A smashed royal throne was found in the Bat Palace, evidence of the violent conquest of the city in the Late Classic.

For a screed against American imperialism, his book is astonishingly uncritical about the nation's violent conquest of the West.

His offspring later ruled an empire by both violent and peaceful conquest.

Its poetic narrative adopts the intersubjective spiritual perception of Ino Moxo and addresses the tribal aftermath of the violent commercial conquests during the rubber boom.

Guzmán's violent conquest left Spanish control of the area unstable, and within a decade full war had reemerged between the settlers and the Native peoples of the area.

But unlike Christianity, Islam spread through violent conquest.

"The suggestion is that this handing over of power was taking place voluntarily - whereas the truth is that this was a violent conquest."

Excavations showing that Jericho was unwalled and uninhabited, he says, "clearly seem to contradict the violent and complete conquest portrayed in the Book of Joshua."

And within its collections is the story of a vast empire - its vibrant culture and religious devotion, as well as its violent conquests.