Image source: wikimedia.org
If more evidence are needed on the sophistication of Mayan and Aztec cultures, archaeologists and anthropologists need not be bothered for further artifacts. What is in want of plumping as a cold, harsh truth is that Hispanic conquerors in the mold of Hernan Cortes could not have done Montezuma’s elite empire more favor. Prior to the conquistadores’ arrival in 1519 at the shores of Tenochtitlan, then the biggest empire in the New World, Aztec emperor Montezuma was leading a civilized people with complex societal structures, an elaborate cosmology, and even their own system of writing.
Cortes’ band of conquistadores razed Tenochtitlan to the ground and succeeded in subjugating its peoples. The work of historian Hugh Thomas (1993) bears witness to this episode of a clash of civilizations, his 1000-page narrative hand-stitching vast archaeological evidence and written records on the lot of the Aztecs and the arrival of Cortes’ fleet. The Conquest of Mexico has been critically proclaimed an important book for several reasons, most compelling of all is the dismantling of myths about Western powers’ “civilizing missions.”
Image source: mesoamericas.com
A fascinating facet of the book is also the emotional confrontation between two men who could not be more different from each other, afflicted with their respective pride for their proper civilizations. The Aztecs ritually sacrificed humans, and the Spanish had no qualms about unleashing relatively more brutal forms of extinguishing human life, such as through warfare. Thomas’ scenes boil with the mutual admiration of two figureheads, a revelation that makes greedy violence the logical outcome of this piece of history.
As Mexico comfortably settles into its modern life under the presidency of Enrique Pena Nieto, its indigenous peoples remains a subject of fascination for historians and other social scientists. Discover more about Mexican peoples through this blog.
Image source: lib.uci.edu
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