The book you hold in your hands does not pretend to be a chronicle of the conquest of the American continent, but rather a series of images of a violent world, of specific episodes that unfolded throughout the 16th century within that great historical event.

Based on solid documentary evidence and from the perspective of the characters themselves, through a 16th-century lens rather than a 21st-century one, you will witness key episodes of the American adventure, from the conquest of the Canary Islands, which served as the first testing ground for new ocean navigation techniques and military and commercial tactics, to the defense of the empire against incursions by Spain's main enemies in Europe—France and England—at the epicenter of Panama, the main hub for communications between the two continents.

The conquest was neither one of saints and heroes, nor of genocidal figures. The world of the 16th century, and indeed of all eras, was extremely violent, because violence is inherent to the human species. They will witness the violence of the Spanish conquistadors against the Native American peoples, against the Maroons, and against the English, and the violence of all of them against the Spanish, but also the violence between the native peoples and the Maroon Africans, among the natives themselves, and among the Spanish conquistadors, in bloody civil wars. The conquest of America was a history of violence.