It is fashionable, even expected these days, to vilify the efforts of early explorers and conquistadors from Spain, hurling upon them defamatory accusations of “cultural genocide”, “militant fanaticism”, and “imposition of brute force”. The oligarchic tribal orders balancing atop pyramids of skulls and nourished by rivers of blood are by this paradigm viewed to be a lost Eden desecrated by the “vulgar greed of Western capitalism”. But what had truly taken place? Were the Spanish a horde of devastating oppressors or pioneers carrying with them a bright future? While revisionist theories advocate the former standpoint, genuine historical truth points to...