In 1945, three young brothers joined and eventually led Brazil's first government-sponsored expedition into its Amazonian rainforests. After more expeditions into unknown terrain, they became South America's most famous explorers, spending the rest of their lives with the resilient tribal communities they found there. People of the Rainforest recounts the Villas Boas brothers' four thrilling and dangerous 'first contacts' with isolated indigenous people, and their lifelong mission...

“In his long career of exploration and scholarship, Hemming has become a powerful advocate for the Amazon.”—The New York Times, John HemmingAmazonia is one of the most magnificent habitats on earth. Containing the world’s largest river, with more water and a broader basin than any other, it hosts a great expanse of tropical rain forest, home to the planet’s most luxuriant biological diversity.The human beings who settled in the region 10,000 years ago learned to li...

An expansive biography of William (or Guillermo, as he is known in South America) Miller, a soldier well-recognized and loved not just in modern Peru but across the swath of nations liberated from Spanish rule during the nineteenth century.During Admiral Thomas Cochrane’s demolition of imperial Spain’s naval presence in the Pacific amid the revolutionary wars for Spanish South America, all the raids were carried out by his marines under a young officer called Willi...

An important addition to the annals of archaeological exploration in the high Andes of Peru by architect/explorer Vincent R. Lee describing lost Vilcabamba, the once-powerful Incas' mysterious redoubt in the jungles of the Upper Amazon. Woven together are the region's bloody history in the aftermath of the Spanish Conquest, the saga of intrepid early efforts to unlock Vilcabamba's secrets three centuries later and the author's long but successful campaign to bring the hidden ruins of the I...

The thrilling stories of the three pioneering English naturalists’ explorations and discoveries in the world’s richest ecosystemOne hundred and fifty years ago, the young naturalists Alfred Wallace, Henry Walter Bates, and Richard Spruce were on a journey. Their destination, Amazonia—the world’s largest tropical forest with the greatest river system and richest ecosystem—was then an almost-undiscovered environment to Western explorers and scientists.In ...

In 1532, the magnificent Inca empire was the last great civilization still isolated from the rest of humankind. The Conquest of the Incas is the definitive history of this civilization's overthrow, from the invasion by Pizarro's small gang of conquistadors and the Incas' valiant attempts to expel the invaders to the destruction of the Inca realm, the oppression of its people, and the modern discoveries of Machu Picchu and the lost city of Vilcabamba. This authoritative, wide-rangi...

The epic story of the fall of the Inca Empire to Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the aftermath of a bloody civil war, and the recent discovery of the lost guerrilla capital of the Incas, Vilcabamba, by three American explorers.In 1532, the fifty-four-year-old Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The extraordinary true story of a journey into the deepest recesses of the Amazon to track one of the planet's last uncontacted indigenous tribes.Even today there remain tribes in the far reaches of the Amazon rainforest that have avoided contact with modern civilization. Deliberately hiding from the outside world, they are the last survivors of an ancient culture that predates the arrival of Columbus in the New World. In this g...

In the sixteenth century the King of Spain issued his soldiers with a three-pronged mission: to find gold, spread the word of Christianity and claim new territories for Spain. The Conquistadors, as they became known, set off into the world to do just that, and nothing was to stand in their way. Some say that the discovery of the New World is the greatest event in history. Others, that it amounted to the bloodiest massacre of all time. Conquistadors follows the Spanish explorers as they unl...

What role did indigenous peoples play in the Spanish conquest of Mexico? Ross Hassig explores this question in Mexico and the Spanish Conquest by incorporating primary accounts from the Indians of Mexico and revisiting the events of the conquest against the backdrop of the Aztec empire, the culture and politics of Mesoamerica, and the military dynamics of both sides. He analyzes the weapons, tactics, and strategies employed by both the Indians and the Spaniards, and concludes that...

The greatest period of Inca expansion occurred during the reigns of Pachacuti (1438–71), Tupa Inca (1471–93), and Huayna Capac (1493–1527).From the mountain stronghold of Cuzco, they subjugated the surrounding kingdoms and territories, absorbing their civilizations and their peoples. By 1525, they dominated much of the west of the continent, relying on fortified strongholds, an extensive system of roads and bridges, and obligatory military service to control local ...

A brilliant biography that “reads like a wonderful novel but is researched like a masterwork of history” (Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs), this is the epic story of the famous South American general and statesman Simón Bolívar.Simón Bolívar—El Libertador—freed six countries from Spanish rule and is still the most revered figure in South America today. He traveled from Amazon jungles to the Andes mountains, engaged in endless battles and for...