TRUTH about the Conquistadors Forgotten History

In 1519, Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernan Cortes landed on the shore of eastern Mexico with 11 ships and over 500 soldiers. When they arrived at the temple at Tenochtitlan, they witnessed a priest rip out a living man's heart, raise it in the air, and then toss his corpse down the temple stairs. This one event set in motion a series of cascading events that would forever alter the course of world history and create controversies for Cortes, Spain, and the Catholic Church ever since. Who was Hernan Cortes? What was his mission? Why did he accomplish? And what was it about the native Aztecs that created a religious conversion movement? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, a veteran of the United States Army and Marine Corps, former history professor, book author, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire, flourished between A.D. 1325 and 1521 and was the most powerful indigenous group in North and Central America. They were the dominant Nahua group with an empire that spanned from central Mexico and extended as far down as modern-day Guatemala. Cortes was not unlike his fellow conquistadors in that he wanted wealth and fame and obtaining gold, silver, and precious gems were the way to wealth. Cortes convinced the Cuban governor, Diego Velazquez, to allow him to lead an expedition to Mexico, but Velazquez decided against it and denied his request for reasons unknown. Cortes knew that he had to have a really good reason to launch his expedition, especially against orders, and he found many men willing to share in the dangers and potential wealth. His planned defense of his actions were written down, where he stated that his ambition was to acquire new land for the Spanish crown, convert indigenous people to Christianity, but the real reason was to plunder for gold and silver. Cortes managed to organize his crews of 100 sailors to outfit 11 ships, bringing 508 soldiers and 16 horses. He left Cuba on February 18, 1519 without authorization and headed for modern-day Mexico. The Aztec king, Montezuma II, ruled over his people from a city that was built on a man-made island in the middle of Lake Tectoxico. This allowed Tenochtitlan to be the nerve center controlling all of Aztec trade and politics. The Aztec were also in contestation with the Mayan people, who were on their decline and who, like the Aztec, also performed human sacrifices and did raids on the Aztecs for slaves. The Christian, Spanish, and pagan natives would become a clash of cultures. Cortes landed in Yucatan and learned from the natives that others had been there before. These were shipwrecked sailors and others who managed to survive, but they were often taken by the Mayans or the Aztecs and used as sacrifices. Cortes learned of a Catholic Franciscan friar who had been recently captured and Cortes's men freed Father Geronimo de Aguilar from the Mayans. Aguilar had been there long enough to learn the local Mayan language of Chantal, which proved invaluable. The Spaniards moved inland and encountered several hostile Mayans, as well as some rather compliant minor Aztec chiefs who were at war with the Mayans. They provided Cortes and his men with around 20 Mayan women slaves. One of these was named Malinale, a Nahua woman from the Yucatan coast who was baptized into Christianity, taking the name Marina or La Malinche. However, the Spaniards learned that there was a dark side to the Aztec and Maya, which the Spanish found incomprehensible. That was the practice of human sacrifice, which was considered part of the tribute to be paid to Aztec from neighboring peoples. Often the Aztec would raid and capture slaves for labor, but also for human sacrifice to their gods. Marina became the most important person in Cortes's entourage as she spoke both the Aztec language of Nahuatl and the Mayan Chantal, allowing the Spanish to communicate with any groups they encountered. They learned a lot from her. Cortes and his men entered the capital on November 8, 1519. The Spanish claimed that it was the greatest city that they had ever seen as it was clean. It had gardens, palaces, temples, and raised stone roads and bridges that connected the city to the mainland, but it also had gold. When Cortes arrived in Tenochtitlan, they were welcomed by Montezuma, but the citizens wanted the Spaniards to leave the city. Cortes was concerned that Montezuma would not be able to control his people, so they placed him under house arrest. However, as chronicled by Andres de Tapia, who was with Cortes, who wrote about the grisly rituals of human sacrifice and the practice of cannibalism that they witnessed, the victims were held down and their chests ripped open. Their beating hearts were then thrown into the flames and the bodies discarded and rolled down the steps to the altar. He also wrote about the Temple of Skulls, which contained the skulls of thousands of sacrificial victims. These sacrifices to the god Huitzilopochtli, who demanded human sacrifice to keep the sun from being removed by the darkness forever. It may have been the primary catalyst for Cortes and his men to try and enforce Christianity, which was resented by the people. Having a population estimated to be around a quarter million within the city alone, the Aztec did rise up and Montezuma was killed, either in battle or killed by Cortes' men, depending upon the account you believe. The Spaniards had all the advantages, as they had a ride with steel swords, muskets, gunpowder, cannons, pikes, crossbows, dogs, and horses. All of these were unknown on the battlefields and to the peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The Aztecs could only respond with wooden broadswords, clubs, and spears tipped with obsidian blades, which did little against their enemies' metal armor and shields. The Spaniards also had the great benefits of a long military tradition fighting wars in Europe and in Africa, using not only their advanced weapons, but they were also well-trained and seasoned in battle tactics and combined arms applications. Heavily outnumbered despite having muzzle-loading firearms, the Spaniards had to retreat from the capital, but Cortes outflanked the Aztecs and returned with a few ships. Through the efforts of Marina and Aguilar, Cortes was able to forge an alliance with 200,000 warriors from other locations, such as the Tlaxcala and the Quimpehuala, who had been subjugated by the Aztecs for centuries and were their mortal enemies. The combined force surrounded Tenochtitlan and sealed it off, keeping it under siege from May 22 through August 13, 1521, and the Aztec began to weaken, but disease began to take its toll among both Cortes' allies and the Aztec. Historians have long believed that smallpox, contracted by the Spaniards, spread, along possibly with measles and mumps, for which the natives had no natural immunity. Cortes' men also suffered from malaria and yellow fever, as well as other diseases, so both sides suffered, but as the Aztec bodies began to collect in large piles in the streets of the capital, other diseases soon arrived, due to the rotting corpses. However, cut off from food and dying in massive numbers, the Aztecs, including their remaining royal family, finally accepted defeat, and thus started the long history of Spanish rule over Mexico, and later Central and most of South America. Then, in an effort to enforce the fact that they were there to stay, he burned 10 of his ships, sending the remaining vessel to Spain with the news of their conquest. There would be no retreat for the Spanish. Cortes and his men are estimated to have killed as many as 100,000 people, either by combat or disease. King Charles I of Spain, who was also the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, appointed Cortes as the governor of New Spain in 1522. The Spanish Empire was also to include future expeditions into the current United States, from Florida to the Gulf Coast into Louisiana and Texas, all the way west to the coast of California. They even went into modern Colorado and the Dakotas, where they left an impact. In 1536, Cortes led expeditions into northern Mexico. He put down rebellions and explored what is today known as Baja California. Cortes became wealthy, but fell into disfavor, as his men questioned his methods, his abuses, and motives, and he was removed as governor. In 1541, he returned home. His pleas for reinstatement to Charles V were rejected, and he died, wealthy, in 1547. Historians for centuries disavowed the stories of the atrocities the Spanish claimed to have witnessed, claiming that it was propaganda just to justify wholesale slaughter and conquest. But the archaeological expeditions of 2015 and 2018 discovered exactly what had been described 500 years ago. 16th century illustrations depicted body parts being cooked, and archaeologists have identified telltale butcher marks on the bones of human remains in Aztec sites around Mexico City. So the proof was there. DNA tests were conducted on the skulls from the Temple Mayor site, which proves that the vast majority of those sacrificed were not Aztecs, and most likely enemy soldiers or captured slaves. Spanish historian Fray Diego de Duran reported that 80,400 men, women, and children were sacrificed for the inauguration of the Temple Mayor under a previous Aztec emperor predating Montezuma. John Barano, an anthropology professor at Tulane University, stated it was deeply serious and important thing to them. Says Barano, large and small human sacrifices would be made throughout the year to coincide with important calendar events and dates, and he explains to dedicate temples to reverse drought and famine and more. Historians may argue for or against Cortez's ambition. Was it wealth, power, prestige? All are probably correct. The argument now is whether or not the level of violence used against the Aztec was as much a method of conquest or used to end the pagan practices that the Catholic Spanish found deplorable. We leave it to you to decide. Thank you for watching Forgotten History. Please click like, subscribe, and share. 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