In today's episode the story of Balboa and Tierra Firme comes to an end. The story has already had more than it's fair share of twists and turns but it still has a few surprises in store. Will Balboa establish his new colony? Will Santa Maria survive D'avila's leadership? and will they put their differences aside for the common good? Spoiler alert - of course they won't. ...
In this episode we continue our tour of Ancient Mesoamerica and move into the classical era. This was a time of larger and more technically advanced civilisations than those which had come before. We will look at Teotihuacan, El Tajin, and return to the Zapotec and Mixtec. The second half of the episode will look at the great collapse which affected almost all the peoples of the classical era, and which saw their great cities fall. We will discuss some of the theories that attempt to explain why this happened. Was it climate change? social unrest? or something else? ...
Cortez was determined to meet with emperor Moctezuma - even if Moctezuma had made it more than clear that he wanted nothing to do with him. To do this, he would have to march over land to Tenochtitlan but getting there would not be easy. Between him and the Aztec capital stood the mighty Aztec city of Cholula and the land of the mysterious and ferocious Tlaxcalans. Cortez would have to negotiate his way past both before he reached his goal. ...
