal groups allied with Cortez, and the critical role of La Malinche as a translator and former Aztec slave.

Thanks. Thats the sort of answer that promises really interesting complex reality, without a massaged in moral-message that removes all learnings for today. I shall give it a try.

Actually better is the book "The Fifth Sun: A new history of the Aztecs" written in Nahuatl (the Aztec language) and translated by Camille Townsend. It is an account of how the Aztecs viewed conquest, which they didn't see as a conquest initially. Also the descriptions of the city of Tenochitlan indicate that it was just as sophisticated, and cosmopolitan as it is today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Sun:_A_New_History_of_th...

there is this song by Randy Newman - the great nations of Europe. I highly recommend it as a history lesson :-( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxNQxu7PWKM

   ...
   Columbus sailed for India
   Found Salvador instead
   He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead
   They got TB and typhoid and athlete's foot
   Diphtheria and the flu
   Excuse me great nations coming through!

   Hide your wives and daughters
   Hide your sons as well
   With the great nations of Europe you never can tell

   From where you and I are standing
   At the end of a century
   Europes have sprung up everywhere as even I can see
   But there on the horizon as a possibility
   Some bug from out of Africa might come for you and me
   Destroying everything in its path
   From sea to shining sea
   Like the great nations of Europe
   In the sixteenth century