From Settlement to Superpower

Cortes heads over to Cholula, where an Aztec conspiracy leads to a bloodbath. Following this, Cortes moves on to Tenochtitlan itself, where he is received with great honors. It is not long before he takes Montezuma prisoner and has him swear fealty to Charles V. The Spanish accumulate a vast amount of treasure and all is well. Or so it seems...

Cortes is quite a wily character. This episode, he breaks free of Velasquez's control, founds a city, liberates the Totonacs, defeats and then befriends the Tlaxcalans, and utterly mystifies Montezuma and the Aztecs. If you want to see how 4D chess is really played, just look at Cortes.

In this episode we meet the Aztecs: who they were, what they believed, and how their society was ordered. We also introduce the man who will ultimately destroy that civilization, Hernan Cortes, and we explore the backdrop to his expedition to Mexico.

This episode takes a look at the Spanish conquest of the Carribean Islands, with a particular focus on the island of Hispaniola. We read a great deal of Las Casas, who chronicled the abject misery of the natives in his "A History of the Indies".

The Portuguese may have cornered the market on Africa, but they were about to get eclipsed in a big way by their neighbors to the east - the Spanish. This episode describes the story of the Castilian Atlantic, from 1402 through Columbus's discovery of the Americas.

Portugal began the Age of Discovery with a century-long campaign to find a direct sea-route to India. In this episode we discuss the who, what, why, and when of this Portuguese contribution.

A few brief announcements. First off, episodes will now be uploaded at a pace of 1 per every week and a half - two weeks. To compensate, episodes will be longer, more in depth, and recommended reading will be provided. Also, we will do away with the chapter system and go to a simple system of numbering the podcast. Also, a shoutout to Jamie Redfern!

This is it! We're done our introductory podcasts! Today we talk about Elizabeth's war with Spain and the Irish. Next week we are on hiatus - and after that, we turn our attention to American colonization!

Here we are - the long overdue penultimate introductory podcast! This episode, we cover the events of Queen Elizabeth I's early reign, from the Elizabethan Settlement to the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. The Armada is coming...

In this podcast Edward dies, and winter comes for the Protestants. Their coup is thwarted and Mary and her Catholics reign supreme. Cranmer bids us adieu, and we read from Foxe's Acts and Monuments.