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

When Cortés returned to Spain in 1528, he brought with him something more telling than gold: a map. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten story of Domingo Lázaro, the indigenous cartographer from the Guadalajara region who helped create the first detailed map of New Spain for Emperor Charles V. Discover how Lázaro blended Nahua pictographic traditions with European mapmaking conven...

In July 1520, Cortés and his surviving army stumbled out of Tenochtitlan after the disastrous Noche Triste — exhausted, wounded, and stripped of their horses and cannon. But the worst was yet to come. The Aztecs, now under the new huey tlatoani Cuitláhuac, massed a huge army on the plain of Otumba to finish the invaders for good. This episode reconstructs the desperate Battle of Otumba — July 7, 1...

In the wake of conquest, the Spanish Crown faced a dilemma: how to reward its soldiers and settlers while maintaining control over millions of newly subjugated Indigenous people. The answer was the encomienda — a grant of native labor that became the backbone of colonial exploitation for centuries. This episode traces the encomienda from its medieval origins in the Reconquista to its brutal implem...

In October 1519, just months before the march on Tenochtitlan, Hernán Cortés and his indigenous allies carried out a brutal preemptive attack on the religious center of Cholula. This episode examines the Cholula massacre not as a random act of violence, but as a calculated political strategy. We explore the city's significance as a center of Quetzalcoatl worship, the complex factional politics tha...

When Hernán Cortés marched on Tenochtitlan in 1519, his Spanish army was tiny. The real fighting force was tens of thousands of Indigenous allies — Tlaxcalans, Totonacs, Huexotzincans, and others who saw the Spanish as a weapon against Aztec domination. This episode examines the complex alliances that made the conquest possible: the motives of each Indigenous group, the role of Cortés's interprete...

In 1540, just years after the fall of Tenochtitlan, a massive indigenous rebellion erupted in Nueva Galicia—northwest Mexico. The Mixtón War pitted the Caxcan people and their allies against the Spanish empire. This episode explores the roots of the conflict: slaving raids, forced labor, and the violent imposition of encomiendas. We follow the revolt's leader, Tenamaxtli, and the brutal Spanish re...

While the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire is well-known, the story of the Tarascan Empire (also known as the Purépecha) is less familiar but equally fascinating. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how this Mesoamerican state in present-day Michoacán not only resisted Aztec expansion but also developed unique bronze-working technologies, sophisticated fortifications, and a centralized bur...

We explore the mita, the forced labor system the Spanish imposed on Andean communities. Originally an Inca practice of rotational public service, the Spanish twisted it into a brutal extraction machine for the Potosí silver mines. We discuss how the mita devastated indigenous populations, disrupted traditional agriculture, and depopulated entire regions. We also look at resistance, from flight to...

Long after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula rose up in a brutal race war that nearly drove the European-descended population into the sea. This episode tells the story of the Caste War of Yucatán (1847–1901), focusing on the charismatic leader Jacinto Pat, the Speaking Cross cult of Chan Santa Cruz, and the incredible resilience of the Maya rebels who built a de fa...

When the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan, they did so with tens of thousands of Tlaxcalan allies. But what happened to those allies after the war? This episode traces the little-known story of Tlaxcalan colonists who migrated north into the arid frontier of Nueva España, settling in towns like San Esteban de la Nueva Tlaxcala and serving as buffers against hostile Chichimeca peoples. Lucas and Luna...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the devastating role of smallpox and other epidemics during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. They discuss how the introduction of Old World diseases like smallpox, measles, and typhus decimated the Indigenous population, with Tenochtitlan alone losing perhaps half its inhabitants during the 1520 smallpox outbreak. The conversation revisits key figures like Cu...

Horses were not just transportation for the Spanish conquistadors — they were psychological weapons that shattered indigenous armies. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Cortés deployed horses in Mesoamerica, the terror they inspired among Aztec and Tlaxcalan warriors who had never seen such animals, and the practical challenges of keeping horses alive on campaign. They discuss specific ho...

In 1522, a year after the fall of Tenochtitlan, Pedro de Alvarado—the brutal conquistador known as Tonatiuh or 'Sun'—led a punitive expedition into the Mixe region of Oaxaca. At a river called the Toboso, according to legend, Alvarado's horse stumbled and he was pinned beneath it, facing a swarm of Mixe warriors. In desperation, he supposedly used his lance as a vaulting pole to leap to safety—a f...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the devastating first encounters between Christopher Columbus and the Taíno people of Hispaniola. They discuss the initial friendly exchanges, the imposition of the encomienda system, the brutal gold quotas, and the catastrophic population collapse from violence, starvation, and disease. Focusing on figures like Guacanagarix, Caonabo, and Anacaona, and drawi...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore Huexotzinco, a powerful city-state in the Valley of Puebla that maintained its autonomy through a complex system of subsistence tribute payments to the Aztec Triple Alliance. Unlike conquered provinces that paid regular tributes, Huexotzinco provided only symbolic offerings during specific religious festivals, leveraging its strategic location and military s...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the pivotal role of Cempoala and its ruler, the Cacique Gordo, in the Spanish conquest of Mexico. They discuss how the Totonac people, weary of Aztec tribute demands, allied with Hernán Cortés in 1519, providing him with thousands of warriors and porters. The episode delves into the politics of tribute as recorded in the Matrícula de Tributos, the experience...

In this episode of The Conquistadors, we explore the life and legacy of Malintzin—better known as La Malinche—the Indigenous woman who served as Hernán Cortés's interpreter, advisor, and intermediary during the conquest of the Aztec Empire. We trace her journey from a Nahua noble girl sold into slavery to her pivotal role in the Spanish-Aztec negotiations, battles, and the fall of Tenochtitlan. We...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the pivotal alliance between Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalan republic, which turned the tide of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. They discuss how the Tlaxcalans, bitter enemies of the Aztec Triple Alliance, initially fought the Spanish before forging a partnership that would bring down Tenochtitlan. The episode covers the key figures, including Xicotencatl th...

When Hernán Cortés and his Indigenous allies besieged Tenochtitlan in 1521, they had a secret ally they barely understood: smallpox. This episode explores the role of epidemic disease in the fall of the Aztec Empire, focusing on the 1520 smallpox outbreak that killed Moctezuma's successor Cuitláhuac and devastated the city's defenders. We discuss the arrival of smallpox with the Pánfilo de Narváez...

On the night of June 30, 1520, Hernán Cortés and his men attempted a desperate escape from Tenochtitlan, only to be ambushed on a causeway by Aztec warriors. This episode dives into the Noche Triste—the 'Sad Night'—when hundreds of Spanish soldiers and thousands of Tlaxcalan allies perished in the canals of Lake Texcoco. We explore the tactical errors, the role of the Aztec emperor Cuitláhuac, the...

Before the Spanish arrival, the Mixtec people of Oaxaca recorded their genealogies, conquests, and myths in beautiful screenfold books made from deer hide. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the surviving codices — especially the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, Codex Vindobonensis, and Codex Bodley — and what they reveal about Mixtec politics, religion, and resistance to Aztec expansion. They discuss t...

Long before the Mexica built Tenochtitlan, the Zapotecs ruled the Oaxaca highlands from their mountaintop capital of Monte Albán. Lucas and Luna explore this earlier civilization: its origins in the San José Mogote settlement, the rise of Monte Albán around 500 BCE, and its famous 'Danzantes' carvings—stone reliefs of captured enemies that may represent the earliest writing in Mesoamerica. They di...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the brutal 93-day siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, exploring the key military strategies, the role of indigenous allies like the Tlaxcalans, the devastating impact of disease and famine, and the final assault on the city. They discuss the leadership of Cuauhtémoc, the use of brigantines on Lake Texcoco, and the harrowing account of Bernal Díaz del Castillo....

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the brutal 93-day siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, a turning point in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. They explore the tactical innovations Cortés employed after his defeat on the Noche Triste, including the construction of thirteen brigantines to control Lake Texcoco. The episode details the crucial role of Tlaxcalan allies, who provided tens of t...

In October 1519, just months after landing on the Mexican coast, Hernán Cortés and his army perpetrated a massacre in the great religious center of Cholula that killed thousands of unarmed nobles and commoners. This episode examines the Cholula massacre as a calculated act of psychological warfare that shattered indigenous resistance before the final march on Tenochtitlan. We explore the political...