These BIZARRE Aztecs Events Will Leave You Horrified

the Aztec empire is one of the most infamous empires in history from the capital of Tenochtitlan they ruled over much of Mexico in the 15th and early 16th centuries until their conquest by the Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes in 1521. today we explore some of the stranger aspects and events in Aztec history hahaha one of the things the Aztecs are known for today is their beautiful arts and crafts which is something they share with today's sponsor serpentforge serpent Forge sells hand-crafted silver jewelry with plenty of awesome designs based on Ancient mythology and history all of their pieces are handcrafted in solid sterling silver the designs are fantastic and they'll make for great conversation starters we especially love their Aztec related designs honor the Lord of Life Light and wisdom with a ring of quetzal cuado or maybe you want to show your reverence to the lord of the Dead with some of their incredible miklantic hoodly pendants there's many cool designs inspired by all sorts of history and mythology including Japan China Norse and more so there will definitely be something you like thanks to serpent Forge for sponsoring this video the Aztec Empire was ruled by the meshika a people from whom Mexico got its name the meshika migrated into Central Mexico in the early to mid 13th century Aztec Legends claimed that they came from a Homeland called Aslan historians believe the meshika really came from the desert areas in northern Mexico or the Southern United States but what or where Aslan was remains unknown famously the Aztecs claimed that Whitley lopochley the god of war in the sun told them to settle their new city where they saw an eagle sitting on a cactus later recountings of the legend claimed that the eagle was eating a snake they found a sign on the shores of Lake teshkoko where they founded their city of Tenochtitlan on the site where Mexico City now stands this Foundation myth is still popular today and the image of an ego devouring a snake on a cactus remains on the Mexican flag the history of the Aztec empire is difficult to recount because of how little evidence survives there are no pre-conquest textual histories of the Empire and time has buried much of the archaeological evidence beneath modern cities or lost it to Nature as a result we only get brief glimpses of individual events for most of Aztec history one of the more unfortunate rulers of the empire was a man called tizog tizog Rose to power in 1481 follow following the death of his elder brother Asha yakut his name meant he who makes sacrifices but this proved to be ironic as part of his connotation War tizok waged a war against the Artemis of Mets titlan but the new talatowani captured a mere 40 prisoners for sacrifice an embarrassingly poor performance this pathetic display undermined Aztec strength intezoc spent his brief Reign desperately subduing the fringes of the Empire who had been emboldened by the weakness of their new Overlord eventually even tizog's own family wanted him gone tizok was most likely poisoned by his younger brother aoisodel who succeeded him on the throne and proved a far better Warrior and leader fighting Wars was essential to Aztec politics and Society but full-on wars were not always viable sometimes the Aztecs engaged in a bizarre practice called a flower War flower wars were ritualistic conflicts conducted between the Aztecs and certain city-states or groups outside of their control these were not Wars of Conquest but seemingly ones of ritual and training for soldiers the Aztecs would periodically send troops to attack their enemies in a flower War but then the troops would withdraw with their captives and leave the enemy to fight another day aside from training soldiers when larger Wars weren't available flower wars gave a chance for warriors to capture human sacrifices taking prisoners for sacrifice was a means of social advancement for warriors and the sacrifices were important parts of Aztec religious life check out our video on Aztec human sacrifice if you want to learn more about this gruesome topic the reasons for this practice are debated some believe that flower wars were entirely ritualistic many Mesoamerican Gods desired sacrifice and War so the flower wars were a chance to maintain this when proper Wars weren't occurring others have interpreted it as a social phenomenon offering low stakes Conflict for Nobles and warriors to gain prestige in Aztec society however other historians argued that these wars were genuine they were small-scale conflicts that kept enemies on their toes when the Aztecs were unable to fully subjugate them perhaps the most famous flower war occurred with the city of clash color tlash color was locked in a long flower war with the Aztecs at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 it seems that the Clash Collins had had enough and when the Spanish and the Aztecs went to war to lash color threw their lot in with Cortez some historians have interpreted this as evidence that the flower wars would genuine acts of aggress that could finally be repaid by The Clash khalatekas ultimately the Aztecs created one of their own worst enemies the flower Wars made slash color despise the Aztecs and it gave their Warriors plenty of fighting experience making them a dangerous foe following Cortez's flight from Tenochtitlan after the Noche to this day in 1520 it was Slash color that offered Cortez sanctuary as he reorganized and regrouped into Las calteca soldiers marched beside him during the siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521. in the end this curious Aztec Behavior came back to bite them on the battlefield foreign loved the battlefield but they loved something else even more playing ball ball games were a staple of Mesoamerican life for Millennia Olmec Toltec and Maya societies all enjoyed them long before the Aztecs came along the Mesoamerican bowl game is really many games with lots of variations and rules most of which are lost the most popular Aztec version was called Ola malitsli and involved a large court with two opposing teams of either six or eight players on either side of the Court there would be Hoops set high above the players it used a rubber ball weighing about six pounds which could only be hit with the legs or hips of the players similar to a game of volleyball the goal was to keep the ball off the ground on your side and make it fall on the other team's Court the hoop on the side of the Court was barely large enough to fit the ball through but might have given extra points or an automatic win if someone could get the ball through the game was a spectacle to behold entire towns would turn out to watch the games and gambling was commonplace one Spanish chronicler claimed that people were known to sell their own children so they could have money to bet on the game although we should take that claim with a grain of salt Cortez himself was impressed by The Game and even had a team of players sent to Europe to perform for Charles V so far you might be thinking what's bizarre about this a ball game seems normal true and it probably was normal most of the time Aztecs like to play games like everyone else people probably threw together makeshift courts in the field outside their Village and it's easy to imagine groups of laughing Aztec teenagers picking teams and playing matches in the same way modern Mexicans play soccer however sometimes the ball games could have awfully high stakes sometimes the losers were sacrificed evidence suggests that ball games were used as part of religious rituals and in line with most Aztec religions might involve sacrifice losers would be decapitated or have their hearts cut out there's even some artwork from the time suggesting that the losers's skulls could be used as balls the religious dimensions of the game are unclear Some interpretations see the game as a ritualistic retelling of the eternal struggle between good and evil another interpretation is that the game pitted one team representing the sun god Whitley Le poachly against another representing the moon God koyoshauk turning the players into holy Warriors in a Divine conflict the board game could also be political a dispute between the Aztec ruler ashayakat and shihood lemok the leader of the city of shochimilco was settled by a ball game according to a Spanish chronicler ashayakat waged an amount equal to his annual income while his rival bet with valuable agricultural land across to America the concentration of ball courts in areas of political instability has led some historians to suggest that board games were a crucial part of resolving political disputes in the Aztec empire [Music] one thing that ball games couldn't deal with was the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. the Aztec empire was rich powerful and full of experienced Warriors but that makes its full one of the most bizarre events of all how could such a powerful Empire be toppled by a few hundred foreigners what mistakes did the emperor Montezuma make to cause this defeat firstly it should be noted that it took a lot more than a few hundred Spanish conquistadors to topple the empire in their final years the Aztecs experienced a devastating epidemic of smallpox measles and other old world diseases that ravaged the native population the Americas were not home to these sorts of epidemic diseases so the Aztecs were faced with an unfamiliar threat that claimed the lives of huge numbers of people additionally Aztec brutality had bred resentment against them we have already talked about talashkala the city that joined the Spanish to oppose the Aztecs but they were far from alone the Conquistador Bernal Diaz indeed records that there were only a few hundred Spaniards left by the time Cortez besieged Tenochtitlan but he also describes tens of thousands of native allies from cities like talashkala wetsot Cinco and Cholula Who Rose up against their Aztec overlords it was this combination of overwhelming opposition that proved the Empire's undoing not just a few hundred Europeans after arriving in the region in 1519 Cortez and his men attacked several cities and won multiple battles against Mesoamerican armies by all indications these newcomers were powerful and dangerous threat however Montezuma and the Aztecs welcomed them at Tenochtitlan in November 1519 and Cortez's men remained in the city for months in relative peace why would the Aztecs do this how could Montezuma act this way the common explanation is that the Aztecs believe that Cortez was the god question was an Aztec version of a Mesoamerican feathered serpent deity worshiped by many cultures in the region Quetzalcoatl was associated with the wind the sky life wisdom and learning and was one of the most prominent Aztec gods supposedly quetzalcoato had gone to the east but was prophesized to return around the time that Cortez and his men landed The Story Goes that the Aztecs believed Cortez was the returned quetzalcoato and didn't dare to oppose him until it was far too late this explains the Aztec's reluctance to fight while Montezuma invited Cortes and his men to enter Tenochtitlan in many of the other peculiarities of the conquest historians are skeptical of the story firstly there is no pre-conquest evidence for a prophesized return of Quetzalcoatl the story only shows up decades after the conquest the Spaniard Lopez de Gamora seems to be the first person to make the claim that the Spanish was seen as returning Gods none of the Conquistadors involved in the conquest ever mentioned this quetzalcoato myth now Bernal Diaz whose extensive treatment of the conquest is arguably the most detailed available and most damning of all Cortes himself never references anything like this in the famous letters he wrote to Charles V if Cortez was seen as a God then he never thought it was worth mentioning native responses to Cortez also refute this story Cholula arguably the most important cult Center of quetzalcoato was an avowed enemy of Cortez when he arrived and the Conquistadors massacred the city for its resistance to him only after new leaders had been installed did Cholula join Cortez and they never mention any link between him and their Patron God it's only in the middle late 16th century a full generation or more after the conquest that native sources begin making the claim historians suggest that native writers embarrassed by the rapid collapse of the Empire invented myths to explain Montezuma's perceived inaction Spanish writers and translators Amplified the myth to drive home the superstitious and foolish nature of the Mexicans in order to justify their own rule over the native peoples the myth might be false but why did Montezuma make such bizarre choices some historians argued that in fact Montezuma's choices were sensible in the first few months in Mexico Cortez roamed around the Empire intimidating or attacking cities and stealing treasure he had proven his ability to defeat Mesoamerican armies on the battlefield as he rampaged around Montezuma's territory Montezuma's response made sense he didn't try to fight Cortez conventionally instead he opened diplomatic relations with Cortez to avoid conflict and invited him into the capital keeping the Spanish internachitlan was the best place for them it was the center of Aztec power it allowed Montezuma to keep an eye on them it stopped them roaming around the Empire causing problems and if push came to shove the Spanish was surrounded by tens of thousands of Aztec Warriors and cut off from reinforcements however it seems that Montezuma and the Spanish actually got on well Conquistador accounts are generally favorable towards him and for a time things seemed to go well things went South when Pedro de Alvarado Cortez's second in command ordered an attack on the Aztec religious Festival of toshkar on 22nd of May 1520 when Cortez was out of the city his reasons are unknown but the fact that the festival involved Human Sacrifice might have something to do with it whatever his motives Alvarado's attack turned the city against the Spanish and caused a riot Montezuma was killed probably by a rock thrown by the angry crowds of Tenochtitlan and the Spanish were soon forced to flee the city the Noche triste or Knight of Sorrows saw most of the Spanish soldiers killed as they tried to escape and much of their treasure sunk to the bottom of Lake teshkoko never to be seen again Cortes and a survivors barely escaped with their lives compared to the spanish's dominance in most battles it seems that placing them in the city had been a wise call after all of course the Aztecs fell in the end and with them we lost most of their history while little we still have offers only a tiny glimpse into the bizarre and fascinating world of one of America's greatest Empires if you want to please the gods but don't fancy cutting out any hearts you can offer a sacrifice in the form of liking this video and subscribing to our channel that way the crops will grow the sun will rise and we'll have another video for you soon foreign [Music]

Channel: A Day In History

Views: 148,811

Keywords: aztec, the aztecs, aztec sacrifice, history, history of the aztecs, aztec history, fall of the aztec empire, ancient history, aztec civilization, aztecs, aztec empire, aztec sacrifices, aztec warrior, aztec culture

Id: HBFqQ-U6Qpc

Length: 16min 51sec (1011 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023