Be sure to visit our website for upcoming merch drops and a recommended reading list.
https://deadwarriorsociety.com/
-------
Before the fall of the Aztec Empire… before the march on Tenochtitlán… there was a much smaller, messier beginning.
In this episode of Dead Warrior Society, we rewind to the earliest phase of the Spanish presence in the Americas when the conquistadors were still figuring out what exactly they had stumbled into.
We start with the first arrivals of Spanish adventurers in the West Indies, exploring how these early settlements became the staging ground for everything that followed. From there, we dive into the brutal and often overlooked Spanish conquest of Cuba, led by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, which turned the island into Spain’s primary launchpad for exploration of the mainland.

Next, we examine Velázquez’s early attempts to probe the mysterious lands to the west the expeditions of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1517 and Juan de Grijalva in 1518 the first Spanish encounters with the civilizations of the Yucatán Peninsula. These missions brought back reports of stone cities, organized armies, and wealthy societies that looked nothing like the Caribbean islands the Spaniards had already conquered.
Finally, we introduce the man who would change everything: Hernán Cortés.
But not the myth.

Not the legendary conqueror we hear about in textbooks.
Instead, we look at Cortés as he actually was in 1519 a minor colonial official, a political operator, and by military standards something closer to an O-2 staff officer than a seasoned battlefield general. Far from being Spain’s chosen war leader, Cortés was a relatively obscure figure who leveraged timing, ambition, and opportunity to launch one of the most audacious expeditions in history.

This episode breaks down the real origins of the conquest of Mexico, the men who paved the way before Cortés ever sailed, and why the story is far more complicated than the usual legend.
If you want to understand how a handful of Spaniards ended up overthrowing one of the most powerful empires in the Americas, you have to start here.
The beginning.