The Cholula Massacre: Cortés's First Act of Terror

In October 1519, just weeks after entering Tenochtitlan, Hernán Cortés orchestrated a massacre in the holy city of Cholula, killing thousands of unarmed nobles and civilians. This episode unpacks the events leading up to the slaughter: Cortés's alliance with the Tlaxcalans, his suspicion of a Cholulan plot, and the role of La Malinche in uncovering alleged treachery. We examine whether the massacre was a preemptive strike or a calculated act of terror to intimidate the Aztec Empire. Drawing on indigenous accounts from the Florentine Codex and Spanish chroniclers like Bernal Díaz del Castillo, we weigh the conflicting narratives. We also explore the aftermath: how Moctezuma responded, the political fallout in the Valley of Mexico, and how Cholula's sacred pyramid—the largest in the world by volume—became a symbol of Spanish brutality. This episode challenges listeners to see the conquest not as a single battle but as a series of calculated atrocities that shattered Mesoamerican norms of warfare. #CholulaMassacre #HernNCortS #LaMalinche #Tlaxcala #Moctezuma #BernalDAzDelCastillo #FlorentineCodex #Mesoamerica #SpanishConquest #AztecEmpire #Cholula #Quetzalcoatl #IndigenousHistory #Massacre #Conquistadors #FexingoHistory #History #Colonialism #SpanishEmpire #HernanCortes Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo