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Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve
episode two hundred and forty. Montezuma and

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Cortez. Last time, Cortes and
his band of conquistadors plus lots of Native

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American allies, made it from the
coast to the heart of Tinoshti Clan itself.

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In doing so, Cortes directly violated
the orders given to him by Governor

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of Alasquez. In order to stave
off any reckoning, Cortes sent his own

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mission directly to Spain with instructions to
get post facto recognition for his efforts.

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The problem was what exactly had he
done so far? Sure he had made

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it all the way to the Mexica
capital, that alone was quite the accomplishmant.

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He had reapportioned, I guess a
not insignificant amount of gold and silver.

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He had allied himself with several powerful
Mesoamerican allies, but the Mexica Empire

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was very much independent and intact.
If Montezuma chose to kill Cortes, now

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be a minor footnote to history.
Quartz truly becomes the Cortez we all know

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from history because of what is going
to happen in today's episode. Today Cortez

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really starts gambling. If the night
of November the eighth was unusually quiet and

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technosht Clan, the morning was business
as usual, an early riser might have

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noticed young boys hurrying to the Great
Pyramid with coals for the braziers, or

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girls carrying tortillas for the priests eat. Merchants from far away would have been

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slowly arriving to the markets in their
canoes. For the moment, the citizens

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of ten Nusheti Klan met all the
Kunquistador's needs. This wasn't a small thing.

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There were hundreds of conquistadors plus a
few thousand men from Plascala. For

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a pre modern society, feeding that
number of people was not simple, but

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they did it. The Europeans feasted
on tortillas, turkeys, and fresh eggs.

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Their horses were fed and bedded down. Even their dogs were taken care

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of. For the moment, the
Mexica did this without resentment. For the

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moment, Cortes and his followers meant
the next several days, resting and seeing

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the sights, Cortes didn't know what
his next step should be. Quote unquote,

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take Montezuma dead or alive. Sounds
all well and good. While he

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and his followers had been safe and
sound on the coast, suddenly surrounded by

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Mexica, and the knowledge that Mountezuma
might at any moment order the drawbridges raised,

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Quartees was suddenly a lot less sure. Cortez soon found out how large

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the city was, how it was
divided into four quarters, how large avenues

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meeting in the central square separated these
districts, how each quarter had its own

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main temple the headquarters of the district
governors, and how these districts themselves divided

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into smaller zones. But Quartes was
slower to discover the size of the full

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Montezuma's empire. He knew that it
had reached the Gulf of Mexico, but

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he took some time to appreciate that
it extended to what they thought of his

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quote unquote, the southern Sea.
He thought that the territory was nearly as

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big as Spain, a calculation which
overestimated the enterprise for the Empire of Mexico

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was about one hundred and twenty five
thousand square miles in comparison with spain size

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of three hundred thousand, but the
total area with a culture comparable to that

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of old Mexico, that is,
including places like Tuscala and the Yucatan,

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would have given this new world half
a million square miles. That next day,

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Montezuma received Cortez in his palace.
He treated Quartez with deference, kind

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of like one might expect for a
foreign dignitary. Quartez, through his translator,

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Marina, obviously, then gave the
usual speech about the values of Christianity.

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Montezuma listened through the finer points of
Christianity, though they were probably a

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bit lost on him. At the
end of the first meeting, the two

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men just took their leave of one
another. It's probably hard to say who

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left the room more perplexed. Now
it's worth noting briefly here just how crucial

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Marina was to Cortes. That to
him, this was a bad thing.

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Cortes did not like how dependent he
wasn't as female interpreter, and a female

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part is important in that sentence.
The fact that Cortes was dependent on anyone

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irked him. That he was dependent
on a teenage girl drove him absolutely nuts.

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Without Marina, however, Cortes never
could have succeeded. In fact,

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it soon became clear that Marina had
what we would call a gift for language,

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as she soon began to learn Spanish
as well. Now, after the

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amazement of seeing the city for the
first time, were off the captains,

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and several of those from the slots
Khans, many of whom seemed to have

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been in Tenoshti Klan, came to
see Cortez. They told him that he

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would never be able to escape the
city and carry off all the jewels and

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gold of which they already been given. They further warned that the Mexica were

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most likely planning to kill him.
Several Spaniards began to talk of being caught

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in a spider's web. One of
the men, a certain Ordas, said

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that he had seen from the roof
how easily the Mexican could cut off their

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retreat simply by raising the drawbridges.
In fact, looking south from the roof

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of the palace, Cortes would have
noted that the Mexica had already raised one

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or two of the bridges on the
causeway. All the same, Cortez was

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probably still mulling over a direct attack
on Montezuma when some bad news arrived from

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the coast. While he had been
gone. The normal Mexica envoys showed up

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demanding tribute. This was nothing out
of the ordinary. Juan de Escalante,

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however, the man Cortez had left
in charge, refused to pay the tribute

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on behalf of his touton allies.
Perplexed, the envoys left. Frankly,

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the whole affair probably should have ended
right there, but as Galante decided he

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would try to push the issue.
He sallied forth and met the envoys with

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their troops outside town, demanding gold, sort of flipping the scripts. The

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representative said they didn't have any gold, which, for the record, they

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didn't. Still, Ascalante decided to
make an example of these men an attacked.

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During the fighting, Ascalante's allies deserted
him. He managed to retreat and

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burn a nearby town for good measure, but was mortally wounded and died shortly

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thereafter. While this was certainly bad
news for Cortes, he decided to take

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these lemons and make lemonade. He
would use the incident as a pretext for

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demanding a crucial audience with Montezuma.
Coutez went to see Montezuma on November the

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fourteenth, fifteen nineteen. He took
several captains with him and about thirty other

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armed men. On arrival in the
throne room, Cortes began to banter with

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Montezumez he usually did. The emperor, who didn't sense anything out of the

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ordinary, offered Cortes some jewels and
even one of his daughters. In fact,

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he proposed several noblemen's daughters for Cortez'
men. Cortez turned these down,

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and he always turned down these offers
by the way, claiming that he couldn't

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take a consort who wasn't baptized.
Cortes then changed the subject sharply, and

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so that he was astonished that Montezuma
would even send captains against the garrison which

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he, Cortez had left at Vera
Cruz. He Cortes had done everything possible

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to help Montezuma, but now the
opposite of what he had desired had transpired.

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Precisely the same chain of events had
occurred at Cholula, he observed icily

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remember by the way he slaughtered all
the leaders at Cholula. Cortez said that

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he was willing to forgive everything if
Montezuma would accompany him without making a scene

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to the European lodgings, but if
you were to cry out or make any

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noise at all, that his captains
would immediately kill him. Montezuma was terrified

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at this point. He was caught
between a rock and a hard place.

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Certainly, he didn't want to be
killed right then and there, but he

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recognized that him being a prisoner was
problematic. He said, quote, my

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person is not such that I could
be made a prisoner of even if I

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would like it, my people would
not suffer it. End quote. An

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argument ensued that actually lasted most of
the day and why somebody doesn't bust in

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and help Montezuma at this point,
I'm not really sure, but at some

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point the various European captains and the
records murky is to who. But they

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start to get nervous that something's going
to happen, and they realize that they've

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got to get Montezuma out right now
and back to their own lodgings, which

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they can barricade, or they're going
to be badly outnumbered. Where they were

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now, Montezuma was still trying to
get out of this. He proposed his

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son and two daughters as hostages.
I mean what would his counselors say if

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he was taken away as a prisoner, But Cortez was insistent. He said

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that there was no alternative. The
emperor had to come with them. Montezuma

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would have to stay with the Europeans
until they could get to the bottom of

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what had happened in Phara Cruz.
In the meantime, Cortez told him Montezuma

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would be able to carry out the
administration of his empire from the lodgings of

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the European at the Palace of Ashatal. Montezuma ultimately agreed to go with Cortez.

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He told his men to stand down, that he had consulted with the

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gods and decided for his health to
spend a few days with Cortez. Now,

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the guards outright asked Montezuma if they
just wanted them to kill Cortes and

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his men right then and there.
He told them no, Cortes had just

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taken captive the most important man in
the Mexico world. He was an enormous

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coup for Cortez, and his actions
were very much in keeping with the Renaissance

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notion that great men could accomplish great
things if they were willing to rest a

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lot. Now, Montezuma quickly became
accustomed to his jailers. I suppose today

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we would probably diagnose him with Stockholm
syndrome, though certainly no one thought that

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at the time. I should point
out from the records that we have,

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and most of them are Spanish records, but from what we do have,

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Montezuma did genuinely seem to like Cortez. Cortez and many of the other Europeans

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made him laugh. He especially liked
the young page named Ortegia, who new

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Spanish and had learned a little natal. In addition to all the jokes,

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Cortez would lecture Montezuma daily and probably
endlessly, about the nature of Christian theology,

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especially the relationship between the Trinity.
One has to imagine that part of

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Montezuma's day was a lot less humorous
jokes and lectures aside, Montezuma's capture was

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a huge crisis for the Mexica Empire. The emperor was essential to the direction

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of Mexican society. He was supposed
to speak directly on behalf of the gods.

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Now he was someone's captive. What
did this mean for the proper order

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of things. What did it mean
for the functioning of Mexican society and their

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government. Certainly there would have been
many anxious people in Technoshticlan that fall.

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Adding to the anxiety, the Mexican
official who had engaged in battle with Escalante

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and several men who fought with him
were brought to technosht Clan as prisoners.

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Montezuma weakly handed these men over to
Cortes. At first, the official denied

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that Montezuma had anything to do with
the incident, but then under torture,

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he changed his tune. Still,
Cortes told Montezuma, while he was within

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his rights to have Montezuma put to
death and in there, he was so

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fond of him that he would never
dream of having anyone harm him. Then

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he turned around and had the official
from Verta Cruz and all his sons burned

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at the stake before the Great Pyramid. This technique of varying supposed kindness with

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naked brutality kept Montezuma off balance and
secured his continued cooperation. Shortly thereafter,

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Cortez removed the iron shackles keeping the
Mexican emperor in place. He told Montezuma.

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He was free to go, but, perhaps afraid of how his people

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now perceived him, Montezuma chose to
stay with Cortez for some weeks. Yet

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Montezuma at least seemed to rule.
The city returned to something like normality.

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Nightly dancing and singing continued in the
temples, the law courts issued judgments.

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The regular ordinary life of the Mexicans
continued. Montezuma also continued making sacrifices.

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Cortez wrote in his journal about how
much he hated this, but he couldn't

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do anything about it for the moment, so he just pretended not to notice.

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I'd have to imagine that's horri I've
never been to a human sacrifice,

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and I hope never to be,
but I'd have to think it's hard to

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pretend not to notice one going on. Despite outward appearances, Montezuma's own character

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had changed. It was no longer
the proud and ruthless Mexican empire. He

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was now pliable, undecided, and
subservient, if perhaps underneath subtle and trustworthy.

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He passed the days with Cortes as
a young boy might pass the days

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with a doting grandfather. Cortes played
Mexican games with Montezuma, which as an

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aside, Cortes seems to have really
enjoyed. Cortez tried to teach Montezuma as

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much as he could about Spanish customs. He even showed him how to use

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a crossbow, something that delighted Montezuma
endlessly. In his journal, Cortes wrote

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about Montezuma in fawn terms. Montezuma
returned the gesture, describing how he quote

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loved Cortez like a brother. Around
the same time, Cortez decided he would

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have a series of boats constructed to
be able to take quote three hundred men

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and horses to the mainland end quote. Remember, the Mexicans could always pull

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up the drawbridges on the causeway and
trap the Spaniards on the island. Cortez

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wanted to take away this trump card, so in November he decided to have

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several boats built to ameliorate this disadvantage. The Mexican Empire during most of this

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period continued to function normally. Tribute
flowed, long distance trade continued. As

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Cortez himself put it, quote harmony
and order was maintained, but all good

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things must come to an end.
I should put good in air quotes there

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I guess, in this case the
cause of the conflict that would lead to

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significant bloodshed in the streets of Tenoshti
Klan were two tales as old as time,

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religion and gold. The fight over
religion derived, as you probably expected,

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from the issue of sacrifice. Cortes
wanted to bring the practice to an

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end, but to this point he
hadn't been successful. He also wanted to

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put a crucifix in a picture of
the Virgin Mary at the summit of the

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Great Temple. This hadn't happened either. As for the gold, Cortes continued

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to press Montezuma at to the location
of his gold mines. The emperor did

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allow Cortes access to some of the
tribute books, showing which parts of the

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empire paid their taxes in gold.
Quote. In Montezuma's income books, we

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looked up which were the provinces from
which he drew gold as tribute, and

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where there were mines cacao and cotton
cloaks. Then quote, it's of course

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worth noting that gold meant a lot
less to the Mexica than it did to

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the Spanish. That being said,
Montezuma was no fool. He certainly did

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not disclose to the Europeans the location
of all of his gold mines. Some

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he kept secret, so the regions
Montezuma did disclose. Cortes sent expeditions of

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men to determine the value of the
minds. If he was going to steal

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the wealth of old Mexico, he
might as well do a full accounting first.

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Well this was going on, Cortes
continued working to consolidate his power.

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In early January fifteen twenty, Cortes
had Montezuma's summoned all the great Mexican lords

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to te Nocht Klan for an audience. Now, what happened at this meeting

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is all according to Cortez, so
we need to take it with a grain

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of salt. But with that being
said, here's what, according to him,

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happened. Cortez gave a lengthy speech
in which he detailed how lucky everyone

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was to have lived at a time
when they could all come under the glorious

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sovereignty of the King of Castile,
Charles the fifth, and luckily they could

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all become Christians in time to save
their souls. How fortunate for them.

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According to Cortez, their response to
all this was nothing less than complete adulation

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and subjugation. Evidently, the assembled
nobles immediately understood how everything Cortes said was

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correct, and there was no point
in arguing haste clothes. My guess is

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that this is how Cortes choose to
interpret what he saw. In any event,

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the nobility was not about to question
Montezuma to his face, at least

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not yet. So the Emperor and
the nobility turned over children, sons,

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and daughters, as I suppose,
hostages. The upshot of all this for

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Cortez was that he could claim Montezuma
had now formally accepted Charles the Fifth as

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his lord and emperor. What this
meant was that Cortes could interpret any new

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expedition Velasquez might send against him as
against the king himself. Since Montezuma was

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now a lawful vassal, it gave
Cortes a stronger moral position, and,

215
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at least, in theory, a
stronger legal one. But the religious disputes

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remained. Montezuma offered up the idea
of a kind of compromise. Perhaps he

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suggested they put the Mexican gods on
one side of the shrine and the Christian

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God and the other. Evidently,
Montezuma had not listened to my episodes on

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the Reformation. Had he, he
would have known that the sixteenth century was

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not known for being an era of
religious compromise. No, Cortez stood firm

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the idols had to go, So
several days later the Mexican priests put together

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ropes, pulleys, and other traptions
to get the Mexican gods out of the

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shrine and safely down to the ground. Took old day, but it worked.

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After the Mexican idols were gone,
Cortez had the shrines cleaned and the

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effigies of the Virgin Mary and Saint
Christopher installed atop the Great Pyramid of technosoty

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Klan. Saint Christopher was a major
patron center in the Middle Ages, so

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that's why he ended up up there. Then, finally, per Cortez's order,

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the sacrifices stopped. He would report
later of this time quote, in

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all the time that I remained in
the city, I did not see a

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single living creature killed were sacrificed.
I should note the obvious qualification that he

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put on that I did not see
what went on outside his realm of vision.

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Well, I guess we'll never know. One thing Cortez certainly did see

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was gold, lots of gold.
In the early part of fifteen twenty,

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Cortes and the expedition as a whole
held basically a financial accounting a stocking.

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The gold, which had been gained
both from the presence and from items seized,

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was valued at one hundred and sixty
thousand pacos. The royal fifth therefore

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was named as thirty two thousand pasos. This was exclusive of gold and silver

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jewelry, which must have been worth
at least seventy five thousand pacos or more

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00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:37.119
so. Then A fifth of the
remainder of the first amount of gold one

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00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:41.920
hundred and twenty eight thousand pacos which
Cortez took for himself would have been about

241
00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:45.880
twenty five thousand, six hundred.
That left one hundred and two thousand,

242
00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:52.640
four hundred pacos worth of gold to
distribute, but Cortes claimed he had to

243
00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:56.319
reimburse himself for his expenses, including
sailor's wages, the ships, the food,

244
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the horses. Money also had to
be allocated to the two priests on

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the expedition to Cortes's agents in Spain
and seventy men left behind Vera Cruz.

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These subtractions left little to be divided. Some money, in fact, was

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distributed one or two soldiers seemed to
have been satisfied. Ordinary soldiers got about

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one hundred pasos, and most of
them looked at this as an insult.

249
00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:29.480
Cortes was able to smooth it over
with a lot of them a few secret

250
00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:33.480
sort of under the table payments.
All the estimates were arrived at after the

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gold, by the way, including
most of the jewelry, had been melted

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down in according to practice. It's
crucial to understand that by comparison to other

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00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:49.400
explorers and conquistadors, this was a
huge haul. Just considered Ponce da Leon,

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for example, in his property in
Puerto Rico, he accumulated in thirteen

255
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years from fifteen o nine to fifteen
twenty one, just under twenty two thousand

256
00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:07.839
paceos worth of gold, four thousand
of which he sent to the king in

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less than one year. Cortez was
going to send the king thirty two thousand

258
00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:22.200
paceos, eight times that amount.
If Cortez needed to buy himself back into

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the King's good graces, he was
sure as heck going to do it now.

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Sometime in March fifteen twenty, Montezuma's
favorite little page or Taguia, went

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00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:40.759
to see Cortez. He told him
that Montezuma needed to talk to him right

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00:24:40.759 --> 00:24:45.000
away. Or Taghia added that he
had noticed several secret discussions between Montezuma and

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his lords which suggested that a plot
might be at foot. Cortez went with

264
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four other captains as well as the
two interpreters to see the Emperor. Montezuma

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00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:03.680
that day seemed be a new man. His gods, so long silent,

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had now apparently told him to declare
war on the Europeans on the ground that

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they had stolen gold in other things. Montezumas said that since he had become

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fond of the Europeans, he wanted
them to leave before his people attacked them.

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He offered Cortez himself two loads of
gold and one for each of his

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men, sort of as a parting
gift, of course, and his statement

271
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he made no mention at all of
the lost God or lost leader who Cortez

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00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:36.359
supposedly was, who disappeared in the
past, nor the legend that he would

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return to rule the empire, nor
did he speak of the oath that Cortez

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00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:45.200
insisted that he took. He didn't
even mention the King of Spain. Poof

275
00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.400
all of that seems to have begotten, forgotten. But why the change in

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Montezuma. We would have expected him
to react when Cortez went to remove the

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idols, but he didn't. It
seems that Montezuma's own people helped him find

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00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:04.720
his backbone again. The Mexican people
were insisting that Montezuma either expel or kill

279
00:26:04.759 --> 00:26:10.680
the Europeans, so I suppose he
didn't so much his act as just bow

280
00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:15.599
to the public will. Montezuma now
became insistent that Cortez leaved to Nushti klan

281
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At. One of the ironies of
this whole year long period is that both

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00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:26.720
men, Cortez and Montezuma recognize how
it's in their best interest to resolve all

283
00:26:26.759 --> 00:26:30.759
this without bloodshed, Yet in the
end neither man is able to make that

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00:26:30.839 --> 00:26:37.200
happen. Cortez responded to Montezuma that
he would love to leave, but he

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00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:42.119
had no ships. Montezuma countered by
saying he would lend Cortez all his carpenters

286
00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:47.519
to build the ships. Cortez came
back with something like, oh, sure,

287
00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:52.839
we'll go, but you're coming with
us. The notion of traveling to

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Spain forced Montezuma to once more pump
the brakes. Whatever Cortez's plans were,

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00:27:00.279 --> 00:27:07.599
they were abruptly upended. Early in
April fifteen twenty, word reached Cortez and

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Montezuma that a Spanish ship had arrived
off the coast of Vera Cruz. Some

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men in the expedition believed that this
was aid come from Spain as a result

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00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:22.559
of the efforts by the men Cortes
sent to argue his case before the king,

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But Cortez was more shrewd than that. He recognized that these reinforcements were

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just as if not more, likely
to have come from Governor Velasquez in Cuba,

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in which case he warn't a pleasant
surprise at all. The appearance of

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00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:59.839
Maniflos de Navarrez's fleet off the coast
of Mexico in April fifteen twenty was the

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00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.599
consequence of the departure from there nine
months before of the two men Cortes had

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00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:11.400
sent back to Spain. Now those
two conquistadors left for home on the Santa

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Marie de Concepcion, just out of
the newly founded town of Vera Cruz.

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Their mission was to go back to
Spain and persuade the young King Charles to

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recognize Cortes as governor and the captain
general of the new territory, a territory

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00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:33.400
which he had, of course,
now he had conquered. They had been

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00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:38.400
told by Cortes to go directly to
Spain. Speed was essential. They had

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00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:44.720
therefore determined to travel north of Cuba
and then along the Gulf Stream. This

305
00:28:44.839 --> 00:28:51.200
route had been discovered six years ago
during Ponce da Leone's voyage to Florida.

306
00:28:51.480 --> 00:28:56.279
The plan was then to turn northeast
and set sail across the ocean. This

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00:28:56.799 --> 00:29:03.799
actually very soon would become the invention
a way of traveling from Spain to Cuba

308
00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:08.000
and hence Mexico. But one of
the two men on board, who had

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property in Cuba, convinced everyone else
to stop. I mean, this wasn't

310
00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:18.400
totally out of the question, it
was kind of more or less on the

311
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:23.039
way. They stayed there for three
days, having anchored on August the twenty

312
00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:27.839
third. During this stay, one
of the servants caught a glimpse of the

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00:29:27.880 --> 00:29:33.920
treasure which they were taking home to
Spain. He exclaimed later that he had

314
00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:41.119
never seen such riches. Now,
the gentleman in question was sworn to secrecy,

315
00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:45.039
But the idea that that was going
to happen, no, never.

316
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:53.240
It wasn't before long that word of
the treasure trove of riches Cortez had accomplished

317
00:29:53.599 --> 00:30:03.480
and found in Mexico had reached Governor
Velasquez. Governor Vlasquez had just passed the

318
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:07.160
first six months after Cortez had left
Cuba really without complaint. Life had gone

319
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:11.720
on. A few operations had found
some deposits of gold to the west of

320
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:18.440
Havana. Then a modest sugar harvest
came in. More tobacco grew, The

321
00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:25.720
court at Santiago survived. The world
and other worlds just kept on spinnen.

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00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:33.640
But then word reached Velasquez that Cortez
had truly found something in Mexico. The

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00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:37.759
amount of gold he was sending back
to Spain put anything Velasquez was doing in

324
00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:47.920
Cuba to shame. Suddenly, Velasquez
cared a lot about Cortez. He was

325
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:52.240
angry here. He had given this
man everything he needed to launch a voyage

326
00:30:52.279 --> 00:30:59.240
of discovery in his name, and
he took it all for himself. Ridiculous.

327
00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:06.200
Velasquez was going to put a stop
to it, a sap. Initially,

328
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:11.279
he sent out several ships to waylay
Cortez's Spanish bound messengers on the high

329
00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:18.000
seas, but they missed the mark. So Velasquez went straight to the source.

330
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:22.799
He dispatched a man to Spain with
letters to Bishop Fonseca, the man

331
00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:30.079
who had for years run the Spanish
enterprises in the West Indies. Velasquez begged

332
00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:37.799
Fonseca to do whatever he could to
thwart Cortes's designs. Velasquez also planned an

333
00:31:37.799 --> 00:31:45.319
expedition to destroy Cortes's little colony,
but fate got in the way. In

334
00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:52.920
October, smallpox reached Cuba. It
was the first real epidemic in the New

335
00:31:52.920 --> 00:32:00.440
World. By May fifteen, nineteen
nearly all the indigenous tie Anos on Santo

336
00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:07.519
Domingo were dead. By the end
of that year, they were totally wiped

337
00:32:07.559 --> 00:32:17.720
out by November. Smallpox reached Cuba. Year to the population collapsed, as

338
00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:24.039
did the sugar production, which was
dependent on Indian slave labor. All of

339
00:32:24.039 --> 00:32:30.319
this both slowed the initial creation of
an expedition to stop Cortez, and then

340
00:32:30.039 --> 00:32:36.119
it supercharged it. How's that?
Well? You see? Suddenly in late

341
00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:43.200
fifteen nineteen, everyone was desperate to
get out of Cuba. Men were more

342
00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:46.559
than willing to risk everything to chase
down Cortez. I mean, what did

343
00:32:46.559 --> 00:32:52.160
they have to lose? They were
going to die in Cuba anyway. So

344
00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:57.960
Velasquez had his pick of captains,
and he chose a man named Panphilio de

345
00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:06.880
Nevades. Nevades was a good choice. Just this past January Nevades had gone

346
00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:13.759
to what is today Panama and executed
the then errant governor. Nevades had lopped

347
00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:19.279
off Balboa's head and not bought twice
about it. He was the perfect man

348
00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:28.200
for the job. Meanwhile, Porto
Carreo and Mondejo, Cortes's two agents,

349
00:33:28.680 --> 00:33:35.119
had reached Spain. They arrived in
October fifteen nineteen and were in Seville on

350
00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:39.000
November the fifth of that same year. They did not get the heroes welcome

351
00:33:39.359 --> 00:33:47.279
they expected. The treasure they brought
was immediately confiscated. This time, Velasquez

352
00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:54.160
was two steps ahead Diego. Velasquez
sent word to his personal chaplain in Spain

353
00:33:54.720 --> 00:34:00.720
to hold up Cortes's men and prevent
their success, and he did just that,

354
00:34:02.200 --> 00:34:07.159
luckily for Cortes and his men.
Though Spain that winter was on the

355
00:34:07.280 --> 00:34:14.480
verge of rebellion. We talked about
this in previous episodes, but this is

356
00:34:14.599 --> 00:34:20.960
during that period when the Spanish nobility, and especially the municipalities, the cities

357
00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:27.599
and the towns, were badly trying
to extract major compromises from Charles the Fifth,

358
00:34:28.360 --> 00:34:31.440
who for his part, just wanted
to get out of Spain and back

359
00:34:31.480 --> 00:34:38.039
on to Germany. As a result
of all this, Bishop Fonseca had been

360
00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:43.079
able to control Spanish policy in the
New World, much as he had done

361
00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:49.199
under Ferdinand. By March fifteen nineteen, he had put together a department within

362
00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:54.599
the all powerful Council of cast Stile
to deal with the West Indies. Fonseca,

363
00:34:54.679 --> 00:35:00.440
of course would be in charge.
But the flip side to the rebellion

364
00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:08.199
coin was that while the crown wanted
consolidation, the towns or procuradores were seeking

365
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:15.800
to influence royal policy more and more, and just as that was sort of

366
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:25.079
holding back Fonseca's power, Cortez's men
got a lucky break. It turned out

367
00:35:25.400 --> 00:35:32.679
that Hannanan, Cortes's father had a
connection to Charles the Fifth. He knew

368
00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:38.840
his prior Almoner, the person that
he went to to make absolution. So

369
00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:44.760
Cortes's men teamed up with his father
to see if they could find a way

370
00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:50.159
around Bishop Fonseca. It helped,
of course, that they had mountains of

371
00:35:50.199 --> 00:35:54.960
treasure to smooth over any rough edges. Now, by the time that Porto,

372
00:35:55.039 --> 00:36:00.119
Carrero and Monteo, now with Cortes's
father, reached bars Salona, the

373
00:36:00.199 --> 00:36:05.960
court had left for Bruches. The
Emperor had, however, performed some important

374
00:36:05.960 --> 00:36:09.679
businesses relating to the Indies. He
had, for example, heard Las Casas's

375
00:36:09.719 --> 00:36:14.239
account of the evils of the Spanish
treatment of the natives in the Caribbean,

376
00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:16.960
which, even if it was a
tenth as violent as La Casa said it

377
00:36:17.079 --> 00:36:22.840
was, must have made a strong
impression on him. Charles also issued a

378
00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:28.639
decree asking that the treasure which Ponto, Carrero and Montello had brought from the

379
00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:32.880
New World to be handed over to
the Casa de la Contracion in Seville.

380
00:36:34.679 --> 00:36:38.880
Casa de la Contracion was the sort
of department that was in charge of any

381
00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:45.159
and all expeditions and what they got
from the New world. More importantly,

382
00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:50.199
still even sent a friendly message to
Cortes's emissaries, saying he was pleased to

383
00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:53.199
hear of their arrival, ordering them
to go to court the place where I

384
00:36:53.239 --> 00:36:58.960
shall be, and asked them to
bring with them the Choltenock Indians and to

385
00:36:59.039 --> 00:37:05.079
treat them well. Charles's moderate tone
was a clear indication that Fonseca's power was

386
00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:09.960
waning. Cortez's men finally caught up
with the Royal court if Valadelid. They

387
00:37:09.960 --> 00:37:14.079
asked for the release of the funds
they had brought from Veracruz, as well

388
00:37:14.119 --> 00:37:17.719
as their ship. Crucially, they
also asked that Cortes be granted the title

389
00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:23.440
of governor and Chief Magistrate of this
new territory Ie Mexico, until Cortes could

390
00:37:23.440 --> 00:37:29.480
finish conquering it. For really the
first time, Cortes was giving an indication

391
00:37:29.519 --> 00:37:32.360
of the crown that he intended to
conquer all of Mexico, not just settle

392
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:37.599
the coast. While there is no
definitive proof that Cortez's men or his father

393
00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:45.559
saw Charles the Fifth personally, it
seems probable that they did. That's because

394
00:37:45.639 --> 00:37:51.280
in the end, the Royal council
haunted on the issue, and that was

395
00:37:51.320 --> 00:37:57.000
a very good thing for her non
Cortez. They didn't give Cortes the titles

396
00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:00.920
he sought, but they did give
him back his money to use as his

397
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:07.280
emissary soft it in Spain. The
Royal Council decided the wisest course of action

398
00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:12.239
was to wait until it could hear
from both Cortes and Governor of Alasquez.

399
00:38:13.159 --> 00:38:16.440
This was a huge win for Cortez, as it suggested he was on an

400
00:38:16.440 --> 00:38:22.559
even footing with the governor. It
was as close to an outright victory for

401
00:38:22.599 --> 00:38:29.880
Cortes's friends as they were going to
get. As for Charles, he probably

402
00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:34.280
never read the letters Cortes sent him. He did take them with him as

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00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:37.960
he left Spain, along with all
the treasure that constituted his royal fifth.

404
00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:43.000
As we know, he was going
to need Mexico's wealth to buy the Imperial

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00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:49.800
crown in Germany. In Seville,
Cortes's father would sell his son's recently returned

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00:38:49.880 --> 00:38:54.440
ship, which was technically against Cortes's
express orders, but it proved to be

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00:38:54.599 --> 00:38:59.920
for the best. The money he
got from the sale was enough to ship

408
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:07.039
back significant and crucial supplies. Now
back in Cuba, Velasquez was not about

409
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:10.719
to sit around and wait for permission
to deal with Cortez, as far as

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00:39:10.760 --> 00:39:17.360
he was concerned. His man Nevades
could now do that since Cortes had violated

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00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:24.199
his express order. So Nevades sailed
from Cuba in March fifteen twenty. He

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00:39:24.280 --> 00:39:30.679
set off as usual for the Yucatan
and then followed the coast in Cortez's footsteps.

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00:39:30.679 --> 00:39:36.199
Every group of natives he encountered were
hostile, which, as Nevades himself

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00:39:36.199 --> 00:39:39.000
correctly pointed out, was probably as
the result of the way in which Cortez

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00:39:39.039 --> 00:39:45.480
had treated them. Nevades made every
effort to be kind at the Totonacs and

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00:39:45.559 --> 00:39:50.559
others that he met. As he
traveled. Montezuma found out Navarez had reached

417
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:55.400
Vera Cruz long before Cortez, and
did not immediately tell him. However,

418
00:39:55.639 --> 00:40:00.599
in the end he found it impossible
to keep Cortes from the secret of Navarez's

419
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:06.039
arrival. Now why did he keep
it secret? Well, perhaps he thought

420
00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:10.199
Cortes would punish him if he discovered
the news independently. Montezuma showed Cortes the

421
00:40:10.239 --> 00:40:15.159
painted cloths illustrating the new ships that
had arrived, and urged him to leave

422
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:20.960
to mosht Klan. He said to
Cortes that he could see that the Spaniards

423
00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:24.079
were not all united and did not
hell have the same lord. He pointed

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00:40:24.079 --> 00:40:29.639
out now that there were many ships, so quote, you have no need

425
00:40:29.719 --> 00:40:34.679
to build ships. You can return
together to Castile, and there need be

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00:40:34.880 --> 00:40:43.920
no further excuses end quote. Now
Cortez nonpulsed replied that Castilians did have the

427
00:40:43.960 --> 00:40:47.480
same lord, but that the new
people who arrived were probably bad people.

428
00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:53.159
They might be brigands, they might
be robbers, They might be people who

429
00:40:53.199 --> 00:40:57.960
would bring bad luck to the land
because they would steal whatever there was.

430
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:02.480
Now, of course, Cortes knew
very well who these people were. He

431
00:41:02.519 --> 00:41:07.559
immediately realized that the newcomers were much
more likely agents of Governor vel Esquez than

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00:41:07.599 --> 00:41:14.440
people directly from Spain. Back in
Veracruz, the man Cortes left in charge,

433
00:41:14.639 --> 00:41:20.000
Sandoval took decisive action. He called
together all the men and made them

434
00:41:20.039 --> 00:41:24.760
swear an oath to support no governor
other than had Ann Cortez. Then he

435
00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:30.239
sent away all the sick and old
men. In other words, he was

436
00:41:30.280 --> 00:41:35.320
preparing for a siege. Now,
that is, for his part, sent

437
00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:38.960
a small party with letters addressed to
the various members of Cortes's party in Betacruz,

438
00:41:39.480 --> 00:41:46.440
seeking to lure them away from the
Conquistador. Sandoval ordered this party arrested

439
00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:52.880
and sent directly to Technoshti Klan.
When these men reached the capital, Cortes

440
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:57.599
ordered them released, blaming the whole
thing on Sandoval so that he could,

441
00:41:57.639 --> 00:42:01.079
as usual, look like the good
guy. On top of that, he

442
00:42:01.159 --> 00:42:07.079
gave them a substantial quantity of gold
as an enticement to change sides. It

443
00:42:07.159 --> 00:42:12.960
is an indication of the wealth that
could be had in Mexico. Navarez might

444
00:42:13.039 --> 00:42:19.519
have some nice sounding letters from Governor
Velasquez, but Cortes he had gold.

445
00:42:20.760 --> 00:42:27.800
Who turned out the latter was much
more effective at buying affections. Navarez,

446
00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:30.639
in the meantime, sent one of
his ships back to Cuba with an update

447
00:42:30.679 --> 00:42:36.719
for the governor. It seems that
Cortes had indeed found a wealthy civilization.

448
00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:42.360
Their capital, he wrote, was
in the interior of the island or continent,

449
00:42:42.800 --> 00:42:46.719
or whatever the heck this was.
The man he talked to said it

450
00:42:46.760 --> 00:42:52.960
sounded like a modern venice, which
he couldn't believe, but he would see

451
00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:58.280
for himself. Soon enough. Now, back in Technoshti Klan, Cortes debated

452
00:42:58.320 --> 00:43:04.079
what should be done about Navarez.
Given that Navarez seemed uninterested in compromise,

453
00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:09.159
and based on his prior reputation of
chopping people's heads off, the course seemed

454
00:43:09.320 --> 00:43:19.679
straightforward. Cortes declared, quote death
to Navarez and to anyone who argues about

455
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:25.119
the matter. End quote now.
As the calendar turned to fifteen twenty head

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00:43:25.199 --> 00:43:30.280
non, Cortes seemed to be in
a weak position. He had a small

457
00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:35.199
force to begin with when he arrived
in Mexico, and since then he had

458
00:43:35.199 --> 00:43:39.320
divided that force into four He had
only around two hundred men in technos Declane

459
00:43:40.320 --> 00:43:45.599
True, Montezuma and a few other
major Mexican lords were his prisoners, but

460
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:52.440
how long could that last? Easter
Sunday, April eighth, fifteen twenty came

461
00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:59.280
and went. It was time to
take decisive action, so Cortez set out

462
00:43:59.320 --> 00:44:04.400
for the coast in early May.
Unwilling to lose what he had gained a

463
00:44:04.440 --> 00:44:08.280
technost Klan, he left one hundred
and twenty men under the command of one

464
00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:16.360
Alvarado to keep order and keep Montezuma
captive. Thus he was only taking eighty

465
00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:23.840
conquistadors at a number of talas collins
with him. This was a huge gamble.

466
00:44:25.719 --> 00:44:31.440
The men he was going to have
to face absolutely understood fire arms and

467
00:44:31.519 --> 00:44:37.519
horses. They were going to outnumber
him, and they weren't going to be

468
00:44:37.559 --> 00:44:45.880
easily spooked. Cortes warmly embraced Montezuma
before he left. The latter begged Cortes

469
00:44:46.039 --> 00:44:50.840
to let him help. He said
he could send an army of one hundred

470
00:44:50.920 --> 00:44:59.039
thousand plus thirty thousand porters. Surely
with those numbers Cortes would prevail. Cortes

471
00:44:59.159 --> 00:45:05.880
told him all needed was God.
Still, as he left, Montezuma reminded

472
00:45:05.880 --> 00:45:09.360
Cortez that all he needed to do
was send word and Montezuma would send a

473
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:15.199
massive force to aid him. Now, of course, this was the last

474
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:20.800
thing Cortez wanted. Who knew what
the Mexicans might realize they could do with

475
00:45:20.840 --> 00:45:25.000
a large army at hand. It
wouldn't take long for someone to figure out

476
00:45:25.519 --> 00:45:30.480
they could just wipe out Cortes as
well and be done with it. It

477
00:45:30.639 --> 00:45:37.000
was a risk Cortez couldn't take.
Cortes set out to the sea over the

478
00:45:37.039 --> 00:45:42.800
same land route he took in getting
to technosh declan. As he marched and

479
00:45:42.960 --> 00:45:49.559
met with various Indian allies overland,
Cortes realized that Montezuma knew about Navare's long

480
00:45:50.039 --> 00:45:57.199
long before he told him. Cortes
was furious, and this would change his

481
00:45:57.239 --> 00:46:04.199
attitude towards the Mexican emperor after his
return. As he marched, Cortes also

482
00:46:04.320 --> 00:46:08.519
distributed a significant amount of gold to
his men. The goal was clear,

483
00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:17.360
keep everyone happy and loyal. Upon
reaching the coast, Cortes sent an emissary

484
00:46:17.760 --> 00:46:24.599
demanding that Navarrez laid down his arms
and submit to Cortes's authority. It was

485
00:46:24.639 --> 00:46:32.159
an imperious demand that had absolutely no
chance of success. Cortes certainly knew this.

486
00:46:34.280 --> 00:46:38.519
He only sent the message to give
himself legal justification for the military action

487
00:46:38.920 --> 00:46:46.039
he had already settled on. For
a few days after Cortez reached the coast,

488
00:46:46.880 --> 00:46:52.400
messages went back and forth between the
two camps. Cortes did everything he

489
00:46:52.440 --> 00:47:00.119
could to purchase the loyalty of Navarrez's
men. According to one historian quote,

490
00:47:00.519 --> 00:47:05.440
the camp of Navarez was soon awash
with gold, believed to have come from

491
00:47:05.480 --> 00:47:14.920
Cortes. Now neither sided in the
interesting compromise, all of these negotiations were

492
00:47:15.239 --> 00:47:21.519
merely maneuvering for a superior moral and
legal position. All of this came to

493
00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:27.599
an end on May twenty eighth,
fifteen twenty. That day, Cortes arranged

494
00:47:27.599 --> 00:47:31.800
his men into five companies for the
battle to come. His plan was really

495
00:47:31.840 --> 00:47:37.679
simple, attack in the darkness and
overwhelmed Navadez before he had a chance to

496
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:45.280
respond. For his part, navades
knew what was coming, having declared open

497
00:47:45.360 --> 00:47:54.320
war on Quartz several days earlier.
Still, Navarez seems to have totally misjudged

498
00:47:54.679 --> 00:48:00.639
how far away Cortes was the evening
going into the battle, and I mean

499
00:48:00.760 --> 00:48:07.800
that physically, like he didn't understand
how closed Cortes's army was to him.

500
00:48:08.039 --> 00:48:15.599
He expected the attack to come around
dawn, but Cortes and his army were

501
00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:24.079
much much closer than he realized.
Even when his aid burst into Navarez's tent

502
00:48:24.639 --> 00:48:30.360
and informed him Cortes was on the
move, he didn't spring into action.

503
00:48:30.760 --> 00:48:39.039
Navarez expected Cortes to pause before he
attacked, and he was wrong. Navarez

504
00:48:39.199 --> 00:48:45.719
had built his headquarters on top of
the pyramid outside caplan. Cortes's men moved

505
00:48:45.800 --> 00:48:52.000
in the darkness, silently dispatched the
sentries at the base of the pyramid and

506
00:48:52.079 --> 00:48:59.079
were practically overrunning the camp itself Before
anyone knew what was going on. Sandoval

507
00:48:59.400 --> 00:49:05.199
led the chart argent to Navarez's tent. After a vicious struggle, resulting in

508
00:49:05.280 --> 00:49:10.840
several deaths and many more maimings,
they captured Navarez. Navarez, who had

509
00:49:10.880 --> 00:49:15.599
lost an eye in the battle,
begged for a doctor, but Cortes told

510
00:49:15.639 --> 00:49:19.880
him quote, traitor, troublemaker,
you have received better than your desserts and

511
00:49:20.039 --> 00:49:25.239
quote then he sent him a doctor. They were both gentlemen after all.

512
00:49:27.840 --> 00:49:35.920
The moment Navarez surrendered, all his
captains likewise capitulated, Cortes seized all kinds

513
00:49:35.920 --> 00:49:39.599
of booty, and the casualties were
actually pretty high for the numbers involved.

514
00:49:40.440 --> 00:49:47.320
Navarez lost fifteen men, Cortes two. Cortes then went on to dismantle Navarez's

515
00:49:47.400 --> 00:49:52.360
nearby town of San Salvador, which
hadn't even really started to grow yet.

516
00:49:53.320 --> 00:50:01.880
For once, Cortez could exhale Velasquez
had sent a significant expedition against him,

517
00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:07.280
and he had fended it off with
relative ease. He didn't know it yet,

518
00:50:07.800 --> 00:50:14.119
but everything in Spain was also going
according to plan. He had gambled

519
00:50:14.760 --> 00:50:22.679
and he had won, or so
it would seem. Just as the dust

520
00:50:22.679 --> 00:50:32.360
settled in Veracruz, word reached Cortez
from Tenochticulan. The message was from Montezuma.

521
00:50:32.719 --> 00:50:40.400
Cortez needed to return to the capitol
at once. Alvarado, whom Cortez

522
00:50:40.480 --> 00:50:47.239
had left in charge, had killed
and wounded many Indians at a festival which

523
00:50:47.320 --> 00:50:55.840
Cortez himself had given permission for.
The city was in full blown rebellion.

524
00:51:00.519 --> 00:51:02.880
If you've enjoyed the episode and would
like additional content, as always, check

525
00:51:02.920 --> 00:51:07.000
out the links in the show notes. There's links there to the website,

526
00:51:07.039 --> 00:51:12.119
teaching materials, add free versions of
the show and Western CIV. Two point

527
00:51:12.199 --> 00:51:14.840
zero full in the Peloponnesian Wars.
At this point, if you'd like to

528
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:15.639
hear the whole thing over again,