The Conquistadors

Ned Kelly, the leader of the infamous Kelly gang, has been described as Australia's only truly national hero. During a short but intense crime spree at the end of the 1870s, he led a gang of notorious outlaws who rampaged through the Australian bush, robbing banks and stealing ho ...  Show more

It was once one of the great unsolved problems of the early modern world: the calculation of exactly how far east or west a given point was on the surface of the Earth. Longitude was a challenge that sat at the intersection of science, navigation, empire and time itself. For cent ...  Show more

1492 marked the beginning of the Colombian Exchange - the transfer of people, goods, ideas and commodities across the Atlantic between Europe and the Americas. We hear a lot about the conquistadors, the settlers, Jesuit priests and colonisers from Spain, Portugal and Britain w ...

Who was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean? Who was Balboa and why did he set his bloodhounds on Native people in Panama? Why do we remember Cortes over the brutish conquistador Balboa? Anita and William are joined by Mark Horton to discuss the conquistadors in Panama. E ...  Show more

The meeting of the controversial Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and the formidable Emperor Montezuma in 1519 was one of the great hinge moments of world history, and the beginning of the end for the mightiest of the New World empires: the realm of the Aztecs.  The build-up t ...  Show more

“Conquer or die! Conquer or die! Conquer or die!” Making a decision that will change the course of history, Hernán Cortés chooses to disobey his orders and head inland in search of the gold-rich empire of the mysterious Montezuma. Ahead lie the mountain passes that will lead him ...  Show more