Tenochtitlan Disease Outbreaks Smallpox Aztec Epidemic

When Hernán Cortés and his men entered Tenochtitlan in 1519, they brought more than horses and guns. They carried a hidden weapon that would ultimately destroy the Aztec capital: smallpox. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine the devastating disease outbreaks that ravaged Tenochtitlan during the Spanish conquest, focusing on the 1520 smallpox epidemic that killed perhaps half the city's population, including Emperor Cuitláhuac. They explore how the disease spread from a sick enslaved African in the Spanish camp, how Nahua peoples described the symptoms in their own records like the Florentine Codex and Codex en Cruz, and how the epidemic's timing—during the siege of Tenochtitlan—decimated Aztec defenders and broke their will. The conversation also covers the role of other introduced diseases like measles and typhus, the controversy over whether indigenous peoples lacked immunity, and how the demographic collapse reshaped Mesoamerica forever. This is the story of the invisible conqueror that did what Spanish steel could not. #Smallpox #Tenochtitlan #AztecEpidemic #Cuitlahuac #FlorentineCodex #CodexEnCruz #Cocoliztli #HernanCortes #SpanishConquest #Mesoamerica #HistoryOfDisease #IndigenousHistory #1520Epidemic #NahuaSources #FexingoHistory #AztecEmpire #History #Pandemic Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo