"Prospective readers who want a wide ranging collection of modern, high level essays on colonial Latin America will welcome this work warmly." - American Historical Review

• List of maps; Note on currency and measurement; Abbreviations; General preface; Preface to volumes 1 and 2; Part I. America on the Eve of the Conquest: 1. Mesoamerica before 1519 Miguel Leon-Portilla; 2. The Indians of the Caribbean and Circum-Caribbean at the end of the fifteenth century Mary W. Helms; 3. Andean societies before 1532 John Murra; 4. The Indians of southern South America in the middle of the sixteenth century Jorge Hildalgo; 5. The Indians of Brazil in 1500 John Hemming; A note on the native American population on the eve of the European invasions Leslie Bethell; Part II. Europe and America: 6. The Spanish Conquest and settlement of America J. H. Elliott; 7. The Indian and Spanish conquest Nathan Wachtel; 8. The Portuguese settlement of Brazil, 1500–1580 H. B. Johnson; 9. Spain and America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries J. H. Elliott; 10. Spain and America: the Atlantic trade 1492–1720 Murdo J. MacLeod; 11. Bourbon Spain and its American empire D. A. Brading; 12. Portugal and Brazil: political and economic structures of empire, 1580–1750 Frédéric Mauro; 13. Portugal and Brazil: imperial re-organization, 1750–1808 Andree Mansuy-Diniz Silva; Part III. The Church in America: 14. The Catholic church in colonial Spanish America Josep M. Barnadas; 15. The Catholic church in colonial Brazil Eduardo Hoornaert; Bibliographical essays; Index.