This document summarizes Matthew Restall's book "The Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest" which debunks common myths about the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The book studies the actual conquest and its consequences, breaking down each myth. For example, it shows that the conquest was not achieved by just a handful of adventurers, and that the Spanish forces included many indigenous warriors not just Spanish soldiers. It also dispels the myth that disease alone led to the decline of indigenous populations or that the Spanish were seen as gods by indigenous people.

1. Seven Myths of
the Spanish
Conquest
By: Todd Beasley

2. Introduction
 The Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
was published in 2003 and written by
Matthew Restall. The book shows some of
the myths that are un true throughout the
public.Restall did tons of research to
figure out what was true and what isnt.
Throughout the book he discusses why
some things are and why some are not.

3. Introduction (Cont.)
 Restall
studied the
Conquest itself and the consequences. He
breaks down each and every myth and
describes all of them. He shows that the
conquest can be determined as three
dimensional. He gives his views on each of
them and why.

4. A Handful of Adventurers
 Chapter one introduces three crucial
themes: The first being that the European
discovery and conquest of the Americas
was history’s greatest achievement, the
second being that this was achieved by a
mere handful of adventurers, which gives
rise to the third being the question of how
did they do it?

5. A Handful of Adventurers
 Columbus, Cortez, and Pizzaro are said to
have been the three most remarkable
and significant figures that triggered the
events that followed. While Columbus
discovered the Americas for early-modern
Europeans, the other two led the initial
expeditions that discovered and partially
destroyed the two major empires that
existed in the Americas in the early
sixteenth century.

6. Neither Paid Nor Forced
 Cortes avoids using the word soldier when
referring to his army of 300 men on foot.
Conquistadors were soldiers and nothing
else whenIlarioneda Bergamo heard of
the Conquest fromSpaniards in Mexico in
the 1760s.

7. Neither Paid Nor Forced
 Thegovernor forced Cortes to marry
Velazquez’s wife’smaid-in-
waiting.Velazquez received word of
Cortes’s recruit, Franciscode Montejo’s
departure with letters and gold on his
shipand Velazquez sent a ship on an
unsuccessfultransatlantic chase after
Montejo.

8. Invisible Warriors
 Freemen were often fighting along side
the Spanish but have rarely been
mentioned throughout the book. This is
because the perception that the Spanish
seemed to dominate the battlefield with
sheer might.

9. Invisible Warriors
 Many of the conquistadores were
European. Most of the others were
Portugal. Another big portion of the
people were from Spain.

10. The Indians Are Coming to an
End
 The Spanish were not seen as Gods.
Columbus spread the myth of apotheosis.
This myth spread drastically of the
apotheosis.

11. The Indians Are Coming to an
End
 TheNative societies were to innocent to
survive once the Europeans came along.
The Europeans took over the Natives.
There are some myths that say that the
Europeans were “Monster like”