The Fall of the Aztecs

[Gethelred]

Okay.

I'm going to be clear on what this is not:

• this is not an attempt to paint myself or this creator as experts of what occurred in Mexico and Aztec America.
• this is is not intended to be a purely accurate account of what occurred; the narrative as presented within the following videos should absolutely be consumed with a pinch of salt, due to the nature of the sources discussed and the muddying of the waters since.

I've just finished this three parter, and it's as... excellent a historical exploration of primary sources and what facts can be acertained as I've ever consumed. It's mainly an exploration of primary sources alongside a critical secondary source, but...

Well. I'll let you listen, if you're interested.

 

[Episode IV]

10 seconds into the first video, and the author is apparently someone who kills stray cats.
... ok. I'm listening. Got my attention.


*Edit - 12 minutes in.
This is quite good, so far. I am interested.
Going to be quite a while before I find out where he's going with it.
I'm only posting this because it's been more than a day now and zero responses... sort of what one might expect, but also very disappointing. Meh... it's a footy forum.

I'm actually going to treat it with some respect and watch when sober. The 12 minutes has earned that much.
No real need to bump a topic in the history forum, I suppose.

 

[HairyO]

Maybe post some thoughts or opinions on the fall of the Aztecs.

Would it have happened without Spanish influence ?

 

[Gethelred]

Maybe post some thoughts or opinions on the fall of the Aztecs.

Would it have happened without Spanish influence ?

The point was to post the resources, which provide a pretty definitive answer to this question: kinda, but also no.

The result of Spanish colonialism was the deaths of all the native cultures in New Mexico. Via colonial control, forced conversion (then slaughter when those forced conversions didn't take), rampant disease and a lunatic burning as many precolonial texts as he could get his grubby hands on (the subject of the third vid) the culture of the Maya and the Aztec are dead, as dead as they could be made to be.

The creator posits it as the result - in the immediate fallout from Cortez - as being the result of miscommunication and the way the different cultures saw the war. In short, the Aztec and assorted native peoples saw war as something fought by only the warrior caste, and once completed the victor left and tribute flowed back to their home town/city. The Spanish saw their warrior culture thing as weakness, and once having conquered and given leadership and dominion only then chose to reveal that they had no intention of leaving or letting their conquered cities be.

Seriously, watch the linked videos. It's a better put together series and goes intimately into primary sources to try and work out what happened.