Cortés and the Tlaxcalan Alliance: A Marriage of Convenience

The Requerimiento: Reading Conquest into Law

Long before the first shot was fired, Spanish conquistadors were required by law to read a document aloud to Indigenous peoples: the Requerimiento. This strange legal proclamation—written in Spanish and often read from horseback to empty villages or distant armies—declared that the Pope had granted the Americas to Spain, and that listeners must accept Christianity and Spanish rule or face war and enslavement. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the bizarre history of the Requerimiento: its origins in the 1513 Laws of Burgos, its author Juan López de Palacios Rubios, and the colonial debates it sparked. They examine how the document was used by figures like Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, and how it exposed the deep contradictions in Spain's legal and moral justifications for conquest. They also discuss the famous critique by Bartolomé de las Casas, who called the Requerimiento unjust and absurd, and the role of the document in shaping later international law debates about sovereignty and just war. A fascinating look at how words were used as weapons—and how a piece of paper became a tool of empire. #Requerimiento #LawsOfBurgos #JuanLópezDePalaciosRubios #BartoloméDeLasCasas #HernánCortés #FranciscoPizarro #SpanishConquest #ColonialLaw #JustWar #InternationalLaw #IndigenousRights #Conquistadors #FexingoHistory #History #Colonialism #Mesoamerica #ValladolidDebate #Sovereignty Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Guadalajara Cartographer: Domingo Lázaro and the First Map of New Spain

When Cortés returned to Spain in 1528, he brought with him something more telling than gold: a map. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten story of Domingo Lázaro, the indigenous cartographer from the Guadalajara region who helped create the first detailed map of New Spain for Emperor Charles V. Discover how Lázaro blended Nahua pictographic traditions with European mapmaking conventions, depicting mountains, rivers, and settlements in a way that served Spanish administrative needs while preserving indigenous knowledge. Along the way, we examine the 1528 Map of Santa Cruz, the role of the Casa de Contratación in Seville, and how cartography became a tool of both colonization and resistance. We also touch on the legacy of indigenous mapmakers like the authors of the Relaciones Geográficas in the 1580s. A story of empire, artistry, and the politics of knowledge. #DomingoLázaro #MapOfSantaCruz #Cortés #NewSpain #Cartography #IndigenousMapmaking #CasaDeContratación #CharlesV #Nahuatl #RelacionesGeográficas #1528 #Guadalajara #Seville #ColonialMexico #History #FexingoHistory #Podcast #Mesoamerica Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Battle of Otumba: Aztec Fury After La Noche Triste

In July 1520, Cortés and his surviving army stumbled out of Tenochtitlan after the disastrous Noche Triste — exhausted, wounded, and stripped of their horses and cannon. But the worst was yet to come. The Aztecs, now under the new huey tlatoani Cuitláhuac, massed a huge army on the plain of Otumba to finish the invaders for good. This episode reconstructs the desperate Battle of Otumba — July 7, 1520 — where a ragtag force of 400 Spaniards, 4,000 Tlaxcalan allies, and one great war horse named El Morcillo faced perhaps 40,000 Aztec warriors. We trace Cortés's tactical gamble, the critical role of Tlaxcalan infantry, and the moment a young cavalryman named Juan de Salamanca allegedly killed the Aztec commander Cihuacoatl Matlatzincatzin, shattering the Aztec will. We also explore the Otumba battlefield archaeology, the debate over casualty numbers, and what this pyrrhic victory meant for the eventual fall of Tenochtitlan. A turning point where the conquest nearly ended — but didn't. #BattleOfOtumba #Cortés #Cuitláhuac #Tlaxcala #JuanDeSalamanca #ElMorcillo #AztecEmpire #LaNocheTriste #Conquistadors #MesoamericanHistory #WarHorses #16thCentury #IndigenousAllies #Mexica #Otumba #MilitaryHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Encomienda System: Legalized Slavery in Spanish America

In the wake of conquest, the Spanish Crown faced a dilemma: how to reward its soldiers and settlers while maintaining control over millions of newly subjugated Indigenous people. The answer was the encomienda — a grant of native labor that became the backbone of colonial exploitation for centuries. This episode traces the encomienda from its medieval origins in the Reconquista to its brutal implementation in the Caribbean and Mesoamerica. We explore how figures like Nicolás de Ovando and Hernán Cortés used the system, how Bartolomé de las Casas fought against it, and how the Leyes Nuevas of 1542 tried — and largely failed — to reform it. We also look at Indigenous resistance, the demographic collapse that made the system unsustainable, and the encomienda's long shadow over modern Latin America. Specific names and terms include: Isabel la Católica, La Rábida, Requerimiento, Repartimiento, Mit'a, Yanacona, Tasa de Tlatelolco, and the writings of Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. A frank look at how legal frameworks enabled genocide. #Encomienda #SpanishColonialism #BartolomeDeLasCasas #LeyesNuevas #NicolasDeOvando #IsabelLaCatolica #Requerimiento #TasaDeTlatelolco #Repartimiento #IndigenousResistance #ColonialMexico #Hispaniola #Mesoamerica #Slavery #Genocide #History #FexingoHistory #Conquistadors Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Cholula Massacre: Cortés's Calculated Terror

In October 1519, just months before the march on Tenochtitlan, Hernán Cortés and his indigenous allies carried out a brutal preemptive attack on the religious center of Cholula. This episode examines the Cholula massacre not as a random act of violence, but as a calculated political strategy. We explore the city's significance as a center of Quetzalcoatl worship, the complex factional politics that led to the massacre, the conflicting accounts of whether a Cholulan plot actually existed, and how the massacre sent a chilling message across Mesoamerica. Drawing on native accounts from the Florentine Codex and Lienzo de Tlaxcala, as well as Spanish chronicles by Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Cortés himself, we unpack what really happened at Cholula and why it matters for understanding the conquest. #CholulaMassacre #HernánCortés #LaMalinche #Quetzalcoatl #FlorentineCodex #LienzoDeTlaxcala #BernalDíaz #Tlaxcala #Cholula #Mesoamerica #Conquistadors #SpanishConquest #IndigenousAllies #History #FexingoHistory #Massacre #16thCentury #WarCrimes Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]