The True Story Of The Fall Of Tenochtitlán | Throughline

In a sense, 1521 is Mexico's 1619. A foundational moment that has for a long time been shaped by just one perspective, a European one. The story of how Hernán Cortés and his small army of conquistadors conquered the mighty Aztec Empire, in the heart of what's now modern Mexico City, has become a foundational myth of European dominance in the Americas. This is the story that for centuries was largely accepted as the truth. But in recent decades researchers have pieced together a more nuanced, complicated version based on indigenous accounts, a version that challenges many of the bedrock assumptions about how European Christians came to control the Western Hemisphere. In this episode, the story of the fall of Tenochtitlán.

This episode was first published October 7, 2021.

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[Guycjohnsen]

The perspective that we come from when examining ancient cultures is important, not because it tells us something about "them", but rather it says something about "us". "A more sophisticated culture" claim @5:50 is fraught with subjective contradictions. Unless I missed the "Guns, Germs, and Steal" boat, the culture conducting ritual sacrifice of humans is not in a good "cultural" standing. African and Aztec tribes alike subjected conquered people to enslavement. Neither is the European conquest of the Americas a by product of "a better culture". Technology does not equal "a superior culture." The Aztecs and Spanish conquistadors both practiced barbarism. As Will Durant wisely states, "From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.”

[MetalPorSiempreDA]

I have to say, as a Latin American, I am very disappointed with the way this episode equates US Americans being ignorant of sth with everybody in the Western Hemisphere being ignorant of sth. Special highlight goes to "Spain has a King".

[MetalPorSiempreDA]

While this was very interesting, the way La Malinche is treated, only calling her by her Spanish name, downplaying her agency, is very disappointing.