This volume is intended as a concise yet comprehensive study of the Iberian colonies in the New World from the pre-conquest background through European exploration, conquest, and colonization, to the wars of independence in the early-19th century. The third edition includes an expanded discussion of the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas, and the authors have added new material on popular culture and revised the chapter on ethnohistory. Recent research regarding the economy has also been incorporated, and more comparisons have been made between colonial Latin America and the British colonies. Numerous photographs and maps lend immediacy to the narrative, and biological examples of both conqueror and conquered illustrate colonial life.