A 4-part series directed by David Wallace for BBC2/PBS with the English historian and broadcaster, Michael Wood. The Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century was one of the most important and cataclysmic events in history. Spanish expeditions endured incredible hardships in order to open up the lands of the ‘New World’, and few stories in history can match these for drama and endurance.

In Conquistadors, Michael Wood follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest of the Spanish adventurers travelling from the forests of Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, the deserts of North Mexico, the snowpeaks of the Andes and the heights of Machu Picchu. He experiences the epic journeys of Cortes, Pizarro, Orellana and Cabeza de Vaca, and explores the turbulent and terrifying events surrounding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.

Conquistadors: The Fall of the Aztecs (49 min) | Click here to watch
Director: David Wallace

The story of the conquest in 1519-21 of the Aztec empire in Mexico by Hernan Cortes and five hundred intrepid Spanish conquistadors. In this film Michael Wood follows the womaniser and gambler Cortes from his home in Spain to the Mayan pyramids on the shores of the Yucatan, and on through the tropical forests of Tabasco to the snow-capped volcanoes of Mexico.