Read this book 20 years ago.

Prescott, Arizona is named after author William H. Precott because another book of his called “The Conquest of Mexico” was extremely popular all across America in the 1850’s and ’60s.

I read “The Conquest of Mexico” before this “Ferdinand and Isabella”, and immediately afterwards I had to read “The Conquest of Peru”. They are both riveting.

Prescott’s mid-19th century style was like that of an engrossing fiction novel. They were page turners, even though, then, I wasn’t so familiar with the history of the Spanish Empire as I am now. Prescott presumed a great ignorance of such history within the American mind, and wonderfully fills in gaps with colorful, precise illustration.

Prescott also presumed a strong prejudice against the Spanish in the minds of American readers, and British, which was the result of centuries of propaganda creating the “Black Legend” of the Spanish, whose purpose was ultimately to justify plundering Spanish lands, ships, gold and silver. He gives a more balanced perspective of an old, old enemy.

“The Conquest of Mexico” was regarded by the haughty British in the 19th century as a masterpiece of historical literature, the first masterpiece the “lesser” American intellects had produced.

Again, in America it was extremely popular, and in what became Arizona and New Mexico this book is why we have things named “Montezuma” (the last king of the Aztecs). It was presumed the Ancient Puebloan ruins of the American Southwest were related to the Aztecs – and maybe they were.

Anyways, it’s hard not to feel sentiments of romance when reading Spanish history, especially in all of Precott’s books, because Prescott did not feel 19th century romance – as was the spirit of the times – diminished his words. He believed romance added to them. I agree.

It’s hard for me not to look at the Conquistadors through rose-colored glasses, even though they were involved in brutal wars of conquest. At the very least, the Conquistadors were men of might, ferocity, vision, perseverance and even wisdom that perhaps have never existed before. All their stories are awesome, and they should be remembered.

Maybe you’d think I’m deranged to associate romance in any way with the Conquistadors, but it is that very sentiment which inspires a fascination with those times which serve as the birth of the Modern Era.

But Ferdinand and Isabella were right before the most epic times of the Conquistadors. 1469 is when Isabel of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon and Catalunya. This union was the foundation of modern Spain, whose ancestors on the Iberian Peninsula had been fighting Muslims incessantly since 711, when an Arab-led army crushed the old Visigothic kingdom, and established Muslim rule over most of Iberia, for a time.

Small Christian Kingdoms in the far north of Iberia like Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, Aragon and Castile over the next 700-plus years slowly reconquered Iberia from the Muslims, and pushed them ever further south back to Africa. Herein is more romance in Spanish history with knights in shining armor like El Cid. All the castles built across Castile in this long contest also add to it.

(Lose Castellanos construyeron muchos castillos a traves de Castilla en su Reconquista.)

The final Reconquista of Iberia occurred in 1492 with the peaceful fall of the last Muslim kingdom of Granada. With this final Conquest, Ferdinand and Isabella felt comfortable allocating money to Columbus that same year to sail west to Caribbean islands, and begin a work that became one of the world’s most impressive empires.

Though Castile and Aragon were to be administered as separate kingdoms after this most famous marriage, and were for a while, destiny would ultimately unite the two under one crown. Most benefits of the New World Empire accrued to Castile and not Catalunya. This ultimately created ever impossible friction between the two, and a consequent loss of Catalan sovereignty to Castile (and Catalans still want separation from Madrid).

But this loss came later, long after these most famous Catholic Monarchs had died. Much happened before then (a New World Order was born – and Portugal helped too as I once wrote HERE).

Nicolo Machiavelli was mostly inspired by the political machinations of Ferdinand of Aragon and Catalunya when he wrote “The Prince”. Ferdinand was politically astute and ruthless. Ferdinand kept his control over parts of Italy in spite of French power trying to snatch it from him.

I learned that Ferdinand inspired Machiavelli only a couple years ago, and I do wonder what new revelations I would glean from reading “Ferdinand and Isabella” again.

After all, the complexity of your understanding of history is perfectly correlated to your understanding of the complexity of modern times. It is not that history speaks specifically to modern events, but mankind has always been beholden to sin, vice and games of thrones. Even the past from hundreds of years ago sheds light on the present. That’s why you still read “The Prince”, as I said HERE.

if you’re understanding of history is limited, you’re probably going to believe lots of propaganda from the power brokers who control this world.

Regardless, I remember turning pages of “Ferdinand and Isabella” like I did with “The Conquest of Mexico.”

I’ll bring this book with me on my journey.