Conquest that never was: Pedro de Alvarado and the delusion of Peru / W. George Lovell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lovell, W. George, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Alvarado, Pedro de, 1485?-1541.

Alvarado, Pedro de.

Peru--History--Conquest, 1522-1548.

Peru.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (162 pages)

Place of Publication:

Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press, 2026.

Summary:

The Conquest That Never Was uncovers one of the most ambitious but disastrous campaigns of the early colonial period. Pedro de Alvarado—best known as Cortés’s lieutenant in Mexico and later as the conqueror of Guatemala—sought to extend his fame and fortune by seizing Quito in the northern Inca Empire. Instead, his massive fleet and army met ruin in the high Andes, leaving Alvarado humiliated and forcing him to transfer his forces to rival conquistadors.This volume traces Alvarado’s career after Guatemala, focusing on the ill-fated expedition of 1534 as well as his unrealized license to conquer the Spice Islands, his involvement in the Spanish conquest of Ecuador, and his eventual death in battle in Mexico. Drawing on transatlantic correspondence, legal testimony, Spanish chronicles, and a Maya-authored history, Lovell reconstructs both the trajectory of Alvarado’s campaigns and the mind of a conquistador driven by greed and glory. Vivid descriptions carry readers from Guatemala’s rainforests to the snowbound passes of the Andes, revealing how fragile imperial ambitions could be in practice.By documenting Alvarado’s failed bid to contest Pizarro in Peru, The Conquest That Never Was complicates the triumphalist narrative of Spanish expansion. It illuminates the contradictions, rivalries, and violence at the heart of the colonial project, while foregrounding Indigenous labor and suffering in conquest. Designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses, the book also offers scholars of Latin American history, historical geography, and the Andes a gripping case study of imperial aspiration and collapse.

Contents:

List of illustrations

Foreword

Preface and acknowledgments

Introduction: Delusions of grandeur

Inca treasure and the call of Peru

Concessions, preparations, and preoccupations

Deeds and delays before departure

Landfall and pillage

Andean ascent and calamity

Confronted, dealt with, and paid to leave

Ignominious return

Spain beckons

Back to Guatemala

Mexico and the Spice Islands

Untimely death

Chronology

Glossary

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780271101866