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The Indigenous Allies Who Built Spanish America
Season 2 Episode 52
Beyond the familiar story of Cortés and the Tlaxcalans, the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica relied on tens of thousands of indigenous allies from doz…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
The Mita System: Inca Labor Under Spanish Rule
Season 2 Episode 51
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Inca mita system — a traditional labor tax that the Spanish repurposed into a brutal engine of exploitati…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
The Conquest of Yucatán: Montejo's Long Struggle
Season 1 Episode 50
When Francisco de Montejo first attempted to conquer the Maya of Yucatán in 1527, he faced a fragmented but fiercely resistant network of city-states…
2 months, 4 weeks ago
Tlaxcalan Allies: The Unlikely Empire-Builders of New Spain
Season 1 Episode 49
When Hernán Cortés marched on Tenochtitlan, his most crucial allies were not Spanish soldiers but the Tlaxcalans—a fiercely independent republic that…
2 months, 4 weeks ago
The Mayan Caste War: Yucatán's Last Indigenous Rebellion
Season 1 Episode 48
The Caste War of Yucatán, which erupted in 1847 and continued for decades, was one of the most successful Indigenous rebellions in the Americas. This…
2 months, 4 weeks ago
The Cocoliztli Epidemics: Disease That Toppled an Empire
Season 1 Episode 47
When Hernán Cortés and his men landed in Mexico, they brought more than steel and gunpowder. Smallpox, measles, and typhus ravaged indigenous populat…
2 months, 4 weeks ago
The First Encomienda: Isabela and the Birth of Colonial Labor
Season 1 Episode 46
Columbus's first settlement on Hispaniola, La Isabela, failed—but its legacy was the encomienda system. This episode traces the origins of colonial f…
2 months, 4 weeks ago
The Tarascan Empire: Purépecha Resistance to the Aztecs and Spanish
Season 1 Episode 45
While the Mexica (Aztecs) of Tenochtitlan often dominate the narrative of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, their western neighbors, the Purépecha (Tarascan…
2 months, 4 weeks ago
Gonzalo Guerrero: The Spaniard Who Became a Maya Warlord
Season 1 Episode 44
Before Cortés burned his ships, another Spaniard had already gone native — and fought against his own countrymen. This episode tells the extraordinar…
3 months ago
The Spanish Entrada into Yucatán: Montejo's Forgotten War
Season 1 Episode 43
While Cortés toppled Tenochtitlan, a far bloodier and more stubborn conquest unfolded in the Yucatán Peninsula. This episode follows Francisco de Mon…
3 months ago