LEADER 04661nam 2200481 450 001 9910826189003321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-292-73513-8 024 7 $a10.7560/733121 035 $a(CKB)3710000001085069 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL4825828 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr11507295 035 $a(OCoLC)1022787164 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC4825828 035 $a(DE-B1597)588113 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780292735132 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000001085069 100 $a20180223h19561956 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $2rdacontent 182 $2rdamedia 183 $2rdacarrier 200 10$aNaval power in the conquest of Mexico /$fC. Harvey Gardiner 210 1$aAustin, Texas :$cUniversity of Texas Press,$d1956. 210 4$d©1956 215 $a1 online resource (282 pages) $cillustrations 311 $a0-292-73312-7 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tForeword -- $tContents -- $tIllustrations and Maps -- $tAbbreviations -- $tI. Spanish Wake -- $tII. Seat of Power -- $tIII. Trial by Water: Failure -- $tIV. The Beginning of the End -- $tV. The Key of the Whole War -- $tVI. Trial by Water: Success -- $tVII. Conclusions -- $tGlossary -- $tBibliography -- $tIndex 330 $aIn this account of the naval aspect of Hernando Cortés's invasion of the Aztec Empire, C. Harvey Gardiner has added another dimension to the drama of Spanish conquest of the New World and to Cortés himself as a military strategist. The use of ships, in the climactic moment of the Spanish-Aztec clash, which brought about the fall of Tenochtitlán and consequently of all of Mexico, though discussed briefly in former English-language accounts of the struggle, had never before been detailed and brought into a perspective that reveals its true significance. Gardiner, on the basis of previously unexploited sixteenth-century source materials, has written a historical revision that is as colorful as it is authoritative. Four centuries before the term was coined, Cortés, in the key years of 1520?1521, used the technique of "total war." He was able to do so victoriously primarily because of his courage in taking a gamble and his brilliance in tactical planning, but these qualities might well have signified nothing without the fortunate presence in his forces of a master shipwright, Martin López. As the exciting story unrolls, Cortés, López, and the many other participants in the venture of creating and using a navy in the midst of the New World mountains and forests are seen as real personalities, not embalmed historical stereotypes, and the indigenous defenders are revealed as complex human beings facing huge odds. Much of the tale is told in the actual words of the protagonists; Gardiner has probed letters, court records, and other contemporary documents. He has also compared this naval feat of the Spaniards with other maritime events from ancient times to the present. Naval Power in the Conquest of Mexico as a book was itself the result of an interesting combination of circumstances. C. Harvey Gardiner, as teacher, scholar, and writer, had long been interested in Latin American history generally and Mexican history in particular. During World War II, from 1942 to 1946, he served with the U.S. Navy. As he relates: "One day in early autumn 1945, while loafing on the bow of a naval vessel knifing its way southward in the Pacific a few degrees north of the Equator, my thoughts turned to the naval side of the just-ended conflict, and in time the question emerged, 'I wonder how the little ships and the little men will fare in the eventual record?' Then, because I was eager to return to my civilian life of pursuit of Latin American themes, the concomitant question came: 'I wonder what little fighting ships and minor men of early Latin America have been consigned to the oblivion of historical neglect?' As I began later to rummage my way from Columbus toward modem times, I seized upon the Mexican Conquest as the prime period with pay dirt for the researcher in quest of the answer to that latter question." 606 $aTenochtitla?n, Battle of, Mexico City, Mexico, 1521 607 $aMexico$xHistory$yConquest, 1519-1540$xNaval operations 615 0$aTenochtitla?n, Battle of, Mexico City, Mexico, 1521. 676 $a972/.02 700 $aGardiner$b C. Harvey$g(Clinton Harvey),$01715756 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910826189003321 996 $aNaval power in the conquest of Mexico$94113746 997 $aUNINA