The Siege of Tenochtitlan

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2011

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Siege of Tenochtitlan. In 1521 the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes led an army of Spanish and native forces against the city of Tenochtitlan, the spectacular island capital of the Aztec civilisation. At first Cortes had been welcomed by the Aztec leader, Moctezuma, and he and his men were treated like kings. But their friendship proved short-lived, and soon celebrations turned into vicious fighting. After a prolonged siege and fierce battle, in which many thousands died, the city finally fell. This major confrontation between Old and New Worlds precipitated the downfall of the Aztec Empire, and marked a new phase in European colonisation of the Americas.With:Alan Knight Professor of the History of Latin America at the University of OxfordElizabeth GrahamProfessor of Mesoamerican Archaeology at University College, LondonCaroline Dodds Pennock Lecturer in International History at the University of Sheffield Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

Transcript

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0:45.2	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:47.0	Hello a 16th century adventurer to the new world wrote these awestruck words. These great towns and
0:54.9	temples and buildings rising from the water all made of stone seemed like an
0:59.2	enchanted vision. Indeed, some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream.
1:04.0	The palaces in which they lodged, in palaces in which they lodged us were very
1:07.4	spacious and well built, of magnificent stone, cedar wood and the wood of other
1:11.7	sweet-smelling trees with great
1:13.2	rooms and courts which were a wonderful site and all covered with
1:16.6	awnings of woven cotton. That's how the Spanish conquistador Bernal Diaz
1:20.9	de Castillo described the great Aztec city of Tenosh Titlan when he first laid eyes on it in November 1519.
1:28.0	But two years later, the city was no more, its buildings in ruins and almost 90% of its inhabitants laid dead.
1:35.4	The fall of Tenochtitland marked the end of the Aztec Empire and the turning point for
1:39.2	Spanish dominance over the whole of Central America. But how did a journey of discovery turn into one of the whole Central America. But how did a journey of discovery turn into one of the
1:45.1	continent's bloodiest battles? Joining me to discuss the siege of Tenochitlana,
	...

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