<DIV>Until recently, only a few leaders were well known among the Spanish warriors who brutally subjugated the Mayan and Aztec empires of Mexico. Now over 2,000 biographies shed dramatic new light on the conquistadors who made 1519-1521 the bloodiest two-year period in the Western Hemisphere. The world's leading authority on the subject tells who they were, what roles they played, their histories, backgrounds, and relationships, based on previously unpublished material in both Mexico and Spain. <br></DIV>