Official history says that the Spanish colonizers in America were focused on the territory from Mexico to the end of South America. For centuries, there was the question of why the Spaniards didn't...
The Aztec civilization , flourishing between 500-600 years ago in Central Mexico, had a rich and distinctive culinary tradition that reflected their sophisticated culture. Central to their diet were...
The Aztecs , a once-flourishing civilization in central Mexico, faced a devastating onslaught in the mid-16th century. While initially attributed to European diseases like smallpox, recent DNA...
In the 15th century, the Age of Discovery began in Europe. The maritime empires of Spain and Portugal led the way by financing naval expeditions across the world’s oceans. Their rediscovery of the...
In November 1519, the formidable Aztec king, Montezuma , ruled over a flourishing empire at its pinnacle. His empire, comprising 500 city-states and nearly 6 million people, centered on the...
Montezuma's gold is a legendary treasure said to have been hidden by the Aztec emperor Montezuma II during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. According to folklore, the treasure consists of vast amounts...
Among the daring exploits of those early Spanish conquistadors intent on claiming the New World for their own, none are as dramatic as Francisco Orellana’s perilous nine month journey to the Amazon...
In 1494, King Charles VIII of France launched an all-out war against the republics of the Italian peninsula, a watershed moment in history. Within months, 50,000 soldiers from his army had fled, not...
Archaeologists have been digging at “the last” Maya city in Guatemala. Pre-Hispanic graves and artifacts have been found peppered with the shot from conquistadors’ rifles. The lush forests of...
People are a lot like magpies. We like shiny things. Since the beginning, we have ascribed value to pretty rocks with little practical value. To try and explain their obsession with these stones...
The remains of 42 syphilis-ridden, colonial Spaniards have been unearthed at a 500-year-old hospital in Lima. But it’s suspected that beneath these poor afflicted souls, might lie the lost mummified...
An Arizona-based archaeologist claims to have found artifacts linked to the famous 16th-century Spanish Coronado Expedition led by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. The Coronado...
The European invasion of the Americas (both North and South) is one of the most destructive colonizing efforts in human history, particularly because of the unimaginable horrors suffered by the...
A ground-breaking recent leprosy research study published in the International Journal of Paleopathology used the fragments of a skull found on an uninhabited Caribbean island called Petite Musique...
The President of Mexico has written a letter to Pope Francis asking for an apology over the Catholic Church’s role in the brutal repression of indigenous people during the Spanish conquest of the...
Remarkable Maya wall paintings have been found in Guatemala that are unparalleled in Central America . These newly discovered Maya murals are special because they contain both indigenous and Spanish...
The conquest of the New World was devastating for its ancient cultures; its aftershocks are still deeply felt today in communities across the Americas. Soon after Spain’s subjugation, other European...
Despite the infamy of the transatlantic slave trade , scientific research has yet to fully explore the history of the enslaved Africans brought into Latin America. In a study appearing April 30th in...
In the mid-16th century the hyper-violent forces of Spanish conquistadors burned, tortured, raped and spread diseases as they made their way across Mesoamerica in the name of their one god. Yet they...
Marine archaeologists are renewing their search for a Spanish treasure shipwreck, the Juncal. It is believed that the ship had a cargo of treasure, including precious metals and jewels, when it sank...
The Battle of Cajamarca was a battle fought between the Spanish and Inca in 1532. The battle, which is sometimes considered to be an ambush or a skirmish, saw a small band of Spaniards led by the...
A chemical analysis of a gold bar in Mexico revealed that it was part of the treasure stolen by the Spanish conquistadors during the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Researchers believe that they have...
Marine archaeologists may have found artifacts linked to the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. They have discovered anchors on the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico. These finds are believed to have belonged to...
Excavations at the Zultepec-Tecoaque archaeological site in Tlaxcala, Mexico, have revealed that indigenous Acolhuas peoples captured a caravan of 550 conquistadors and their allies in 1520, kept...
