Following in the footsteps of the Spanish adventurers, filmmaker Wood retraces the path of the conquistadors from Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, and from the deserts of North Mexico to the heights of Machu Picchu. As he travels the same routes as Hernan Cortés, and Francisco and Gonzalo Pizarro, Wood describes the events that accompanied the epic sixteenth-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires. He also follows parts of Orellana's extraordinary voyage down the Amazon and of Cabeza de Vaca's arduous journey across America to the Pacific. Wood reconstructs both sides of the conquest, drawing from eyewitness accounts, letters, and Aztec texts recorded after the fall of Mexico. He also relates the present-day customs, rituals, and oral traditions of the people he meets. Wood grapples with the moral legacy of the European invasion and with the implications of an event that swept away civilizations, religions, and ways of life.

Published to accompany BBC television series, Conquistadors.

Prologue: "The Lord of the Snow Star" -- Cortes and Montezuma -- The war of the worlds -- The conquest of the Incas -- The great war of the Incas -- El Dorado : the journey of Francisco Orellana -- The adventure of Cabeza de Vaca -- Epilogue: "All the world is human.".