{"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":"The Cholula Massacre: Cortés's Bloody Gambit in 1519","slug":"the-cholula-massacre-cort-s-s-bloody-gambit-in-1519","published_at":"2026-05-26T14:31:27+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470/the-cholula-massacre-cort-s-s-bloody-gambit-in-1519","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-0058.mp3","audio_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-conquistadors/episode-0058.mp3","summary":"In October 1519, Hernán Cortés and his army slaughtered thousands of unarmed nobles and civilians in the sacred city of Cholula. But was it a preemptive strike against a planned ambush, or a calculated act of terror to break Aztec resistance? This episode examines the conflicting accounts—from Bernal Díaz del Castillo's justification to the Florentine Codex's portrayal of a deliberate massacre. We explore Cholula's role as a neutral power, the Totonac and Tlaxcalan influences, and how the massacre shaped the trajectory of the Conquest. Featuring the testimony of La Malinche, the political scheming of Moctezuma, and the archaeological evidence from the Great Pyramid of Cholula. A turning point that reveals the brutal mechanics of Spanish conquest. #CholulaMassacre #HernánCortés #LaMalinche #Tlaxcala #Moctezuma #BernalDíazDelCastillo #FlorentineCodex #GreatPyramidOfCholula #Totonac #MesoamericanHistory #SpanishConquest #AztecEmpire #Quetzalcoatl #Nahuatl #History #FexingoHistory #ColonialMexico #WarCrimes Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo","meta_description":"In October 1519, Hernán Cortés and his army slaughtered thousands of unarmed nobles and civilians in the sacred city of Cholula. But was it a preemptive s…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":551,"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/the-cholula-massacre-cort-s-s-bloody-gambit-in-1519/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/the-cholula-massacre-cort-s-s-bloody-gambit-in-1519.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}