The speaker believes Moctezuma’s best option was to host Cortez in Tenochtitlan, because this was preferable to letting Cortez roam the empire and possibly inflame subject peoples against central authority.

“I actually think that was his best option,”

“whether he was aware of it or not, because it was better for him.”

“To have Cortez as his guest within Tenochtitlan than it was to have Cortez this random element at loose within his empire talking to the subject peoples,”

“inflaming them possibly against central authority.”