{"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 Calculated Terror","slug":"the-cholula-massacre-cort-s-s-calculated-terror","published_at":"2026-06-08T02:09:39+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-conquistadors-exploration-greed-and-destruction-fexingo-history-7864470/the-cholula-massacre-cort-s-s-calculated-terror","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-0083.mp3","audio_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-conquistadors/episode-0083.mp3","summary":"In October 1519, just two months after arriving in Tenochtitlan, Hernán Cortés orchestrated one of the most brutal episodes of the Spanish conquest: the massacre of thousands of unarmed nobles and commoners in the sacred city of Cholula. This episode unpacks what happened, why it happened, and how it shaped the course of the invasion. Drawing on indigenous accounts from the Florentine Codex and Spanish chronicles like Bernal Díaz del Castillo, we separate legend from evidence — including the contested story that Cortés knew of a planned ambush thanks to La Malinche. We also examine Cholula's significance as a religious center dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, and how the massacre became a deliberate tool of psychological warfare aimed at intimidating both allies and enemies. The conversation explores the political calculations behind the violence, the role of Tlaxcalan allies in the slaughter, and the long memory of the event in Mexican history and folklore. #CholulaMassacre #HernánCortés #LaMalinche #FlorentineCodex #BernalDíazDelCastillo #Quetzalcoatl #Tlaxcala #Tenochtitlan #Moctezuma #Nahuatl #Conquistadors #Mesoamerica #SpanishConquest #PsychologicalWarfare #History #FexingoHistory #Aztec #Cholula Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo","meta_description":"In October 1519, just two months after arriving in Tenochtitlan, Hernán Cortés orchestrated one of the most brutal episodes of the Spanish conquest: the m…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":375,"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-calculated-terror/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-calculated-terror.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}