Cortés' Great Defeat
When the Aztecs defeated Cortés
4.7 (38)
56 mins
Explore the night when Cortés's seemingly unstoppable campaign against the Aztec Empire nearly collapsed. Discover how resistance erupted inside Tenochtitlan, forcing the Spanish and their allies into a desperate nighttime retreat while Aztec forces attacked them from the waterways and causeways.
Ep 1:
The Man Who Burned His Own Ships
Meet Hernán Cortés: a mutineer who scuttled his own fleet, forged desperate alliances, and marched toward the greatest empire in the Americas with no way back.
Ep 2:
Into the City of Wonders
Cortés and his allies enter dazzling Tenochtitlan and take Moctezuma captive, but a massacre at a festival ignites rebellion and a desperate, deadly retreat.
Ep 3:
Gold, Plague, and the Fall of an Empire
A lost gold bar, an invisible plague, and a brutal 93-day siege reveal how Tenochtitlan truly fell—and how Cortés's ambition curdled into paranoia and executions.
Ep 4:
The Emperor Who Forgot His Conqueror
Victorious but never satisfied, Cortés chases new conquests, loses power and favor, and dies unrecognized—leaving behind a legacy Mexico still argues over today.
Discussions (5)
Rodney
Level 3 · 5 days agoThe Tlaxcalans doing most of the actual fighting and then ending up at the bottom of the new power structure anyway is genuinely one of the most brutal outcomes in this whole story.
Justin
Level 3 · 5 days agoMalinche ran that whole show fr
Dustin
Level 4 · 5 days agoCortés burned his ships, conquered an empire, and still died broke. Overachievers take notes.
