The Latin American History Podcast is finally back. In today's episode the conquest properly begins, as Pizarro arrives back in Peru. As I mentioned in today's episode, the audio quality might not always be the highest as I am recorded wherever I can find a reasonably quiet place in noisy Latin America. This is particularly true of this and the next episode which were recorded in a flat on a busy park in central Bogota - apologies! The donation link mentioned in the episode: https://app.redcircle.com/shows/db4d04b0-02b5-4691-81a7-b583a8052e89/donations Support this podcast at — https://re ..read more

In today's episode we look at what was going on within the Inca empire in the lead up to the conquest. To help with this, Nicholas Machinski of A History of the Inca podcast joins us to share his specialist knowledge.   You can find his podcast on his website or wherever you get your podcasts from: https://ahistoryoftheinca.wordpress.com/   ..read more

A special episode featuring Mark Thurner and Juan Pimental. They talk us through their new book and how some of the objects of Latin America had a profound effect on the rest of the world.   More information about the book can be found here: https://www.sas.ac.uk/publications/new-world-objects-knowledge   You can find some general background about the phenomenon of creating cabinets of curiosities here: https://artsandculture.google.com/theme/the-cabinet-of-curiosities/4QKSkqTAGnJ2LQ?hl=en ..read more

Today we take a break from the conquest of Peru for an interview with William Taylor - a scholar of colonial Mexican history and before his retirement, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His new book Fugitive Freedom tells the stories of two men who lived lives of deception, and examines what they can tell us about the society in which they lived. On the surface these men appear to be daring anti-heros and/or dangerous con-men. They also look like real life examples of the Picaros of Spanish colonial literature. A closer look however, reveals them to be much more three-dime ..read more

It took three attempts for Pizarro, de Almagro and de Luque to launch an expedition which even came into proper contact with the Inca. This episode tells the story of their first two expeditions ..read more

Inspired by rumours of a great empire and precious metals, in Spain's Panamanian colony three men hatch a plan to explore and colonise South America. They were Diego de Almagro, Hernando de Luque and of course Francisco Pizarro. In this introduction to the conquest, we introduce them and explain how they came to be preparing to launch a conquest which would rival that of Cortes in Mexico ..read more

The Spanish attempt once again to settle in North America, but again their ambitions will be frustrated. The Narvaez expedition was an unmittigated disaster. It did however produce one of the most unbelievable stories of survival of the era. Link to the petition to save ILAS - https://www.change.org/p/professor-jo-fox-and-professor-wendy-thomson-stop-the-closure-of-the-institute-of-latin-american-studies-sas-university-of-london?recruiter=1157550372&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=df7b ..read more

As the Spanish expanded outwards from their base in the Caribbean, there was one region right next door that they had so far failed to colonise. Florida and the rest of North America was less than 100 miles from Cuba, and now it was where they turned their attention. This episode will tell the story of the Ayllon expedition, and the first European settlement in the United States ..read more

Sebastian Cabot is usually associated with his exploration of North America, but he also spent time in exploring the Rio de la Plata. Seduced by rumours of silver, he abandoned the mission he was given to follow in the footsteps of Aleixo Garcia ..read more

In 1524 a shipwrecked Portguese soldier launched one of the most audacious expeditions in the history of the Iberian conquest of Latin America. Stranded in Southern Brazil, he managed to not just survive, but to carve out a role for himself as a war leader and initiate the first contact between Europeans and the Inca empire ..read more