385. The Fall of the Aztecs: The Woman Who Changed The World (Part 2)

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode examines Cortés’s 1519 departure from Cuba and the early stages of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, emphasizing that the expedition was driven by a mix of Christian zeal, legal maneuvering, ambition, and greed. It highlights the crucial roles of interpreters Geronimo de Aguilar and La Malinche, and argues that Spanish success depended as much on alliances, law, and indigenous politics as on weapons.

Main Topics: Cortés’s motives and the Spanish justification for conquest (Priority: 5/5): The hosts debate whether Cortés and his men were driven primarily by Christianity, gold, glory, or opportunism, stressing that religious language was sincere for many Spaniards but also intertwined with ambition and plunder. Velázquez, orders, and legal maneuvering (Priority: 5/5): Cortés is sent by Governor Diego Velázquez with limited instructions, but he quickly exceeds them, founds Veracruz, and uses legal forms to legitimize disobedience and secure authority. The expedition’s composition and military advantages (Priority: 4/5): The discussion explains that the conquistadors were not a disciplined army but a loose coalition of entrepreneurs, relatives, and rivals, aided by swords, horses, dogs, ships, and unknowingly by disease. Aguilar and La Malinche as indispensable interpreters (Priority: 5/5): Geronimo de Aguilar and La Malinche make communication possible across languages and cultures, allowing Cortés to negotiate, recruit allies, and understand Mesoamerican politics. Indigenous politics and alliance-building (Priority: 5/5): The hosts stress that the conquest was not simply Spaniards versus Aztecs; Cortés relied on local rivalries, gifts, diplomacy, and anti-Mexica resentment to build a coalition. Myths, misunderstandings, and the Aztecs’ response (Priority: 4/5): The episode questions the traditional claim that the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were gods, arguing instead that they were likely trying to classify and manage a terrifying new political and military force. Religion, empire, and the Requerimiento (Priority: 4/5): The Requerimiento and related rituals are presented as legal-religious theater aimed as much at European audiences and future lawsuits as at the indigenous peoples themselves.

Key Arguments: Cortés’s expedition cannot be understood as purely greedy or purely religious; it was a hybrid of piety, ambition, and legal self-justification. Velázquez’s instructions were contradictory: Cortés was to explore, report, and spread Christianity, but not explicitly to conquer, making Cortés’s later actions a deliberate overreach. The Spanish were not a conventional army; they were a temporary coalition of armed entrepreneurs, often linked by family and faction. Military technology mattered, but not in the simplistic way often claimed: swords and horses were more decisive than cannons, while ships and disease were strategically transformative. La Malinche was not merely a passive translator; she had agency, political intelligence, and personal reasons to oppose the Mexica and align with Cortés. The conquest depended on indigenous alliances and internal Mesoamerican divisions, not just Spanish force. The story that the Aztecs believed the Spaniards were gods is treated as a later myth or exaggeration rather than a solid historical fact. Spanish legalism was central: conquest was wrapped in town charters, formal elections, depositions, and the Requerimiento to create a paper trail for empire.

Data Points: Date of Cortés’s departure from Cuba: 10 February 1519 - The expedition sails from Cuba after Velázquez tries to stop it. Number of ships: 11 ships - Cortés’s fleet setting out for the Mexican coast. Number of men: 500 men - Approximate size of the expedition leaving Cuba. Number of horses: 16 horses - A major psychological and military advantage over indigenous forces. Time reference: A decade earlier - Geronimo de Aguilar had been shipwrecked in the region about ten years before meeting Cortés. Time reference: Three days before Easter - The Spaniards reach the Isle of Sacrifices and encounter the Totonacs. Number of slave girls given to the Spaniards: 20 slave girls - Gift from the people of Potonchan, including La Malinche. Time reference: 16 August 1519 - Cortés assembles his men on the beach before marching inland.

Pivotal Quotes: "For God, for Spain, for gold, for glory." — Narrator / quoted Cortés speech: The rallying cry as Cortés persuades his men to embark on the expedition. "We fight for Almighty God, and he will give us victory." — Cortés: Part of the speech used to justify the expedition religiously and morally. "I have a sickness of the heart, which can be cured only by gold." — Cortés (attributed): The famous line associated with Cortés’s desire for wealth, discussed as possibly apocryphal.

Implications: The episode reframes conquest as a mix of ideology, law, translation, and indigenous politics, not just superior weapons. It suggests future episodes will hinge on alliances, misunderstandings, and the strategic role of La Malinche and local rivals.