Reflecting History

Apr 07 2025 165 ep. 36 mins 8.1k
Reflecting History Podcast artwork

Reflecting History is an educational history podcast that explores significant historical events and themes without losing track of the ordinary people involved. Covering a wide variety of topics, it explores the connection between history, psychology, and philosophy.

  History  Society & Culture
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Episode 156: The Fall of the Roman Republic

Apr 07 2025 265 mins  
The fall of the Roman Republic is one of the great stories in all of ancient history and it can still teach lessons relevant to every element of modern life. This telling of the Roman Republic's demise blends systems-based history, trends and forces, events like the Punic Wars and Spartacus' slave rebellion, and the sheer will of legendary historical figures like the Gracchi brothe

Episode 155: Aztec Memories-The Story of the Aztec Empire

Mar 23 2025 285 mins  
Watch with video here: https://youtu.be/PB1eoviYJ2Y?si=cVOCqmRo5C_Li93y This is all eight chapters of my Aztec Memories series, all in one place. I'm hoping this makes it easier for some folks out there to listen to the whole series, and it will allow me to release a video version of this podcast--coming very soon! Thanks for listening and for all the support over the years... The

Episode 154: Aztec Memories Part VIII-Columbian Nightmare

Mar 17 2025 28 mins  
The Columbian Exchange remains maybe the most significant historical development in modern history-setting the stage for the world we inhabit today. In modern day Mexico, the post-conquest colonial period led to the beginnings of many processes that would define Mexico and the Americas for years to come-the encomienda system, the racial casta system, class struggle in Mexico, tensi

Episode 153: Aztec Memories Part VII-The Tickler

Feb 24 2025 25 mins  
For many fans of history, the story of the Aztec empire ends with the Spanish conquest and the fall of Tenochtitan. But there was a post-conquest period, lasting for hundreds of years, in which the Spanish exerted authority and control over the people of the former Aztec Empire. The Mexica people had to make difficult decisions about conversion to Christianity, how much tribute to

Episode 152: Aztec Memories Part VI-Mightier Than the Sword

Feb 03 2025 30 mins  
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire provides a great opportunity to think about many complex historical questions. How should we think about topics of colonialism and conquest from a modern lens? How are morality and historical narrative closely tied together? How did Spanish people and Mexica people think about the conquest both at the time and deep into the future? The answe

Episode 151: Aztec Memories Part V-Crimson Sky

Jan 13 2025 42 mins  
In November of 1519, Aztec Emperor Moctezuma and Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez met on the causeway leading to Tenochtitlan in maybe the first official contact between powerful leaders of the Old and New Worlds. One of the great what if moments in world history, this was the opening act in what would eventually lead to a clash of civilizations between the two peoples. The war

Episode 150: Aztec Memories Part IV-The Chontal Gift

Dec 23 2024 42 mins  
While the Aztec Empire peaked in central Mexico, a different empire was spreading it's tenticles across the Atlantic Ocean. The Spanish were in the early phases of setting up a global superpower powered by colonialism. In early 1519, the Spanish arrived in force on the shores of the Yucatan Peninsula. After crushing the Chontal Maya city states, Hernando Cortez and his Spanish conq

Episode 149: Aztec Memories Part III-The City on the Lake

Dec 02 2024 36 mins  
The Aztec Empire at its height in the 1400's was a flourishing civilization that had a rich social and cultural tradition. In addition to the political realities of statebuilding-war, tribute, human sacrifice, and slavery, the Mexica people took care of their families, tended to gardens, ate rich foods, listened to music, participated in religious ceremonies, bought and sold goods

Episode 148: Aztec Memories Part II-A Memory Called Empire

Nov 11 2024 41 mins  
From their new base in Tenochtitlan, the Mexica people slowly built the Aztec Empire over the course of the 1300's. While the "myth of the Aztec" ascribes this accomplishment to the barbarism of human sacrifice and brutality, the Mexica both lived in a particular context and shaped their own unique political environment. Demystifying what the Spanish referred to as superstition and

Episode 147: Aztec Memories Part I-A Rose Not a Rose

Oct 21 2024 45 mins  
The story of the Aztec Empire is a story unlike any other. From it's origins as a nomadic underdog, to it's ascendance at the rich and powerful city of Tenochtitlan, to it's clash of civilizations with the mighty Spanish Empire, this is a historical story that will never happen again. If you think you know the story, think again. For hundreds of years myths and half-truths about th