The splendour of Tenochtitlan soon gives way to horror.
As the Spaniards settle into the heart of the Mexica capital, they are overwhelmed by its wealth, its markets and its astonishing organisation. Yet beneath the city's beauty lies an uneasy calm. Surrounded by tens of thousands of warriors, Cortés knows one wrong move could mean annihilation.
This episode explores the fragile relationship between Hernán Cortés and Emperor Moctezuma II as diplomacy slowly gives way to suspicion, violence and betrayal.
After taking Moctezuma prisoner in one of history's boldest political gambles, the Spaniards find themselves increasingly isolated. Religious tensions deepen, human sacrifice horrifies the Europeans, and the arrival of a rival Spanish expedition threatens to destroy Cortés's entire enterprise.
While Cortés marches to confront his enemies on the coast, disaster strikes in Tenochtitlan. A massacre during a sacred Mexica festival ignites a full-scale uprising, trapping the Spaniards inside the city and bringing the conquest to the brink of collapse.
Could Cortés still control events from afar?
Did Moctezuma truly lose the loyalty of his own people, or has history accepted the Spanish version too readily?
And when the conquistadors attempt to flee the city under cover of darkness, will any of them escape alive?
Join Joseph Parkinson as Ancient to Recent continues the extraordinary story of Hernán Cortés and the conquest of Mexico.
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