The Conquistadors: Exploration, Greed, and Destruction — Fexingo History

While we have covered the Tlaxcalan alliance and the siege of Tenochtitlan, this episode shifts focus to a often-overlooked pillar of early colonial society: the enslaved Africans brought to New Spain. We explore the lives of men like Gaspar Yanga, who escaped into the mountains to establish San Lorenzo de los Negros, the first free town in North America. Lucas traces the journey from the Middle Passage to the harsh encomienda system, detailing how cimarrones (maroons) built fortified palenques. Luna guides us through the military campaigns led by Juan de Oñate that eventually forced the Spanish Crown to r...

While we have covered the fall of Tenochtitlan and the alliances that made it possible, this episode turns to a lesser-known but critical component of the conquest: the naval blockade. We explore how Hernán Cortés transformed his fleet of brigantines from simple transport vessels into instruments of total war, strangling the city’s supply lines across Lake Texcoco. The conversation details the engineering marvels behind these ships, the brutal effectiveness of their cannons, and the psychological terror they inflicted on the Mexica defenders. We also examine the role of indigenous rowers, many of whom were forced or coer...

We often picture the Spanish conquest of Mexico as a small band of Europeans toppling an empire, but that narrative ignores the massive indigenous coalition that made it possible. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the complex relationship between Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalteca, specifically focusing on Xicotencatl the Younger and the pivotal moment when these fierce warriors chose alliance over annihilation. We examine the military tactics that combined Spanish steel with Nahua numbers, the political maneuvering in the altepetl of Tlaxcala, and the heavy price paid by allies who helped destroy their former enemies only to...

While Hernán Cortés gets the spotlight for conquering the Aztec Empire, his survival depended on a fragile alliance with the Tlaxcalans. This episode explores how centuries of rivalry with the Mexica turned neighbors into partners, and why this coalition was the true engine of conquest. We examine the diplomacy behind the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, the role of Xicotencatl the Younger, and the brutal reality of the Otumba campaign. Discover how indigenous power structures shifted, how tribute networks were reconfigured, and what the 'Royal Fifth' meant to those who did the actual fighting. From the blood-soaked fields of Ch...

While the fall of Tenochtitlan and the Tlaxcalan alliance are well known, the immediate aftermath involved a desperate, decades-long hunt for Moctezuma’s legendary treasure. This episode explores the myth versus the reality of the Aztec hoard that never reached Spain. We trace the efforts of Hernán Cortés, his lieutenants like Cristóbal de Olid, and the indigenous intermediaries who guarded the secrets of hidden caches. From the initial looting of the royal palaces to the failed expeditions into the Guatemalan highlands and the mysterious disappearance of Cuauhtémoc’s final wealth, we uncover how greed shaped early co...

Episode 220 shifts focus from the Aztec and Tlaxcalan perspectives to the often-overlooked role of African enslaved people in the Spanish conquest of Mexico. While Gaspar Yanga’s rebellion is well-known, this episode explores the broader military integration of Afro-Mexicans into the colonial militia system. We examine how figures like Juan de la Cruz and others served as musketeers and scouts for the Crown, navigating a complex identity between oppressor and oppressed. Through archival records and indigenous accounts, we uncover how these men used their service to claim rights, land, and eventual freedom, challenging the monolithic narrative of conquest solely as...

While history often frames the Spanish conquest as a binary conflict between Europeans and Indigenous peoples, the reality in early colonial Mexico was far more complex and deeply entangled with global African diasporas. This episode explores the lives of enslaved Africans brought to New Spain, not merely as victims or laborers, but as active agents who shaped the colony’s social fabric through resistance, alliance, and community building. We examine the story of Gaspar Yanga, an escaped slave who led a maroon community in the rugged hills of Veracruz, eventually negotiating a treaty that granted his people freedom and th...

We often imagine the conquest of Mexico as a small band of Europeans overwhelming a vast empire, but the reality was far more complex and politically nuanced. In this episode, we explore the crucial role of the Tlaxcalteca, the indigenous allies who provided tens of thousands of warriors for the siege of Tenochtitlan. We examine how centuries of rivalry with the Mexica turned former enemies into indispensable partners for Hernán Cortés. The conversation delves into the diplomatic maneuvering at Cempoala, the brutal battles at Otumba, and the political realities that forced city-states to choose sides. By looking th...

Episode 217 explores how the brutal realities of the Spanish conquest in Mesoamerica were transformed into a powerful political myth known as the Black Legend. While earlier episodes covered the military siege of Tenochtitlan, the logistics of the brigantines, and the economic extraction of the quinto real, this episode examines the propaganda war that followed. We look at how Bartolomé de las Casas used his accounts to attack Spain’s imperial reputation, and how Protestant rivals like William of Orange seized upon these narratives to justify their own rebellions against Catholic rule. Through the letters of Hernán Cortés and t...

In the decades after the fall of Tenochtitlan, a different kind of conquest story unfolded in the mountains and coastal lowlands of New Spain. This episode follows the rise of the maroon communities — Africans and their descendants who escaped the brutal world of sugar estates and silver mines to forge free settlements. We trace Gaspar Yanga's decades-long rebellion in the highlands of Veracruz, the fort of San Lorenzo de los Negros that the Spanish were forced to recognize, and the negotiations that ended his war in 1609. We also look at the daily reality of maroon life, the blending of Af...

In 1519, as Cortés marched toward Tenochtitlan, a massacre at the city of Cholula became one of the most contested events of the conquest. Was it a preemptive strike against a planned ambush, or a brutal act of terror? This episode centers on Malinche, the enslaved Nahua woman who served as Cortés's interpreter and strategist. Drawing on the Florentine Codex, the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, and Cortés's own letters, we piece together the evidence: the warnings from La Malinche, the gathering of nobles in the courtyard, the hours of slaughter. We also examine Cholula's sacred status, the cult of...

In 1521, Hernán Cortés and his allies toppled the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, but the spoils of conquest didn't just line the pockets of adventurers. The Spanish Crown demanded its share: one-fifth of all treasure, the quinto real. This episode explores the mechanics of that levy, from the smelting of gold ingots in the Aztec palace to the shipping of silver across the Atlantic. We follow the quicksilver trade that made silver refining possible, the corruption and smuggling that plagued the system, and the rise of the Casa de Contratación in Seville, which controlled all trade to the...

In the shadow of Tenochtitlan's great temples lay a marketplace unlike any in the world—Tlatelolco, where tens of thousands gathered daily to trade cacao, gold, jade, and slaves. This episode follows the market's rise from a humble island settlement to the economic heart of the Aztec Empire, and its brutal destruction during the Spanish conquest. We explore the pochteca, the merchant-spies who doubled as agents of empire; the strict regulations that governed trade; the use of cacao beans as currency; and the market's fate after the fall, when Cortés and his men plundered its riches. Through the eye...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna step away from the famous conquistadors, tlatoani, and high priests to explore the lives of the macehualtin — the commoners who made up the vast majority of Mesoamerican society. From the calpulli farming communities and the telpochcalli schools to the tequitl labor tax and the pochteca traders, we trace how ordinary Nahuas lived, worked, and fought before and during the Spanish invasion. We look at how the Florentine Codex, compiled by Bernardino de Sahagún, preserves their voices, and how the arrival of Cortés and the catastrophic cocoliztli epidemics reshaped their world. We also...

In 1790, workers repairing Mexico City's main plaza unearthed a massive carved stone that would become the symbol of the Aztec world — but its true purpose has been misunderstood for centuries. Lucas and Luna explore the Piedra del Sol, the so-called Aztec Calendar Stone, revealing its intricate iconography, its role in Mexica cosmology, and the fierce scholarly debate over whether it was a calendar, a sacrificial altar, or a monument to solar war. They trace its creation under Moctezuma II, its burial after the conquest, and its rediscovery in the shadow of the cathedral. Along the way, they decode the fo...

Before Hernán Cortés set foot in Mexico, the playbook for conquest was written on a small archipelago off the coast of Africa. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the brutal and formative Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands, from the 1402 expedition of Jean de Béthencourt to the decisive wars against the Guanches in Tenerife and Gran Canaria. They uncover how the encomienda system, forced labor, and policies of cultural erasure were first tested on these islands, and how figures like Alonso Fernández de Lugo and Queen Isabella shaped the strategies that would later be unle...

In the shadow of the conquest, Mesoamerican childbirth was a battlefield of its own. This episode follows the Mexica midwife, the tlamatlquiticitl, whose rituals and knowledge guided women through labor in an empire where every birth echoed the cosmic cycle. We explore the tonalpohualli's role in naming, the sweat lodge's purifying heat, and the fate of the mocihuaquetzque — warriors who died in childbirth and earned a place in the west. Lucas and Luna trace how these practices survived the Spanish invasion, blending with Catholicism in ways that still resonate in Mexican traditions like the cuarentena. They confront the violence of...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna revisit one of the most dramatic turning points in the fall of Tenochtitlan: the Noche Triste, the night of June 30, 1520, when Hernán Cortés and his allied forces fled the Aztec capital under a hail of stones and arrows. They explore the events leading up to the escape, from the massacre in the Main Temple to the death of Moctezuma, and the desperate retreat along the Tacuba causeway. Lucas unpacks the legendary details—the gold that weighed down the fleeing soldiers, the fallen bridge at Xoloco, the tree where Cortés wept—and sep...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the complicated legacy of Xicotencatl the Younger, the Tlaxcalan war captain who helped Cortés destroy the Mexica Empire, only to be hanged for treason years later. They dig into his tactical genius, his furious opposition to the Spanish alliance, and the eerie prophecy of the quetzal feather that tied him to the conquest. Drawing on the Florentine Codex, the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, and the Relación de Michoacán, they untangle the threads of loyalty, betrayal, and survival that defined his life. They also examine the encomienda system that replaced the alt...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the overlooked final years of Cuauhtemoc, the last Huey Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, after the fall of the city in 1521. They trace his captivity under Hernán Cortés, his coerced conversion to Christianity, his role as a puppet ruler in the new colonial order, and his brutal execution in 1525 during Cortés's expedition to Hibueras (modern Honduras). Drawing on the Florentine Codex, Spanish chronicles, and recent scholarship, they examine the tensions between Cuauhtemoc as a symbol of resistance and the realities of his post-conquest life. The conversation also touches on the encomienda sys...