A classic in its field, The conquest of America is a study of cultural confrontation in the new World, with implications far beyond sixteenth-century America. The book offers an original interpretation of both columbus's discovery of America and the Spaniard's' Subsequent conquest, colonization, and destruction of pre-columbian cultures in Mexico and the Caribbean. Using sixteenth-century sources, the distinguished French writer and critic tzvetan todorov examines the beliefs and behavior of the Spanish conquistador and of the Aztecs, adversaries in a clash of cultures that resulted in the near extermination of mesoamerica's Indian population. A new foreword by Anthony pagden discusses the implications of todorov's landmark study.