NARRATOR: It is a story
wrapped in myth and legend. How did a tribe of
wandering nomads engineer the Americas greatest
empire in just 200 years? They had to devise
engineering systems which were extraordinary for their age. NARRATOR: Their
civilization rivaled Rome in its sophistication. The Aztecs had
the best technology that could be produced in the
conditions of which they lived. NARRATOR: Aqueducts, palaces,
pyramids, and temples stood as a tribute to
their gods and a testament to the power of humankind. The Aztecs' crowning achievement
was a gleaming capital city that astonished European
explorers called the Venice of the New World. The city spread out,
glittering against its canals and its lake, bedecked with fine
trees and beautiful mansions. NARRATOR: Their thirst for power
and blood set them on a course for destruction. [shouting] When it finally came,
their annihilation would be swifter
and more complete than the world had ever known. [tribal music] 1325 AD, central Mexico,
near modern-day Mexico City, a young girl, just a
teenager, is celebrating her impending wedding. She is the daughter
of a tribal king, and she is about to join
a new tribe that has been a guest of her kingdom. That tribe is now
known as the Aztecs. As part of the ritual,
five Aztec noblemen lead her to an ancient
temple for the ceremony. But as she reaches the top, the
nobleman suddenly veer her away from the altar and
onto a slab of stone in front of the temple,
one used for sacrifice. Each man holds a limb while a
fifth lifts an obsidian knife high in the air. With one searing move, he
smashes it through her chest and extracts her
still beating heart. [heartbeat] That evening, the king
is invited to a ceremony to celebrate the marriage. Instead, he finds a priest
performing a dance wearing this still glistening
skin of his daughter. As part of the
ritual, the Aztecs had flayed her to honor
the god of fertility. He saw this, and he was
absolutely horrified at what he saw, his dear daughter. And so he and his forces
immediately chased the Aztecs into the lake and onto this
island, where they sought refuge. NARRATOR: The marshy island
was an unwelcoming place. Yet, it was from here that
the Aztecs would beat the odds against them and forge
the most powerful empire of the Americas. [tribal music] Hi, I'm Peter Weller. When I think of the Aztecs,
I think of an elegant people with beautiful skin and
flamboyant head dresses of many colors. And I think of floating cities
and a terrific song by Neil Young about
Moctezuma and Cort s. But I also think of knives,
of obsidian glass ripping into chest cavities, and hands
pulling out bleeding hearts and holding them high. Most of the Aztec sacrifices
were performed in a temple atop a stone pyramid
like this one. The Aztecs felt that
without these offerings, the Sun would literally
cease to rise, and the universe would die. Now, Aztec history is a
fusion of fact and myth. But what we do know is that this
murder, as horrific as it was, not only marked the beginning
of the Aztec empire. It also marked the location
from where it would rise. NARRATOR: The island
the Aztecs were banished to after their disastrous
sacrifice of the princess was in Lake Texcoco, the
largest of five interconnected lakes covering a valley
about 40 by 70 miles. Today, this once
vast and open valley is teeming with what is
modern-day Mexico City, one of the largest
cities in the world. But 700 years ago, the
island was so swampy, no one had laid claim to it. Now, as they gazed on the
lake, the Aztec leader Tenoch announced to his followers that
he had seen an eagle perched on a cactus in the middle of
the lake, a sign from the gods that they had found
their new home. They would name their
city Tenochtitlan. Life is tough for the Aztecs in
the early days of Tenochtitlan. But they have a vision, a vision
of a powerful city modeled on an ancient and legendary
city just 25 miles away. They called this city
Teotihuacan or City of the Gods. We know very little
about Teotihuacan because all we have is the
archaeological remains. We don't have any writing. We don't have any documentation
that really fleshes out what went on at this big city. NARRATOR: It was in ruins,
even in Aztec times. But they believed it to be the
stomping grounds of the gods and the literal birthplace
of the Sun itself. The place the Aztecs most
revered in Teotihuacan was a pyramid that rose
above the tree line. It was called the
Pyramid of the Sun. The massive Sun Pyramid
contains a million cubic yards of earth and stone with
a base roughly the same as the Great Pyramid
of Giza in Egypt. The Aztecs believed
Teotihuacan was laid out in the image of the cosmos
created by their gods. Now, it was this image they
would attempt to replicate in the construction of their
new city, Tenochtitlan. Taking on the challenge
would be an Aztec leader named Acamapichtli. In 1376, he embarked
on an ambitious plan to engineer an advanced
city at Tenochtitlan, but there was a problem. The swampy islands that they
took over needed a lot of work. When they started
to build anything, it would begin to subside. NARRATOR: There was simply no
foundation on which to build. The Aztec's solution would
revolutionize the architecture of the Americas. They began by anchoring
their buildings deep in the ground using a system
of pilings made from wood. Workers cut steaks into 30-foot
lengths, 3 to 4 inches wide. These were driven into the soft
ground to make a foundation. The pilings were often
surrounded with volcanic stone to add strength. Masons and
bricklayers could then build walls on top of
this base with confidence. MARIO SCHJETNAN: They
have found wooden pylons to hold the foundations
of the pyramids. The fact that it didn't sink,
or the fact that it didn't just topple-- I think that's a major
feat of engineering. Tenochtitlan was
an island city, but the lakes surrounding it
were very shallow, sometimes only 7 feet deep. The whole thing looked like
a giant metroplex floating on a pond. Originally, the only way to
get from this floating city to the mainland was by boat. But the Aztecs eventually
devised a series of causeways, sometimes 45 feet wide,
that would connect their floating city to
the mainland provinces. The causeway was supported
by strong wooden pilings, the same pilings that
supported their temples and other buildings. Thousands of these pilings had
to be driven deep into the lake bed, and this presented a
logistical challenge that could only be met by a
strong, skilled labor force and the best of
Mesoamerica's engineers. NARRATOR: To build a
causeway, two lines of stakes were laid out. Then the space between them was
filled with stones and earth until it reached several
feet above the water level. This allowed the road to
support enormous weight. And these causeways
were built very straight. They were very wide, with
bridges that would open up that connected the city
to the North, to the West, and to the South. NARRATOR: The roads enabled
the Aztecs to transport larger, heavier materials for building. But this presented
a new challenge. There were no beasts
of burden in Mesoamerica, so everything had to
be done with humans, no carts, no wheel. NARRATOR: Small loads would
be carried on the back with a rope hung
from the forehead. Large items like stone blocks
or sculptures for a temple would be dragged by huge
numbers of men pulling ropes, possibly using logs as rollers. Legend has it, one stone
bound for a temple required a force of 50,000 men to
drag it from the mountains on the mainland across the
causeway and into the city. The causeways would also present
the Aztecs with a new way to get fresh water
to Tenochtitlan. In the past, the Aztecs had
transported water in canoes from the shore. But a huge boom in
the city's population meant they needed a
higher-tech solution to keep up with demand. They wanted to use water from
the springs on the mainland, and so they wanted
to build an aqueduct. NARRATOR: But the springs
were under control of the dominant tribe in the
region, the ruthless Tepanecs. The Tepanecs Were the
controllers, or the dominators, of all the valley. They had a very strong empire. So they were the lords of the
valley, so the Aztecs where tributary subjects to them. NARRATOR: As the
Aztec population grew, tensions with the
Tepanecs began to simmer. Now the Aztecs decided to issue
an ultimatum that could change the balance of
power in the region. The people of Tenochtitlan not
only demanded that the Tepanecs give them the water,
but also demanded that they help
construct the aqueduct. NARRATOR: The Tepanecs'
answer was swift and brutal. The Tepanec king,
Maxtla, sent assassins who murdered the reigning
Aztec leader in cold blood. This was the final straw. After decades of
domination, the Aztecs would finally make
their move and wage war against their
ruthless overlords. And they would launch a series
of wildly ambitious building projects around their
growing island city that would earn them a
reputation as the greatest engineers of the Americas. The founding tribe of the Aztecs
called themselves the Mexica. The country of Mexico gets
its name from this tribe. It is 1428, and the
Aztecs have declared war on their overlords, a
tribe called the Tepanecs. But to defeat the Tepanecs,
they would need a little help from their neighbors. The Aztecs approached the
nearby city-state of Texcoco. There, a decisive
leader was on the rise. His name was Nezahualcoyotl,
and his domineering leadership would be instrumental in
forging the Aztec empire. With Nezahualcoyotl
at their side, the Aztec underdogs
would go for the jugular. They launched an all-out
attack on the Tepanec capital. After a siege of
more than 100 days, they broke through
Tepanec defenses and slaughtered
their oppressors. After capturing the
Tepanec King, Maxtla, King Nezahualcoyotl
personally cut out his heart and sprinkled his blood into
the waters of lake Texcoco. Suddenly, the tables had turned. MANUEL AGUILAR-MORENO:
That is the exact moment of the beginning of the
empire, and the Aztecs became the leaders of
the Valley of Mexico. [tribal music] NARRATOR: After conquering
the Valley of Mexico-- [lightning crackling] --the Aztecs could now
turn their attention to bringing clean water
to their growing city. Remarkably, the Aztecs would
independently design and build something that only a few
world empires would master, the aqueduct. The aqueduct actually had two
channels, each about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide. One would be cleaned
and maintained, while the other was being used
so the water flow was never interrupted. The twin tube aqueduct ran
for 3 miles from the mainland to the center of
the island city. In town, water streamed into
public fountains and reservoirs and was distributed to the
public in large clay jars or by canoe. In comparison
to the Europeans, the Aztec were
very clean people. We know that the Aztec
emperor bathed twice a day. So in terms of hygiene,
the Aztec people was much more advanced
than the Europeans. NARRATOR: While the Aztec
nobles were bathing in luxury, at this time in Europe, plague
caused by unsanitary conditions was killing millions. King Nezahualcoyotl's own bath
was one of the most unique in the Americas. It was fed by a sophisticated
aqueduct system that also brought running water
to his palace grounds. Behind me is the
hill of Tetzcotzingo. On this hill, Nezahualcoyotl
built a fantastic pleasure palace, and around this palace,
a virtual botanical garden filled with all of the exotic
flowers in Mesoamerica. Nezahualcoyotl brought
water from the Sierra Nevada mountains all the way down
to here into this hill, into his palace, just
to water his plants. NARRATOR: To install
an aqueduct there, Nezahualcoyotl had to fill a
huge gorge between Tetzcotzingo and the next hill. As the water arrived
at the first hill, it gathered in small
pools built to control the speed of the flow before
it reached the aqueduct. After crossing the aqueduct,
the water ran in a circuit around Tetzcotzingo hill,
spilling off over the sides in rock-cut waterfalls
to water the gardens. It ended up in a
nearly-perfectly round rock-cut pool called the King's Bath. PETER WELLER: And from
here, he could look upon his domain of Texcoco. And he could look down
at the botanical gardens that he was watering with
his fantastic aqueducts. It is indeed a bath
fit for a king. NARRATOR: By the mid-15th
century, with their empire on the rise, it was
time for the Aztecs to choose a sovereign leader. He was called
Moctezuma, and he would be the first of two emperors
with this now-famous name. Moctezuma's first
order of business was to extend the
empire's borders. The Aztecs captured city-states
southward to the valley of Oaxaca, westward
to the Pacific, and east toward
the Gulf of Mexico. By 1449, the empire contained
as many as 15 million people. In the short span of
100 years, the Aztecs accomplished the impossible. They had toppled the
Mesoamerican world order. But while the Aztecs
dominated militarily, their island city was vulnerable
to a different kind of enemy. Like New Orleans, Tenochtitlan
was constantly doing battle with water. And one of Moctezuma's
first projects was to protect his city from the
deluge of water surrounding it. This is what is left of Lake
Xochimilco in the Southern part of Mexico City, in Aztec times,
the city of Tenochtitlan. This lake, like the other four
lakes that surrounded the city, were spring fed. Thus, there were no
rivers or streams into which it could drain. [lightning crackling] And if it rained hard
enough, the water would rise up and sweep over the
land and into the city itself. And this is exactly what
happened in the mid-1400s when a flood of
catastrophic proportions swept into Tenochtitlan. The city and the
empire it commanded were almost
completely destroyed, and the Aztec
civilization had to, once again, rely upon the
genius of its engineers and one engineer in particular. NARRATOR: Moctezuma enlisted
the help of his old ally, Nezahualcoyotl, to protect
the city he was rebuilding from the lake. Nezahualcoyotl would
design a solution that would make him the greatest
engineer on the continent. His plan was to create a
safe zone around the city with a huge dike that
would protect Tenochtitlan and its inhabitants. It was designed to be larger
than any earthwork anywhere in the Americas at the time,
running for 10 miles just east of the city from the
southern edge of the lake across to the north. The walls were a wickerwork
construction made of sticks, reed, stone, and earth. Since the lake was
shallow, the dike was only about 12 feet in
height, but some 27 feet wide. Nezahualcoyotl fitted the dike
with sluice gates, most likely wooden doors, that would be
raised or lowered to control the water level behind it. The dike also served
another purpose. It protected their water supply. It was important to build some
sort of protective mechanism to keep salt water out of
the freshwater western part of the lake. "An army marches on its
stomach," so said Napoleon. Now, an ample food
supply for civilians is a no-brainer and a
critical development of any civilization. But the Aztecs perfected
a unique method, not only to provide a
substantial food supply for its civilian populace, but
to fuel the military expansion of its empire. NARRATOR: This
revolutionary engineering was called chinampas, a system
that allowed them to literally create new land to
farm and to live on. If you're going to
have a city of any size, you have to provide
room for them. And so what they did was
build up these chinampas in the lake bed. Basically, a chinampa
is an artificial island built in the lake. NARRATOR: They looked like
narrow football fields about 300 feet long
by about 30 feet wide. A chinampa was built by weaving
a web of sticks floating in the water and piling
reeds on top of them. Mud was then scraped
from the lake bottom and piled atop the reeds
to form the chinampa. It took four to
six men eight days to build an average chinampa. They were connected to the city
by massive navigational canals that would take thousands
of men months to build. PETER WELLER: A
chinampa like this one could produce up to
seven crops a year, whereas a farm on the mainland
could yield one, maybe two, maybe three at the most. As a crop was ready to
harvest on a chinampa, seedlings from another
would be sprouting out of mud that would be spread on
a boat adjacent to the chinampa. Then, when the
seedlings were ready, they'd be transported
to the chinampa. And this cycle would be repeated
over, and over, and over again on hundreds and in
thousands of chinampas. Now, it was this technology
that transformed Tenochtitlan from just another tribal
town in the 14th century to a dominant and
thriving city-state. [music playing] NARRATOR: With their city's
infrastructure in place and vast lands
under their control, the Aztecs would push the
boundaries of their empire further than ever before. They'd create a
far-flung network of roads, Aztec super highways. But as the empire grew,
so too did their practice of human sacrifice. Soon, rivers of blood would
be flowing through the streets of Tenochtitlan. [suspenseful music] The average life expectancy of
an Aztec citizen was 37 years. Today, Tenochtitlan, the
capital of the Aztec empire, is gone, buried under
modern-day Mexico City. But 700 years ago, it
was a shining capital on the rise, built
by advanced engineers and led by
larger-than-life emperors. By the late 15th century, the
Aztec population had exploded. Their next great emperor would
launch a series of conquests that would rival anything
in world history. His name was
Ahuitzotl, and he would prove to be an even greater
warrior than his grandfather, Moctezuma. By 1502, Ahuitzotl had conquered
territory from Mexico's Pacific coast and pushed the empire
as far south as Guatemala. FRANCES BERDAN: His reign was
kind of like a golden age. He was a king that opened
up transport routes to the coastal areas and to
lowland areas where the Aztecs got their greatest luxuries,
these shimmering tropical feathers, the gold, the
precious stones, that the nobles and rulers wore as symbols
of their station in life. NARRATOR: To transport riches
to the heart of the empire, the Aztecs constructed a
network of super highways throughout central Mexico. Relay runners were
stationed every few miles to create a sort of
ancient federal express. Messages or goods could be sent
200 miles from the Gulf Coast to Tenochtitlan
in just 24 hours, faster than the
postal service today. With the empire at its height,
the Aztecs under Ahuitzotl embarked on their greatest
construction project, a massive pyramid at the
very center of Tenochtitlan, the symbol of their
absolute power. It was called the Templo
Mayor, or Great Temple. The base of the pyramid was
240 feet deep by 300 feet wide and rose to a height
of 15 storeys. There were at least 117 steps
in two staircases climbing 200 feet leading to twin temples
to honor the gods of rain-- [lightning crackling] --and war. The temple was rebuilt on
the same location seven times beginning in 1325 with
the city's founding. As the empire grew,
so did the pyramid. Each stage was simply built
right on top of the stage before. The Templo Mayor
was built mainly with a stone called tezontle. That is a volcanic stone. It's a very light-weight stone
that would prevent the sinking of the temple. NARRATOR: For floors
and walls, the Aztecs applied a lime plaster,
which was a form of concrete. Some examples found today remain
as hard as modern concrete, even after 500 years. Aztec workers
labored for decades to complete their
monument to the gods. The temple remained buried
until 1978, when power company workers digging a trench
accidentally uncovered a huge carved stone and
discovered the temple ruins next to it. The disk, 11 feet in
diameter, weighs 8 tons and depicts the dismembered body
of the goddess Coyolxauhqui. Coyolxauhqui was
the Moon goddess, but her brother murdered her
because she became pregnant in a very shameful way. Now, the Aztecs weren't
prudes by any means. Matter of fact, nobles had
many wives and concubines. But amongst the commoners,
particularly women, adultery was a no-no and severely
punished, often by death. So according to legend,
the Moon goddess's brother cut her head off. And after he decapitated her,
he shoved her body down a hill. The Aztecs reenacted
this killing literally and
frequently in festivals throughout their calendar year. They would decapitate
their victims at the top of a
pyramid like this and then push the
carcasses down the steps to the great stone
at the bottom. NARRATOR: For the Romans,
their most precious treasure was gold. For the Egyptians,
it was the afterlife. For the Aztecs, it
was human blood. They felt a sense of
reciprocity with the gods, so they needed to give a
thanksgiving to the gods, giving the most
precious thing they had. That was human blood. NARRATOR: The Aztecs
called it precious water. And they believed that if
the gods didn't receive it in massive quantities, the
world would end in apocalypse. It was common
practice to adorn the walls of the insides of the
temples with fresh human blood. And the smell must
have been appalling. NARRATOR: To dedicate his
expansion of the Great Temple, Emperor Ahuitzotl
held a mass sacrifice. The heads of victims were
displayed permanently on skull racks
around the temple. According to some
chronicles, they say that there were
sacrificed 20,000 people. From a practical point of view
and from a scientific point of view, it sounds impossible. So I think that
the chronicle that is written by Spanish sources
is basically telling us that to their eyes,
there were many. NARRATOR: As Ahuitzotl's
reign continued, the bloodletting skyrocketed. Life in Tenochtitlan soon
became an orgy of death. Friends and enemies
alike would be brought in to witness the sacrifices. It's always ritual. Sacrifice is always
a ritual event, but it was also a
political statement. And it was a kind of a
form of intimidation. NARRATOR: By the time
of Ahuitzotl's death, the Aztecs had institutionalized
sacrificial killing and turned killing on the
battlefield into an art form. They were the Americas fiercest
fighters, an elite cadre of whom would have a
spectacular new mountainside temple dedicated to them. But even they were not prepared
for the war of the worlds that was about to descend upon them. [suspenseful music] The Aztecs used obsidian
to craft their blades, a volcanic stone so sharp,
it's utilized in modern-day eye surgery. 1502, Ahuitzotl, emperor
of the Aztecs, is dead. Moctezuma II, a 34-year-old
former priest, comes to power. A world away in Spain, an
18-year-old notary named Hern n Cort s is preparing to cross
the Atlantic to join in his country's conquest
of the New World. This is the zenith
of the Aztec empire. It now covers at least
80,000 square miles, reaching out from
Tenochtitlan to both coasts and as far south as Guatemala. Some 25 million people
are subject to Aztec rule. 38 provinces containing
innumerable city-states are paying them heavy tribute,
making the emperor and nobles fabulously rich. The city spread out,
glittering against its canals and its lake, bedecked with fine
trees and beautiful mansions. NARRATOR: And Moctezuma
II presided over it all. He was known for
his statesmanship and military skills. A tough leader, he slaughtered
the population of towns that wouldn't bend to his rule. But privately, he was troubled. It seems that Moctezuma was
a passive individual, perhaps even a depressive individual. NARRATOR: Legend says that when
he witnessed a comet streaking across the skies
over Tenochtitlan, he spent the rest of
the night in tears. As the weeks went by, he
became increasingly paranoid. But at the height
of his obsession with the supernatural,
a very real threat approached from across the sea. Spies posted along the
Gulf Coast reported strange sightings offshore
that they were at a loss to describe. They never have seen a
boat, so they didn't even have a word to describe that. So the Indians referred to those
boats as mountains that move in the water. NARRATOR: In 1519,
after sailing from Cuba, Cort s landed with 11 of these
floating mountains and 500 men on the Gulf of Mexico, 200
miles southeast of Tenochtitlan. The tribes were astonished
by these men with metal armor and animals they had never seen. As he moved inland,
tribes who resisted were brutally slaughtered. But many others were
happy to provide him with provisions and men. One of the ways in which one
local lord down on the Gulf Coast curried favor was to give
Cort s and his company a group of women who were to not
only provide for them in housekeepers sort of manner
but were also clearly meant to be courtesans as well
and provide sexual services to them. NARRATOR: But among
the concubines, one in particular caught
the eye of Cort s himself. She was the daughter
of a chieftain who had been sold into slavery
and was called La Malinche. SUSAN TOBY EVANS: They developed
an intimate relationship. And in time, she
bore a son to him. And he would have been one of
the first people of mixed blood in the New World. NARRATOR: But she was
much more than a mistress. She became an
interpreter for Cort s, and her role expanded to advisor
and intermediary between him and the Aztecs. SUSAN TOBY EVANS: Not only
was she his translator, but she could also tell
him about things that were being said that he was not
intended to hear or understand. NARRATOR: Moctezuma's
network of relay runners kept him apprised of
the Spaniards movements. It was clear they were
headed for his city. As he advanced
towards Tenochtitlan, through the summer of 1519,
Cort s amassed an army of thousands. Moctezuma's army of
warriors numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They wore animal costumes
on the battlefield to intimidate their opponents. [tribal music] JANINE GASCO: Part
of it was spectacle. You had just incredible costumes
that the different warriors would wear. NARRATOR: The most important
warriors were knights dressed as jaguars and eagles. The Aztec knights were
initiated into their orders at sacred ceremonies at
special temples like this one. This is the cave temple at
Malinalco, one of six temples on this remote mountainside
few hours south of Mexico City. It was finished by
Moctezuma II around 1502 shortly after his coronation. Now, over in
Europe, Michelangelo was pounding out the David
for the Republic of Florence. But while Michelangelo
was carving the David, the Aztecs were here carving
this temple right out of the side of this mountain. And it is the only temple in the
entire Western hemisphere built in this manner. At the bottom of the
stairs of Cuauhcalli are the sculptures
of two jaguars. On each side of the door,
there are the remnants of two warriors. Now, the door itself
represents the open mouth of a giant serpent. You can literally see its
tongue coming out of the room. The Aztecs believed that
this was the entrance to the womb of the Earth. Now, the privileged
warriors would come here, go into the room with
sculptures of eagles, have their noses
pierced, and offer blood and sacrifice to
Huitzilopotchli, the god of war. But this would be by
no means the last time these Aztec warriors
would spill their blood. NARRATOR: The first meeting
between Cort s and Moctezuma would be peaceful, but the
Conquistador knew a huge and bloody clash between the
old world and the new would soon take place. [shouting] And the annihilation
that ensued would become one of the most
frightening events in the history of the Americas. [suspenseful music] Cocoa beans were so valuable
a commodity to the Aztecs, they were even used as currency. It is the fall of 1519. Spanish Conquistador Hern n
Cort s has finally reached the gleaming Aztec capital
he has heard so much about, Tenochtitlan. FRANCES BERDAN: When
the Spaniards first saw Tenochtitlan, they
thought they were in some kind of an enchanted vision. They thought they'd entered
some kind of a dream. NARRATOR: A massive
force of native warriors allied against the Aztecs
accompanies him as he advances on the main
causeway into the city. FRANCES BERDAN: The meeting
of Cort s and Moctezuma on a causeway approaching
Tenochtitlan had to be one of the most remarkable
events in world history. It's really a meeting
of two different worlds. And Cort s offered his hand. But the minute he
started to do that, to actually touch Moctezuma,
the noble attendants around Moctezuma pushed Cort s
away, and said, no, no, no, that's a total indignity. Nobody touches Moctezuma,
the great lord of the land. NARRATOR: The meeting
of the two worlds was peaceful but
fraught with tension. Moctezuma, by this time,
had become increasingly impulsive and prone
to bouts of hysteria. So the encounter
was an encounter of sensing the forces,
no, in each side. But the Aztecs have a diplomacy
and a warfare system that was somewhat naive in comparison
to the very tricky and sly system of the Europeans. NARRATOR: Moctezuma
invited the Spaniards to stay in one of his palaces. It would prove to be a
catastrophic mistake. As the Spaniards entered
the city, they were so awed, they thought they were dreaming. At the heart of the city stood
the emperor's colossal palace. The palace of Moctezuma
II was a massive complex, spread across 6 acres
near the Great Temple. One of the Spaniards noted
that every day at Moctezuma's palace, 600 nobles gathered. And they would hear the
word of their emperor. NARRATOR: Moctezuma received the
Spaniards in a large reception chamber just beyond the main
entrance designed to make the emperor appear omnipotent. But Moctezuma's palace
would be the last ever built by the Aztecs. Not a week into their
visit, the Spaniards went for the jugular,
kidnapping Moctezuma. It was an audacious
move, but it paid off. The empire appeared
to be theirs. Even though Moctezuma was
still the official leader of the city, he was
really, for some time, nothing more than a
mouthpiece for Cort s. NARRATOR: For six
months, tensions within the walls of
Tenochtitlan slowly simmered. Then in the spring of 1520,
it all came to a head. One morning, Spanish soldiers
interrupted a sacred sacrifice and slaughtered
those taking part. The move sparked an uprising. For the Aztecs, the
Spaniards had committed an unspeakable sacrilege. The city became engulfed in
chaos as the Aztecs marched on Moctezuma's palace. JANINE GASCO: Moctezuma gets
up on the top of the palace and tries to talk to the
people and calm them down. And by now, they're just
not having any of it. [fast-paced music] NARRATOR: Moctezuma had become
nothing more than a Spaniard's puppet, a betrayal so great
in the eyes of his people, they pummeled him
with rocks and arrows. Shortly after,
Moctezuma's lifeless body was tossed from
the palace walls. Whether he died at Spanish
hands or from injuries inflicted by his own people
may never be known. And the Spaniards
at that point decide this would be a probably
a good time to leave the city. NARRATOR: On the night
of June 30, 1520, the Spaniards attempted to
escape under cover of darkness. But they can't separate
themselves from the plunder that they've gotten so far, so
they're weighted down with all of the things that they
want to take with them. NARRATOR: They were easy targets
for the Aztec warriors, who caught them on the causeway. Bodies quickly piled
up in the water. 400 Spaniards were killed
along with several thousand of their Indian allies. That escape has come to be
called La Noche Triste, The Sad Night. NARRATOR: Cort s and a few
others managed to escape with their lives. The Spaniards would now
destroy the shining city of Tenochtitlan for good. He would begin by
severing the lifeblood of the city, the aqueduct. As hundreds of thousands of
people within the city's walls were without water, Cort s
created a blockade around Tenochtitlan to cut off all
outside supplies of food. So the idea of
this blockade was to try to make surrender
the city by hunger. And the Aztecs have a
tremendous resistance, so they couldn't
be defeated easily. And what they decide to
do is to mount an attack, both by land and by sea. NARRATOR: For centuries,
the lake around Tenochtitlan was a barrier against invaders. But Cort s would find
a way around that. He had thousands of
his Indian allies carry ships in pieces
up thousands of feet over the mountains to be
assembled and launched into the lake. May, 1521, Cort s unleashes
his massive army in a final decisive attack on Tenochtitlan. 600 Spaniards, including
100 cavalryman and upwards of 50,000 of their
Indian allies, clash with the Aztec
defenders of the city on its grand causeways. Brutal fighting
continued for months. Day by day, Cort s razed
the city block by block. He and his Indian
allies were merciless in their systematic
slaughter of the population. It was an extremely
hard-fought battle, especially in the
city precincts. NARRATOR: The Aztecs made a
last stand at the Great Temple in Tlatelolco. Warriors lined the steep steps
to rain down arrows and rocks on their enemy. But it was hopeless. On August 13, the final
Aztec leader, Cuauht moc, was captured and
surrendered to Cort s. And that was just the beginning. 20 million would die of disease
brought by the Spaniards. By the end of
the 16th century, we estimate that the
native population had been reduced by about 90%. [upbeat music] NARRATOR: Modern-day
Mexico City has been built atop the rubble
of the once majestic city of Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards leveled it
during the construction of their own colonial
capital, even using stones from the Great Temple to build
their cathedrals still standing next to the temple ruins. The Aztec empire had
vanished and with it, a legacy of astonishing
engineering achievements. It has become clear from
their sophisticated systems of urban planning,
agriculture, and waterworks that the Aztecs stood among the
most advanced of the world's great empires. The cave temple
here at Malinalco is one of the few truly
impressive Aztec achievements that the Spanish
did not destroy. And stunning sites such as
this beg the tantalizing question, if the
Spanish had not come, what would Mexico
look like today? I'm Peter Weller for
the History Channel.
