The Horrors of the El Dorado Legend
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2024
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DISCLAIMER
I am just a random student on the internet who loves reading, especially about ancient history and classics. The purpose of my videos is to make classics and ancient history interesting and accessible to everyone. I am not a professional or qualified educator, “expert”, historian or classicist. However, I ensure that all the information I use in my video scripts has been collated from numerous credible sources. Additionally, I am dyslexic, and I will mispronounce words. This does not stem from willful ignorance, and I do make an effort to research how to pronounce words before I start filming, but I often misread my phonetic spelling. In light of this, please do not rely on my video for an authoritative or reliable source of how to pronounce certain words.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:20 How the Legend Started
10:50 The Murderous Expedition of Francisco Pizarro
14:45 Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Discovers Gold in a Lake
19:55 Why were the Germans in South America?
21:12 Why were the Spanish in South America?
24:02 The Brutal Ambrosius Ehinger
29:25 The Madman: Lope de Aguirre
Resources:
Anglis, Jaclyn. 2020. “How a Doomed Search for El Dorado Drove a Conquistador to Insurrection and Madness.” All That’s Interesting. June 8, 2020. allthatsinteresting.com/lope-....
Avellaneda, J.I. "The Men of Nikolaus Federmann: Conquerors of the New Kingdom of Granada". (Cambridge University Press, 1987)
B., T. C., and J. A. Zahm. 1918. “Review of the Quest of El Dorado-the Most Romantic Episode in the History of South American Conquest.” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 29 (1): 89-92. www.jstor.org/stable/44208473.
Bandelier, Adolphe F. "The Gilded Man" (D. Appleton, 1893)
Burnett, D Graham. "Masters of All They Surveyed: Exploration, Geography and a British El Dorado" (University of Chicago Press, 2000)
Cochrane, C. "Journal of a Residence and Travels in Colombia". (AMS Press,1825)
Crampton, C. Gregory. 1951. “The Myth of El Dorado.” The Historian 13 (2): 115-29. www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2443....
Fery, George. 2017. “The German Conquistadors and Eldorado | George Fery - Freelance Writer & Photographer of the New World and Mesoamerica.” October 10, 2017. www.georgefery.com/german-con....
Humboldt, A. "Personal narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions". (G. Bell,1847)
Markham, C. "Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons". (Cambridge University Press, 1859)
Mathew Lyons. 2022. “El Dorado: Real History behind the Legend.” Livescience.com. March 31, 2022. www.livescience.com/el-dorado.
Mandeville, Bernard, and Irwin Primer. 1962. The Fable of the Bees: Or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits. New York: Capricorn Books.
Naipaul, V.S. "The Loss of El Dorado" (Vintage, 2001)
Nesvet, Rebecca. 2012. “Robert Southey, Historian of El Dorado.” Keats-Shelley Journal 61: 116-21. www.jstor.org/stable/24396041.
Rivière, Peter (ed). "The Guiana travels of Robert Schomburgk". (Routledge, 2006)
“The ‘Muisca Raft’: A Pre-Columbian Gold Votive That Refers to the Ceremony of El Dorado’s Legend!” 2021. The Archaeologist. August 24, 2021. www.thearchaeologist.org/blog....
Lacas, M. M. “A Sixteenth-Century German Colonizing Venture in Venezuela.” The Americas 9, no. 3 (1953): 275-90. doi.org/10.2307/977995.
“Portuguese Exploration and Spanish Conquest | US History I (OS Collection).” n.d. Courses.lumenlearning.com. courses.lumenlearning.com/ush....
“What Is the Legend of El Dorado?” ThoughtCo. 2019. www.thoughtco.com/the-legend-....
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Came for the gold. Stayed for the cannibalism.
I wonder if claims of cannibalism by natives is actually the conquistadors being unable to accept that they themselves were doing it?
@@happytofu5 *picks teeth* I'd agree with you about the stories... obviously someone disagreed ...must have been someone they ate.
They were surrounded by edible plants and animals. But, choose cannibalism.
OK covering yourself in gold dust and emerging from the lake as a human ruler after washing it off is an insanely cool ritual.
Right? I kind of want to do it 😅
I love that you used the phrase "banging soundtrack.". Something I would never have expected you to say in one of your videos! I adore the complex layering of history, mythology, and popular culture you bring to your videos. Good on you for taking on a topic outside your usual area.
As someone from Bogota is really cool hearing this story from you. I've been in the Guatavita lake a couple of times, and they tell you some crazy stories about the ridiculous amounts of gold that were found there by the conquistadores. Also, if you happen to came here one day, its really worth visiting the Museo del Oro, not only for the hauntingly beautiful raft of gold, but for a lot of other pieces that makes you wander of all the others that was stolen and never seen again. Thanks for your video! (And I completely approve your spanish 👌😁)
Maybe my brain is wired differently, but if I was lost and hungry and came across someone foraging for food...I would just follow them and pick the same food they picked...not cannibalize them
Hello, I really love your videos. I am Ecuadorian and this story is kinda especial to me, so I appreciate the effort put into your research. Also wanted to say that you did pretty well for your first approach to Spanish, as a language pedagogy student I would know. You really nailed those rolled ‘r’s in Pizarro.
Thank you so much!
I watch these during the weekend when I do my chores, so I won't right now -- but I wanted to thank you for all the time and effort you put into these. You're my favourite youtuber, without a doubt! Always happy to see a new upload!
Thank you so much!
Omg, I’m a Venezuelan living in Bogotá, Colombia (working as an art teacher!) I’ve always had a fascination for this story, and I feel that this video is so well made! It kinda spoke to me! I’ll be rewatching it many times. You never disappoint. Muchas gracias! ❤
That means so much to me to hear from a local, thank you, I'm so happy I did your history some justice. Though my apologies for really struggling pronouncing Bogotá. I don't know why I really had troubles with that, the amount of retakes for every time I said it was insane hahaha
@@CinziaDuBois no worries, Spanish is a very hard language and you did amazing!
@@lerc3690 She did!, and southamerican spanish is diverse as hell too... from your "Concha'le vale chico", going through "Pero qué me decís, che?" in argentina ending with the chilean "perokekirikelehaga" =P She did great in a fairly neutral tone. =)
How dare you wake up long buried memories of singing the soundtrack of El Dorado absolutely EVERYWHERE i went?!?
I do enjoy it when you step out of Greco-Roman history. Have you ever thought about making videos about Persia?
There is every chance that I'm watching this while at work. Im grateful for the ability to multi-task
Did you just meme on the "nobody expects the Spanish inquisition" meme? 😂 Beautiful work. Also, I'm loving the new format, very relaxing and immersive. 😊
This was an incredible video, I really enjoyed the relaxing vibe of the new format.
Truly Awesome stuff
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating! I have been looking for good info on this topic and as usual, your content is top notch! You rock, Cinzia! ❤
Glad you think so! Thank you, Lauren x
Oh, yay! I’m at work right now and can’t watch yet, but I’m so excited to settle in with this one this evening! 💕
Hope you enjoy it this evening
People who complain that the world and people are getting worse need to hear this history lesson. Some people have Always been horrible. I learned these accounts in history class minus the gore. Thank you so much, Lady, for the real account and all of your hard work.
Oh, the lovely Iberic conquistadores. I wish Scilla was real and ate them all. Brazil today would be in a better position without the Portuguese crown putting their claws in our lands.
I'm loving the video and I really enjoy your work, yes, I'm writing this from Cajamarca - Perú, the same city where Atahualpa was captured by the spaniards. You can visit in the city center the room where Atahualpa was held hostage by Pizarro, it is conveniently called The Ransom Room (Cuarto del Rescate).
Gee it’s almost like Lake Guatavita is deeply sacred and fucking with it is asking for trouble!!😂
Have had an emotionally stressful few days. Over half an hour or your beautiful and soothing voice in my headphones (incongruously gruesome subject matter notwithstanding) has been a great boon. Thank you Cinzia, your content is excellent as ever.
Gold, silver, diamonds, crystals, bronzes, platinums, uraniums, and coppers are still considered values in most parts of The world oh yeah.
So glad this just came out so I have something interesting to listen to and relax now that I'm home from work
I'm so glad!
Your Spanish is solid. We come here for you. ❤
I've been a fan of your channel for quite a while now. This was a delightful departure from your usual works. Your essays are always well thought out, informative, and very accessible. That you manage all that while having dyslexia shows passion and determination.
That was amazing! Thankyou 🙏
Thank you Cinzia for such a very interesting story. Muchas gracias!
As viewers may know, the brilliant film director Werner Herzog wrote and directed _Aguirre, the Wrath of God_ which was released in 1972, starring Klaus Kinski. Though not an historical account, it does have characters based on the members of the expedition and captures the megalomania of unfettered righteousness, greed and power that European conquerors brought to the Americas.
I've only seen it on TV, but what an experience!
[Unnecessary comment but, as you like to read books...] LONG story... There was a "pioneer" aviator in the Chilean army that, the day he was to get his flying "license", got lost, and was never found, nor his remains, nor his plane. His name was Alejandro Bello (commonly known as the "Teniente Bello" (Teniente = Lieutenant, which was his grade in the Army) One of the most popular sayings in Chile is: "To be more lost than the Lt. Bello" (sadly lol)). Now this happened in 1914. One Chilean writer, "used" both stories... El Dorado [Edit: Ok, the Caesars' city, but it's esentially the "south" version of El Dorado] and the lost travel of Bello, and joined them in a book called "Pacha Pulai" (None would need to be a genius to imagine WHAT was the connection [Not a spoiler, it's actually in the "back cover"]). The author was Hugo Silva (1892-1979), AFAIK it was his only novel since he was a journalist... I don't know if you can get an English edition but... it's an interesting and fun book. (Almost everyone in Chile read it when we were in school). =)
A fellow Chilean!! Ce -Hache -I!
I forgot about that book, it's a good one, has some Jules Verne vibes.
I adore these videos. Truly! A cup of tea a spliff and some burning incense a platter of fruit and thw lady of the library and you are in for a delicious time
Again a amazing video !
Very informative video, Cinzia. your Spanish pronunciation was pretty good. I know it was a lot of work for you to get the hang of it but, if you want to try something like this again, you can be assured that you are more than capable.
Thank you! 😃
This is a significant gap in my education, but you've got me all fired up to read a whole lot more.
You mentioned there was more you could go in to, I'd certainly be interested in more - maybe some short snippets of bits you found particularly fun?
I feel like the verdant plants were a nice counterpoint to some of the bloodiness of the history
❤❤the video. Awesome 🎉🎉
Such a great video🤩 Thank you😊
Glad you liked it!!
Thank you again for a wonderful video! You are wonderful 😊
You are so welcome! Thank you (:
my mum liked this short lived soap opera Eldorado when it was on in the early 90's
Thank you for mentioning that El Dorado soundtrack. Banging for sure 😂
I would argue "leaving the natives to die in the jungle" is probably more like just freeing the slaves. I'd question Spanish accounts of "traitors" while they were committing a genocide.
I love your videos, I use them for educational purposes as well as entertainment.
Subbed about a month ago. 😊
I live near the place were Ambrosius Ehinger was killed. Not many people know the story, so it's nice to hear it from you.
Yes, I had been taught most of those stories at school (in Chile), but I had no idea about Ehinger.
@@latronqui You need to watch "Pero eso es otra Historia".
Thanks for this fascinating El Dorado video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Always amazed at the scope of your knowledge. I'm pretty good with a handful of cultures but you seem to have a really good understanding of a really wife variety of topics... Makes me feel like I'm not reading enough 😅
Very good Thank you.
I'm glad you put in the effort to get the Spanish right. Not at all a criticism, just a fun note is that, in Latin American Spanish, the soft C (and Z) makes the same S sound as English, while the European dialect you went with makes the Th sound. During the colonial era these people lived in, it probably made a Ts sound, which is kinda in between.
Also Ll makes more of an English J sound than a Y sound in my particular dialect. Though I hear it's an extreme minority in the Spanish speaking world, it's the objectively correct one, since it's the one I'm used to.
"Conquistador" is an edge case, because it's basically been incorporated into the English language. The plural being "conquistadors" instead of "conquistadores" is understandable. The U is silent in Spanish. Funny thing about that is Americans tend not to pronounce the U, British people tend to (see "quixotic")
Your spanish is great, and better thsn any english speaker I heard before. Muy buen video mi Sra!
I love this channel.
Hello Cinzia, this videos is really interesting and clearly well researched, I just wanted to point out that calling us (native people and their descendants) Indians is actually wrong and kinda discriminatory, since that particular name originated from Colon ( Columbus) thinking he arrived in India and he “accidentally discovered” a new continent, wich is wrong because it perpetuates their atrocities and horrors, also I don’t think is fair to the actual Indians (people from India) and it also continues the notion that the conquistadors discovered something ( they didn’t, people had already been living in this parts of the world for a long time).
I hope this is understandable, since in learned all of this in Spanish and tried to translate it the best I could, I also don’t wish to attack you, I just wanted to inform you.
Got to watch The road to El Dorado after this. TY.
Fantastic video as usual, not a bad Spanish accent for a beginner 👍
Columbus did NOT think that the world was smaller than it is. He thought that Asia was much bigger (especially east of India, whose location was known quite well). He based that on his reading of Marco Polo.
No it was both. He thought the world was smaller than it is AND thought Asia was bigger than it is.
Yes he did. He followed a hodgepodge of fringe geographical theories and believed both that Asia was larger and the circumference of the earth smaller than it was believed to be than the mainstream scientific consensus of the time, which was based on Eratosthenes' measurements from the 3rd century BC, which were actually fairly accurate. Marco Polo does make out Asia to be larger than it is, but if you read his book, he's actually extremely vague about a lot of geography and admits he's never been to a lot of the places he talks about. Even a massive Marco Polo fanboy like Columbus wouldn't have risked his life based on it. Marco Polo was just one of the writers Columbus based his incorrect navigational theory on.
There's a whole lot of weird Columbus apologia on TH-cam because his status as a 'great explorer' has become entangled with American politics. A lot of it goes to deeply strange lengths to downplay how misguided his geographical theories were and to make excuses for all the genocide, slavery and murder he committed.
Hoozah! Our Lady of the Library is a fan of The Road to El Dorado! 🎉
VENEZUELA MENTIONED. Though it's a bit sad it's only in reference to our bloody and violent past. But hey, I've been to the places you mentioned!
keep in mind that Ferd and issa's permission also hinged on the fact of their victory over the Moors in 1492 when they became absolutely flush with the confiscated wealth in properties and moneys from the defeated and deported Jews and Moors.
Why is your skillshare ad giving me an existential crisis?
Please we are good with whatever! We love you!
For future use: the 'J' in Spanish is pronounced like 'h.' The 'LL' is closer to 'y' in sound.
The Portuguese were well aware that the "El Dorado" was located in Andes mountains from tales from the natives in Brazil and sent an expedition from southern Brazil trough the Peabiru path, led by an explorer named Aleixo Garcia in 1524
Both the portuguese and the spanish sent expeditions to take the "place", issue being that the spanish conquered it first. The expedition from Garcia returned with an immense amount of wealth but was ambushed by natives while crossing a river during its return to Brazil, in Paraguay. The boats sank with all that they had taken
I guess people just romanticized the whole think later as being in the Amazon. But, at the time, both portuguese and spanish knew it was the Inca empire ans sent expeditions to raid and conquer it
Edit: by the way, Garcia expedition met the Inca before Pizarro. Issue being that he died during the return while Pizarro managed to conquer the Inca
Good stuff, Kiddo.
Thanks!
I also have a little dyslexic brain too.
Ain't no way. I just finished reading The River of Darkness and now this lovely lady is talking about El Dorado
Hello excellent video! Just a small nitpick. At 17:20 you said that Pizarro went on an expedition over the Andies however it should be noted that this was the halfbrother of the famous Francisco Pizarro, Gonzalo Pizarro. It wasn't exactly clear in the video since you called both of them just Pizarro and didn't distinguish between the two brothers.
Amazing. As always. One question. Where are you getting your background tunes from? I love all of them.
Thank you so much! I use epidemic sound for all my music (:
A really great, accessible book on this subject is John Hemming's 'The Search for El Dorado', which covers all of the bloody and appalling incidents discussed here and many more. A couple tidbits of information that didn't make it in here: 1) Venezuela gets its name because the rivers of the Orinoco delta reminded the Welsers of Venice, where their bank had offices. 2) Legendary German film director Werner Herzog made a film inspired by Lope de Aguirre, called 'Aguirre, Wrath of God'. Other than featuring a murderous Conquistador and a search for El Dorado, the film has basically nothing to do with the historical figure. Herzog just read some of the quotes from his letters and made up the plot based on the whole vibe of paranoia, megalomania and unhinged violence.
0:15 - .... "A GLORIOUS CITY! WAS BUILT BY THE DIVINITIES! BY GODS!" I hate you... No, not really, but yes, this will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Thanks for that.
I feel like tacos now
Just a pointer if you ever have to pronounce Spanish names in the future, the letter J in Spanish always sound like H, apart from that it was very good for a non speaker.
Thank you! But Oh no I thought I did pronounce the Js as Hs. Which ones did I miss?
@@CinziaDuBois I counted just one 14:44, but again... you did great... even people speaking spanish for years struggle more than you. [And as a Chilean, honestly... even some native CHILEANS struggle more with the correct pronunciation of spanish, than you).
@@CinziaDuBois Just when you said Jimenez, also the U in Quito is mute, like in queue, apart from these 2 things it was pretty good.
@@CinziaDuBois And please, don't beat yourself up over it, you have no background learning the language and you did a way better job than most English speaker who have tried to learn it
Damn Jimenez! Ruined everything
I absolutely adore your name! How is spelled and what does it mean?
Omg i can't believe i'm actually first for once. Not thay it matters but still. Anyways i love your vibes and i wanna thank you for sharing your knowledge with us
Yay! Thank you!
❤
This story didn't bring back many memories of the animated film. It is finally clear why Disney chose to center the film on a couple of hapless grifters rather than historical conquistadors.
How dare you credit this masterpiece to Disney. Dreamworks all the way. XD
@@CinziaDuBois 🤣🤣🤣
@@CinziaDuBois
ON THE TRAIL WE BLAZE!
@@CinziaDuBois Oh my, I'm so sorry. My shame will never wash off.
With South American Native names, pronounce both vowels when there are two together.
Atahualpa would be A-ta-hu-Al-pa. You said it the right way and the wrong way at different times during the video.
Quito would be Cu-ee-to. That Qu is pronounced exactly like the Gaelic “hound”, Cu.
You did really well for a non-Native pronouncing them otherwise. Fortunately Tupi-Guarani languages don’t use the glottal stop like a lot of North American and Central American Native languages do, like in Tlingit and Tsalagi. And South American languages are pretty straight forward and consistent in how they were transcribed, unlike the O’odham (pronounced An-awe-thm).
That glottal stop is the hardest one to explain to a European because there is nothing in any European language similar to it. It takes putting the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth and either making a sibilant S sound as you draw the tongue back or pressing the tongue firmly at the top front and using the cheeks to make an L sound. People who can make those sounds can whistle without pursing the lips or even closing their mouth because the tongue does what the lips would normally do when whistling.
Conqwistadors and Qwittoh 😂
We Spaniards know a sickness of the heart that only gold can cure - Hernan Cortes.
Quickly hitting pause to listen to El Dorado by Elton John, brb.
GREED. So destructive.
I like librarian's.
AURI SACRA FAMES.
Don't try so hard on Spanish pronunciations!!! Your tone is naturally beauty. This also because a lot of Spanish-speaking countries have their OWN way of speaking... (It's even a bigger difference than the UK/USA English, so you don't have to worry about it).
If you EVER really "need" help in pronunciation of names of persons or city... you can ask anyone of us. =)
[You actually "hit" like... 75% of all of them, which, just for never speaking spanish, is really good].
PS: I rise the number to nearly 85%, considering now deep in the video that, for an English native speaker... it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to even try to pronounce some of the names without proper "training". so your work is admirable as it is. =)
Thank you! When I film in front of the camera, it's too hard for me to stop because I use my phone when filming. But this time, I could spend like 3 hours recording the audio to keep stopping and starting to keep listening to Spanish pronunciations over and over again and try and replicate the sound haha. If anyone catches me on the street and stops to ask me to repeat the names, I will have zero clue haha
@@CinziaDuBois (Argh, this YT autocensor)... ok, one more try... Don't stress yourself!!!, you did GREAT (both in content and pronunciation). I don't know where you searched the pronunciations (I doubt this has been the case of this video would be a disaster) but some "channels" in YT, are full of ****** that think they can "teach" how to pronounce words, when THEY don't and can't pronounce ANYTHING AT ALL... So again, if you ever need, you can ask us or any patreon (which I can't be, sadly) for that. We would be more willing to help if needed. =)