The Conquistadores: Building a Spanish Empire in the Americas (Proud Heritage: the Hispanic Library)

By R. Conrad Stein

The Conquistadors were both Spanish warriors and explorers driven by their three passions of glory, God, and gold. Kids will learn about the fascinating story of Cortes and his conquest of Mexico as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592961444
• ISBN13: 9781592961443
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Child's World
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.3" x 10.1"
• Age Range: 8 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 6

Customer Reviews

An introduction to six of the Spanish Conquistadores

R. Conrad Stein has written enough books for the various series published by The Child's World press that he not only know the formula, but how to exploit it to his advantage. Like all of those other volumes, "The Conquistadores: Building a Spanish Empire in the Americas" is required to have four chapters, but Stein is allowed to have detailed sidebars in each chapter and he really takes advantage of that in this book. The first chapter on Spain and the Conquistadores explains how fighting for several centuries to free their land from Moorish rule created a warrior class in Spain that took advantage of the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus to take armies across the sea to serve God and the monarch (and also to get rich). The other three chapters are devoted to the three most famous conquistadores, namely Hernando Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico, Francisco Pizarro and the Conquest of the Incas, and Francisco de Coronado, Explorer of the American Southwest. But then Stein also devotes sizeable sidebars to Vasco de Balboa, Discoverer of the Pacific, Cabeza de Vaca, the Compassionate Conquistador, and Hernando de Soto, Explorer of the Mississippi. The Time Line in the back of the book shows who was doing what when and where to help put each conquistador in perspective. The result is a nice introduction to a half dozen of the key conquistadors who helped to establish a Spanish presence in the New World on a level that is at least comparable to what you would expect to find in the early chapters of a standard grade school American history textbook. The book is illustrated with historic prints and paintings (the cover is a detail of Spanish soliders taken from Juan O'Gorman's "Historical Mural). The first eight volumes in this series, "A Proud Heritage: The Hispanic Library," were published last year and "The Conquistadores is one this year's eight new volumes. The others are devoted to "Christopher Columbus: Opening the Americas to European Exploration," "Emiliano Zapata: Revolutionary and Champion of Poor Farmers," "Frida Kahlo: An Artist Celebrates Life," "Hernando Cortés: Conquistador and Empire Builder," "Mario Molina: Chemist and Nobel Prize Winner," and "Pancho Villa: Mexican Revolutionary Hero," as well as a volume on "The Changing Face of America: Hispanic Roots, Hispanic Pride" (the first set had a volume on Coronado). Given that Hispanics are now the second largest ethnic group in the country the value of a series like this is better than ever.