Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9780745640006
Year: 2007
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (UK)
Pages: 368


Description:
The arrival of Europeans in the Americas brought with it a
demographic catastrophe of vast proportions for the native
populations. What were the causes?


The surviving documentation is extraordinarily rich:
conquistadors, religious figures, administrators, officials, and
merchants kept records, carried out inquiries, and issued edicts.
The native world, for its part, has also left eloquent traces of
events as well as direct testimony of its harsh subjugation at the
hands of the Europeans.


Drawing on these sources, Livi Bacci shows how not only the
'imported' diseases but also a series of economic and social
factors played a role in the disastrous decline of the native
populations. He argues that the catastrophe was not the inevitable
outcome of contact with Europeans but was a function of both the
methods of the conquest and the characteristics of the subjugated
societies.



This gripping narrative recounts one of the greatest tragedies
of human history, one whose protagonists include figures like
Columbus, Montezuma, Atahuallpa, Pizarro, Corts and Tupac
Amaru.