384. The Fall of the Aztecs: The Adventure Begins (Part 1)

The Rest Is History

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 18.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

The meeting of the controversial Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and the formidable Emperor Montezuma in 1519 was one of the great hinge moments of world history, and the beginning of the end for the mightiest of the New World empires: the realm of the Aztecs. The build-up to this extraordinary encounter is at once a thrilling adventure story and a tragic tale of violence, brutality and loss. It’s a story of temples and sacrifices, exploration and imperialism, with cataclysmic consequences for human history. Join Tom and Dominic in the first episode of this sensational saga, as they follow the young Cortés across the Atlantic to the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, where the search for gold comes at a terrible price … *Dominic’s book The Fall of the Aztecs is available now from bookshops across the UK - the perfect Christmas present!* *The Rest Is History Live Tour 2023*: Tom and Dominic are back on tour this autumn! See them live in New Zealand and Australia! Buy your tickets here: restishistorypod.com Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for listening to the Rest is History.
0:02.2	For bonus episodes, early access,
0:04.4	add free listening and access to our chat community,
0:07.7	sign up at rest is History pod.com.
0:10.7	That's rest is History Pod.com. It was a warm, clear autumn day, and in the city of Tenosh Titlan, the drums were beating.
0:31.0	All morning the streets had been buzzing with excitement. Old and young,
0:34.1	rich and poor men, women and children. Everybody had heard the news. After weeks of
0:39.7	tension, after all the whispers and rumors, the strangers had entered the valley of Mexico
0:45.6	and had reached the far side of the lake. In just a few hours they would be on the
0:50.0	causeway, and then at last the people of the city would set eyes on these
0:54.9	extraordinary newcomers from across the sea. Now there was silence. A last
1:00.1	hush before the storm. The sun blazed down, the tension hung in the air, heavier and heavier.
1:07.8	And then an invisible tremor ran through the spectators on the rooftops, a breathless gasp of excitement on the edge of the city the drum
1:15.8	the drummers struck up their rhythm they were coming.
1:19.7	Oh! Clymie!
1:22.4	That is from the fall of the Aztex by top historian of Mesoamerica, Dominic Sambrook.
1:29.2	So Dominic, this is the latest volume in your series of books written for children and you know I think it's the episode in history that I find most fascinating that I kind of don't know much about.
1:41.6	Yes, well thank you Tom, thank you for that wonderful reading.
1:44.0	I think you do incredible justice because this is the meeting, isn't it,
1:48.0	of old world and new, of Europe and Central America of Cortez, the Spanish adventurer and
1:57.0	Mocktizuma, the great king of the Aztecs.
2:01.0	Yes, I should say Tom, North America before we get letters of complaint from our many, many
	...

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