Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In the early Sixteenth Century a force of hundreds overcame an empire of millions.
This is the story of one of the most momentous events of the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire - the meeting of Spanish leader Hernán Cortés, an obscure career soldier from the Castilian badlands, and Montezuma, the ruler of the Aztec Triple Alliance, a man revered as a god upon earth by his millions of subjects.
How do we actually know about history? Voices of the Past is a channel dedicated to recreating the original accounts from the people who lived through events, or who lived far closer to them than we do today. We do this word for word, with an accompanying soundtrack of rousing music and images.
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— Music courtesy of:-
- Epidemic Sound
— Voice actor & editor:-
David Kelly
Are you a budding artist, writer, illustrator, cartographer, or music producer? Send us an email! No matter how professional you are or even if you’re just starting out, we can always use new music and images in my videos. Get in touch! I’d love to hear from you.
We try to use copyright free images at all times. However if we have used any of your artwork or maps then please don't hesitate to contact me and we’ll be more than happy to give the appropriate credit.
Thanks to:
By Lago_de_Texcoco-posclásico.png: YavidaxiuValley_of_Mexico_c.1519-fr.svg: historicair 13:51, 11 September 2007 (UTC)derivative work: Sémhur (talk) - Lago_de_Texcoco-posclásico.png, itself from :(fr) Niederberger Betton, Christine (1987) Paléo-paysages et archéologie pré-urbaine du Bassin de Mexico, Mexico: Centro de estudios mexicanos y centroamericanos (CEMCA), pp. 500 ISBN: 3785726.Valley_of_Mexico_c.1519-fr.svg, itself from :(en) Coe, Michael; Snow, Dean; Benson, Elizabeth (1986) Atlas of Ancient America, Category:New York: Facts On File, pp. 240 ISBN: 978-0816011995.(en) Townsend, Richard F. (1992) The Aztecs, London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 224 ISBN: 978-0500021132.(es) This picture incorporates information from La cuenca de México, special edition of Arqueología Mexicana, july-august 2007, Mexico (in particular, the Enrique Vela's maps of the pages 70 and 60, based on Sanders et al. The Basin of Mexico, 1979).(es) This picture incorporates information from this version of the article Lago de Texcoco on the Spanish Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9263087
Diego Rivera [CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]
In the early Sixteenth Century a force of hundreds overcame an empire of millions.
This is the story of one of the most momentous events of the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire - the meeting of Spanish leader Hernán Cortés, an obscure career soldier from the Castilian badlands, and Montezuma, the ruler of the Aztec Triple Alliance, a man revered as a god upon earth by his millions of subjects.
How do we actually know about history? Voices of the Past is a channel dedicated to recreating the original accounts from the people who lived through events, or who lived far closer to them than we do today. We do this word for word, with an accompanying soundtrack of rousing music and images.
— Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe for new videos every single week! & Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see covered in the future.
— Don’t forget to subscribe to our other channel History Time, where we make full length historical documentaries:-
youtube.com/historytime.
—Join our community on social media:-
Twitter:-
twitter.com/HistoryTimeUK
Facebook:-
facebook.com/HistoryTimeOfficial
Instagram:-
instagram.com/historytime_ig
— Music courtesy of:-
- Epidemic Sound
— Voice actor & editor:-
David Kelly
Are you a budding artist, writer, illustrator, cartographer, or music producer? Send us an email! No matter how professional you are or even if you’re just starting out, we can always use new music and images in my videos. Get in touch! I’d love to hear from you.
We try to use copyright free images at all times. However if we have used any of your artwork or maps then please don't hesitate to contact me and we’ll be more than happy to give the appropriate credit.
Thanks to:
By Lago_de_Texcoco-posclásico.png: YavidaxiuValley_of_Mexico_c.1519-fr.svg: historicair 13:51, 11 September 2007 (UTC)derivative work: Sémhur (talk) - Lago_de_Texcoco-posclásico.png, itself from :(fr) Niederberger Betton, Christine (1987) Paléo-paysages et archéologie pré-urbaine du Bassin de Mexico, Mexico: Centro de estudios mexicanos y centroamericanos (CEMCA), pp. 500 ISBN: 3785726.Valley_of_Mexico_c.1519-fr.svg, itself from :(en) Coe, Michael; Snow, Dean; Benson, Elizabeth (1986) Atlas of Ancient America, Category:New York: Facts On File, pp. 240 ISBN: 978-0816011995.(en) Townsend, Richard F. (1992) The Aztecs, London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 224 ISBN: 978-0500021132.(es) This picture incorporates information from La cuenca de México, special edition of Arqueología Mexicana, july-august 2007, Mexico (in particular, the Enrique Vela's maps of the pages 70 and 60, based on Sanders et al. The Basin of Mexico, 1979).(es) This picture incorporates information from this version of the article Lago de Texcoco on the Spanish Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9263087
Diego Rivera [CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]










![First-Hand Account of the Destruction of Pompeii // Pliny The Younger, Primary Source
Here we have Pliny the Youngers account of the heroic death of his famous uncle Pliny the Elder in the chaos of a volcanic eruption, the same that flattened Pompeii - as related to the legendary Roman historian Tacitus in one of his numerous letters.
How do we actually know about history? Voices of the Past is a channel dedicated to recreating the original accounts from the people who lived through events, or who lived far closer to them than we do today. We do this word for word, with an accompanying soundtrack of rousing music and images.
— Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe for new videos every single week! & Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see covered in the future.
— Don’t forget to subscribe to our other channel History Time, where we make full length historical documentaries:-
https://www.youtube.com/historytime.
—Join our community on social media:-
Twitter:-
https://twitter.com/HistoryTimeUK/
Facebook:-
https://www.facebook.com/HistoryTimeOfficial/
Instagram:-
https://www.instagram.com/historytime_ig/
— Music courtesy of:-
- Epidemic Sound
— Voice actor & editor:-
David Kelly
Are you a budding artist, writer, illustrator, cartographer, or music producer? Send us an email! No matter how professional you are or even if you’re just starting out, we can always use new music and images in my videos. Get in touch! I’d love to hear from you.
We try to use copyright free images at all times. However if we have used any of your artwork or maps then please dont hesitate to contact me and we’ll be more than happy to give the appropriate credit.
Thanks to:
MapMaster [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] First-Hand Account of the Destruction of Pompeii // Pliny The Younger, Primary Source](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KGmcvq3Dm-I/mqdefault.jpg)