Few episodes in modern world history have attracted as much scholarly and popular attention as the Spanish invasion and occupation of central Mexico. Since the mid-nineteenth century, when William H. Prescott published History of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston, 1843) portraying Hernando Cortés as a romantic hero prevailing against great odds, scholars have drawn on a limited corpus of records and histories produced by Spaniards and native Mesoamericans for their understanding of these events. Nearly all these sources are retrospective, with the exception of Cortés’ letters to Charles I, the king of Spain, that were written as events unfolded. They were shaped by Cortés’ ambitions and his need to justify his illegal actions to his sovereign.Notwithstanding the existence of an already substantial body of scholarly and popular work about the conquest of central Mexico, new publications about the topic continue to appear. In this book, Carballo draws from the perspective of archaeology to “explore the comparative cultural developments of early Mesoamerica and Iberia and the material manifestations of their entanglement in the focal period of encounter, conquest, colonialism, and Native resilience” (11).Carballo devotes more than half the book to “deep” histories of Mesoamerica and Iberia and the nature of these societies at the point of contact and conflict. He is not the first author to note the congruities between them—in social structure, urbanism, political and territorial expansionism, the centrality of religion, and the incorporation of diverse peoples and cultures over time—as well the differences. Carballo presents a good deal of information succinctly and accessibly, although he is on surer ground when discussing Mesoamerica than he is when discussing Iberia. For example, his emphasis on the historical importance of Cádiz as a port downplays, even if inadvertently, the critical role played by Seville during the first period of Spanish expansion across the Atlantic. His conception of the “entwined” Roman and Celtic past entirely ignores the Visigoths, notwithstanding that at least some early modern Spaniards (like the Pizarros) hearkened back to them to deny any relationship with the Muslims who dominated much of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries.In part, Carballo’s difficulty lies in the sheer amount of material that he incorporates into a relatively short text; inevitably the results are uneven and sometimes questionable. As a case in point, he recounts without qualification the oft-told story about the early defection of Gonzalo Guerrero to Maya society for which there is scant evidence (138). Arguably, the book’s conceptualization is problematical as well. By focusing exclusively on a comparison between Spain and Mesoamerica, Carballo mostly ignores the critical thirty years of Spanish activity in the Caribbean from 1493 to 1510, despite their relevance to the events that would unfold in New Spain. He conveys the impression that the Spain’s decree of 1501 “that all Native subjects of the Caribbean colonies were free peoples” was the final word about the slavery; it was only the start of what would be decades of hedging and reversals of policy. He also suggests that tobacco became an important crop in those years (it did not) and that no evangelization efforts were undertaken in the islands. Moreover, Darién (Panama) was the first mainland Spanish settlement, not Veracruz, by nearly a decade.The real value in Carballo’s book, which distinguishes it from many other histories of the conquest, lies in its comparative approach to material culture and technology and its use of archaeological evidence. Carballo emphasizes Mesoamerica’s cultural diversity, urbanism, and extensive trade networks and Iberia’s long history as a crossroads for people from all over the known world. Furthermore, he traces long-term developments in both places that resulted from innovation and the spread of techniques and knowledge that accompanied the movements of people. For those who are new to the subject, the book offers an engaging introduction to the conquest era in central Mexico and the longer histories of complex interactions that reflected “novel forms of cultural creation that combined elements of Mesoamerican, European, African, and eventually also Asian ways of doing and knowing” (230).