{"podcast":{"title":"The Conquistadors: Exploration, Greed, and Destruction — Fexingo History","slug":"the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470","podcast_index_feed_id":7864470,"rss_url":"https://feeds.fexingo.com/history/the-conquistadors.xml","website_url":"https://www.fexingo.com/history/the-conquistadors/","image_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-conquistadors/cover.png","author":"Fexingo","episode_count":182,"summary":"From the moment Hernán Cortés burned his ships on the Veracruz shore to the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the Spanish conquistadors remade the Americas through a volatile mix of courage, cruelty, and greed. Lucas and Luna guide listeners through the brutal collision of two worlds, examining not only the well-known figures—Cortés, Pizarro, Moctezuma, Atahualpa—but also the indigenous allies, enslaved Africans, and forgotten women who shaped the conquest. Each episode dissects a specific campaign or cultural encounter: the siege of Tenochtitlan, the conquest of the Inca Empire, the protracted Maya resistance, and the lesser-known expeditions into Florida and the Amazon. They explore the legal and moral debates of the Valladolid Controversy, the devastating impact of Old World diseases, and the encomienda system that bound native peoples to Spanish lords. The show also confronts the long legacy: how conquest myths were constructed, how indigenous memory survives, and how modern movements grapple with statues, repatriation, and historical memory. This is not a simple story of heroes or villains—it is a search for understanding amid the rubble of empires. Can we truly grasp the scale o…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-29T06:20:17.143281+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470"},"episode":{"title":"Pochteca: The Aztec Merchants Who Spied for Moctezuma","slug":"pochteca-the-aztec-merchants-who-spied-for-moctezuma","published_at":"2026-06-17T02:38:49+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470/pochteca-the-aztec-merchants-who-spied-for-moctezuma","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470","url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-conquistadors/episode-0100.mp3","audio_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-conquistadors/episode-0100.mp3","summary":"Before Cortés ever set foot in Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma's spies were already watching him. The pochteca were far more than traders — they were Aztec intelligence agents who roamed Mesoamerica gathering information for the empire. In this episode, Lucas and Luna uncover the hidden world of these elite merchants: how they financed conquest, reported enemy movements, and even controlled the flow of tribute goods like cacao and quetzal feathers. We explore their special courts, their lavish feasts, and the surprising ways they became the eyes and ears of the Huey Tlatoani. Drawing on the Florentine Codex and accounts from Bernal Díaz del Castillo, we see how Cortés himself was tracked by pochteca long before the Noche Triste. This is the story of the spies who almost saved an empire. #Pochteca #AztecMerchants #Moctezuma #Mesoamerica #AztecEmpire #Spies #Intelligence #FlorentineCodex #Cacao #QuetzalFeathers #TributeSystem #Conquistadors #HueyTlatoani #BernalDiaz #LongDistanceTrade #AztecSociety #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo","meta_description":"Before Cortés ever set foot in Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma's spies were already watching him. The pochteca were far more than traders — they were Aztec intell…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":468,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470/episodes/pochteca-the-aztec-merchants-who-spied-for-moctezuma/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470/pochteca-the-aztec-merchants-who-spied-for-moctezuma.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}