Fall of the Aztec Empire

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Aztec Empire was a large and sophisticated one, stretching at its height from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico. But in August 1521, after a last stand on the steps of their temple buildings, the Aztec defenders of Tenochtitlan surrendered to the Spanish forces of Hernán Cortés and his Mesoamerican allies.

To talk about the fall of the Aztec Empire, Dan is joined by Matthew Restall, Director of Latin American Studies at Penn State University. Matthew challenges some of the commonly held views on how Cortés was able to achieve this feat, how the fall of Tenochtitlan was not the end of the war and the myth of Spanish superiority.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone welcome to Dan Snow's history. We're talking about one of the most cataclysmic,
0:04.4	one of the most decisive moments in the last 500 years of history now. It is the fall of the Aztecs
0:11.9	with Professor Matthew Rital he's a Latin American history
0:16.0	and anthropology professor at Pennsylvania State University on August the
0:20.1	13th 1521 after the most astonishing battle for the city the defenders of
0:24.8	tenochitland now Mexico City surrendered to the Spaniard Hanan Cortez and
0:30.9	his mezzo American allies The heart of the Aztec Empire,
0:35.4	which has been one of the greatest in the history of the Americas, was captured, sacked,
0:40.1	and it would be replaced by Spanish colonial role.
0:44.0	Enjoy.
0:46.0	T-mina.
0:48.0	The Tommy bombs dropped on Hiroshima.
0:50.0	God save the king.
0:52.0	No black white unity till there're dispersed from black unity.
0:55.0	Never to go to war with one another again.
0:58.0	And lift off and the subtle has cleared the power.
1:05.0	Massey, thank you very much for coming to the podcast. It's a pleasure to be on it.
1:07.0	Thank you for having me.
1:08.0	What was the understanding in the early 16th century about what might lie beyond the Caribbean islands in the
1:16.3	south part of of North America into Central America.
1:19.4	Well there were a few people who still clung to the idea that the next thing you get to, the next place you'd get to would be Asia,
1:26.0	would be Japan and China, and the Spice Islands and all the welfare, and there was still hope that that was going to be what the mainland would turn out to be and failing that.
	...

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