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[00:00.40]Inspired by the legend of El Dorado, the realm of the gold-covered king.
[00:07.70]After defeating the Inca army at the Battle of Cajamarca, their quest began in earnest.
[00:15.65]At Potosi, in what is now Bolivia, the Spaniards struck it rich.
[00:21.32]They discovered the Cerro Rico, literally the Rich Hill.
[00:25.91]Towering nearly 16,000 feet above sea level, it was a money mountain.
[00:33.40]In their 250 years of Spanish rule, more than 2 billion ounces of silver were extracted from mines like this one,14,000 feet up in the Andes.
[00:45.65]What the Incas couldn't grasp was why the Europeans had such an insatiable lust for gold and silver.
[00:52.49]They couldn't understand that to Pizarro and the Conquistadores, silver was much more than just shiny metal,
[00:58.82]it could be made into money, a store of value, a unit of account, portable power.
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