This episode provides a lightning fast run down of Iberian history up to the 1400s. We will also start to unpack how this history influenced the Spanish and Portuguese cultures and national characters. These influences would go on to determine how they behaved in the new world. ...
Today we take a break from the conquest of Peru for an interview with William Taylor - a scholar of colonial Mexican history and before his retirement, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His new book Fugitive Freedom tells the stories of two men who lived lives of deception, and examines what they can tell us about the society in which they lived. On the surface these men appear to be daring anti-heros and/or dangerous con-men. They also look like real life examples of the Picaros of Spanish colonial literature. A closer look however, reveals them to be much more three-dimensional characters, responding to the limitations of their social position and their own internal mental struggles. ...
With Tenochtitlan under his control, Cortez was faced with a new challenge. He needed to build a stable government, while keeping the Aztec population, his own men, the king and rival conquistadors happy. ...
