Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

Matthew Restall is currently the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Colonial Latin American History at Pennsylvania State University. He has a PhD in history from the University of California and specializes in the history of Mesoamerica, including the Maya, Africans in colonial Latin America, and the Spanish Conquest, all topics that appear in his Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. He has published 30 books and numerous journal articles. He has received fellowships from the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the US Capitol Historical Society.

Restall’s ability to consult original sources in Spanish, Yucatec Maya, and Nahuatl enables him to closely analyze primary sources produced across cultures. This inclusive analysis provides a more accurate history of the Spanish Conquest of the Americas, as it includes both Spanish and Indigenous perspectives. His language skills also allow Restall to interrogate previously-accepted interpretations of translated documents. For example, through his careful analysis of the language in colonial documents, Restall argues that the conquistadors were not traditional soldiers and that African conquistadors were not minor figures in the Conquest, but frequently and prominently participated in Spanish efforts.