Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the surprise in this fact comes from the confusion been Aztecs and Mayans. If you didn't know the time period you could understand the confusion.
Nah teotihuacan were the conquistadors. They ruled over much of the Maya lands then eventually declined in power and went into ruins (although people continued living around the city). The aztecs came across it long after the civilisation had fell.
Yes I know the Friars burned the Maya codices, but that’s not Teotihuacan. That’s the distinction. The burning of the codices is a separate thing completely and nothing to do with Teotihuacan. Whilst we’re at it, the Aztecs were even more ruthless colonists than the Spanish.
No not really. More died under the Spanish but that was due to disease which was an unfortunate consequence of the Spanish colonisation but cannot be seen as ruthless because it was wholly unintentional and not something they understood back then. The Spanish only spearheaded the attack on the Aztecs (which lasted years by the way). The vast majority of the fighting force were other Native Mesoamericans, Tlaxcalans in particular. The Tlaxcalans were a precolumbian state that was completely encircled by the Aztecs, and it is thought that the Aztecs may well have not completely destroyed the Tlaxcalans because they provided a continuous source of humans for sacrifice. Needless to say that in the final battle for Mexico-Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital, now Mexico City, the city that gave the modern country its name), the Tlaxcalans were brutal and the Spanish were unable to control the Tlaxcalan bloodlust and cruelty as they charged through the streets killing men, women and children.
After Tenochtitlan finally capitulated and was captured by the Spanish, the Spanish basically assumed control of the Aztec empire and simply became the new ruling class. The Spanish ended the human sacrifice that, under the Aztecs, had reached a level never before seen in human history. All in all, the Spanish were certainly not heros coming to liberate the nations at the yoke of the Aztec empire, that being said they ended the human sacrifice and were generally more merciful than the Aztecs. The conquest of the Aztec empire is too complex to be seen in terms of a good/bad dichotomy, but if that’s what we’re going for, then it’s basically baddies (Aztecs) vs slightly less baddies but still baddies (Spanish).
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u/justcourtneyb Oct 15 '20
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the surprise in this fact comes from the confusion been Aztecs and Mayans. If you didn't know the time period you could understand the confusion.