The True Origin of the Spanish Conquest of the Americas: What Historians Get Wrong

The story you were taught about the Spanish Conquest is almost entirely wrong. It wasn't a handful of brave conquistadors with superior technology who toppled the great empires of the Americas. It was a convergence of international banking, papal authority, eight hundred years of Iberian war culture, and massive indigenous civil wars that the Spanish merely exploited. In this video, we uncover the real origins of the conquest — from the persecuted financier who actually funded Columbus's voyage, to the tens of thousands of indigenous warriors who did the real fighting, to the Genoese and German bankers who siphoned off the wealth while Spain went bankrupt thirteen times. This is the story historians have been getting wrong for five centuries. Sources and further reading: Matthew Restall — "Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest" (Oxford University Press) Bartolomé de Las Casas — "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" Alfred W. Crosby — "The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492" Drelichman & Voth — "Lending to the Borrower from Hell: Debt, Taxes, and Default in the Age of Philip II" Kris Lane — "Potosí: The Silver City That Changed the World" Earl J. Hamilton — "American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501–1650" #SpanishConquest #HiddenHistory #Conquistadors #ColumbusMyth #AztecEmpire #IncaEmpire #Tlaxcala #Reconquista #SpanishEmpire #Potosi #ColonialHistory #IndigenousHistory #HabsburgDebt #TreatyOfTordesillas #BlackLegend #ConquestMyths #EuropeanColonialism #SilverTrade #NewWorldHistory #HistoryDocumentary