Yep, there’s a book by William Goldman. Stroll on down to your friendly local library and check it out today!
And damn, I wish I knew of as many interesting Spanish figures as everyone else.
Manx, smallpox was not a rare disease in Spain during the Middle Ages, which is why it is not mentioned in the first crónicas. It was not until the native people got sick that the Spanish use the illness to their advantage. They didn’t know at the beginning that the natives were not accustomed to smallpox.
I am confused Karlgrenze, are you suggesting that the spanish used an early version of biological warfare? Because you can imagine that I studied early colonial times in South America and I can assure you that no such thing was taught to us in school or for that matter in college.
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Estilicon – it’s more like the Spanish started “using it to their advantage” in the sense of opportunism: realizing that it gave them the upper hand to, for instance, launch the final attack on Mexico-Tenochtitlan just as an epidemic had ravaged the city. The Eurasians had learned over the Middle Ages that disease outbreaks were likely in besieged populations, that could give you an advantage if your guys didn’t catch it as bad, or got over it quicker – in the New World they realized epidemics which in a European siege would moderately degrade both sides of the war, here were just wiping out one of the sides almost completely, so they would take it as a chance to strike the death blow – they must have thought it was God smiting the heathens on behalf of Cristiandad.
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Estilicón, no, what I said is that the Spaniards had no knowledge that smallpox was an uncommon (or nonexistant and thus more lethal) disease in the Americas. Smallpox was essential in the sense that it weakened the native populations, making conquering easier. But the Spaniards didn’t do that on purpose, although they gladly conquered while the natives were sick.
Christopher Columbus…an “interesting spanish figure”? I thought he was an Italian.
Hernán Cortés (or Cortez?), Ponce de León, and Francisco Pizarro are other Spanish conquistadores…
I second Cervantes (plus you can have fun and watch the musical Man of La Mancha…)
And Federico García Lorca. Interesting history, there Lorca.
Hey buddy, I got your answer:
Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba.
See if you can get an Italian perspective on him as well as a Spanish one. Also get a French perspective, although he’s probably not too popular with them.
was eva peron Spanish? I didn’t know that. I thought she was argentine. But judging from the poster’s location, Argentina, I guess he would know!