The Lost History of the Aztecs' Child Sacrificing | William Brown

[00:00:00]They write about how there were children being fattened up in cages at some of the markets.

[00:00:05]>> Like to be sold >> To be sold as >> And slave.

[00:00:09]>> To be sold as a sacrifice and then eventually as a commodity like a food to be eaten.

[00:00:16]And so >> wait.

[00:00:18]>> The story goes that the Aztec were expecting something to happen that year from 1519 through 1521 that Quetzalcoatl was going to return and this was going to be the end of Moctezuma's reign and so a lot of people thought that Hernán Cortés I guess Moctezuma and particularly supposedly thought that Hernán Cortés was Quetzalcoatl.

[00:00:41]And so if that is true he basically believes that prophecy is taking place and so you know, do we attack them? Is this is this some is this he didn't know what to do is is the story there.

[00:00:59]Eventually they get to Tenochtitlan and they stay they are welcomed there.

[00:01:06]They stay there for quite a quite a while and they're just amazed. Some of the quotes from like Bernal Díaz is that this is the most beautiful city we've ever seen in our lives.

[00:01:18]That they couldn't believe that the sights that they were seeing, the buildings, the architecture, the markets. They were very impressed with the markets.

[00:01:24]>> What was so impressive about the markets?

[00:01:26]>> How organized everything was and also I think they were a little shocked at was shocked at was what was being sold at the markets.

[00:01:31]>> Like what?

[00:01:32]>> Like humans.

[00:01:34]You know, humans according to them that these markets were being sold like at in Tlaxcala they write about how there were children being fattened up in cages at some of the markets.

[00:01:47]>> Like to be sold >> To be sold as >> And slave.

[00:01:51]>> To be sold as a sacrifice and then eventually as a commodity like a food to be eaten.

[00:01:58]And so >> wait. So, you're saying the Aztecs were cannibals?

[00:02:02]>> Um the conquistadors uh document uh cannibalism throughout even Tlaxcala and uh Cholula and the Aztec extensively.

[00:02:13]>> Can we take a sidebar on that real quick?

[00:02:16]>> and there's there's pretty good archaeological evidence to to support a lot of that. So, what were some of the besides the markets >> in Tenochtitlan where they're fattening children in cages to be sold as sacrifices or to be eaten?

[00:02:30]What other places were they seeing this as a as a commonality and were the was it a were they foreigners always meaning like >> Yeah, I think so. I think a lot of these are captives. So, yeah, I do need to back up quite a bit. Kind of started just go So, if we go all the way back to before they even went to Cholula, they allied before they even allied with the Tlaxcalans, they allied with these people called the Cempoalans out on the Veracruz coast. And their main grievance was that these Aztec tax collectors came and took some of their children and their and their wives and their and their kids as a basically a tax.

[00:03:10]And um so, that's there's a reason why a lot of these people are allying with the with the conquistadors. They are tired of this tax that they're paying, which is their human lives that are being sacrificed to their gods.

[00:03:27]And so, that's kind of a little bit more context there. Now, those markets um they describe them as well organized. At one point, they realized that uh this is kind of interesting.

[00:03:41]They would sell these boatloads worth of human fecal matter.

[00:03:46]And they would use that they would collect it. They had like all these different public restrooms that people would go do their business and they would collect that and they would extract salt from that uh was the story.

[00:03:58]And once again, shout out to Kevin Seiple, his book um Conquistador Voices.

[00:04:03]>> Salt?

[00:04:03]>> Yeah, salt. Because all that's coming out and so apparently you can extract minerals, salt, all kinds of stuff if you get rid of I don't know the process they used for it.

[00:04:13]Um so that's in the the video.

[00:04:17]>> That's a South Park episode.

[00:04:19]>> Yeah, for sure.

[00:04:20]But eventually um they meet Montezuma.

[00:04:24]They tell him that like we're here to introduce you to our lord.

[00:04:29]You we are this you know, we are the servants of King Charles as well as you know, our Lord Jesus Christ and they try to get him to stop these human sacrifices.

[00:04:40]And eventually they take him captive and it's kind of quiet the way they take him captive.

[00:04:46]But meanwhile, Hernán Cortés kind of all over the place here, but this story is kind of all over the place. You keep in mind, he's a wanted fugitive by the people back in Cuba.

[00:04:57]And a whole garrison arrives on the coast to arrest him and this is right after he gets to Tenochtitlan and he they're in the actual city.

[00:05:06]>> Which people in Cuba?

[00:05:08]>> The Spaniards. Like the the people that you know, the governor at one point basically um said no, you can't go and he took off with all of his ships and men and now he's trying to conquer Mexico.

[00:05:21]And Cortés is writing to the king this entire time trying to bypass uh this Cuban governor knowing that he has to conquer Mexico at this point and make it in in a way that would be favorable to the king, right?

[00:05:35]Get that royal fifth. Let him know how big of a discovery this is or they've found an entire civilization.

[00:05:42]And so Cortés gets word that this um fleet has arrived to arrest him and even kill him, you know, basically dead or alive.

[00:05:56]And so he has to go back to the coast and take care of this, and he does. He goes and he they have a quick skirmish on the coast and basically tells these guys what he's discovered. And now he has reinforcements. He has a lot more people that >> Oh, they join him.

[00:06:11]>> They join him because he's like, "Guys, like you'll First it was a skirmish.

[00:06:15]Like they had a little bit of a battle.

[00:06:17]He attacked them kind of in a surprise.

[00:06:20]Uh it was a surprise attack.

[00:06:22]But didn't let them know what they were dealing with here, you know, an entire civilization with lots of gold. These guys had gold lust.

[00:06:30]>> How do we know it was a surprise attack?

[00:06:32]Primary sources?

[00:06:33]>> Cortez and Bernal Diaz's letters.

[00:06:35]>> So how did he do it?

[00:06:37]>> I do believe it was at night.

[00:06:39]>> No, it's >> it was at night and the commander I know I know that the the guy that was in charge um of trying to take Cortez into custody was like the last one to surrender and he ended up losing his eye. Um I don't know if but he lost an eye in the in the battle.

[00:06:53]And so they go back to Tenochtitlan and find out that all hell is broken loose.

[00:07:00]The conquistadors that were there that were left um started to become really paranoid. Their welcome was no longer the welcome was worn thin.

[00:07:10]And at some point there was a festival and these conquistadors mis- they mistook this festival for they thought that they were planning on on massacring them.

[00:07:23]So the conquistadors did like a preemptive strike and killed hundreds if not thousands of people in the middle of Tenochtitlan.

[00:07:33]And Cortez comes back to all of this and you know, basically at this point it's all-out warfare.

[00:07:41]They somehow get into the middle of, you know, I guess what they You got to keep in mind these guys have shields. These guys have, you know, advanced weapons.

[00:07:50]They get back into the center of Tenochtitlan.

[00:07:54]Cortez is furious that they allowed this to happen. Like, why did you guys attack them? They We we had this. We had the We had Montezuma on our side.

[00:08:04]And now it appears I think that the conquistadors likely killed him.

[00:08:11]Um the story is that he was killed by his own people because the people were starting to rebel and that a rock was He went out to like calm them down.

[00:08:22]And a rock was thrown and it hit him in the head. Uh but a lot of people think it was probably the conquistadors uh decided that he was no longer useful to them alive.

[00:08:33]And um >> What a crazy story.

[00:08:35]>> It's a crazy story. So, they decide they need to make their escape. Um meanwhile during this entire time the conquistadors had been building brigantines to try to to try to sail on cuz they're Remember Tenochtitlan, if you pull up a picture of this, it's in the middle of Lake Texcoco. And the only way in and out are these causeways and the Aztec are the ones that control these causeways.

[00:09:00]And at some point they decide that they're going to escape.

[00:09:06]And this is the This is like the part that's really crazy where half the conquistadors end up dying.

[00:09:14]They try to escape on these causeways.

[00:09:17]>> Yeah, here's some pictures.

[00:09:18]>> map of Tenochtitlan always [ __ ] blows my mind.

[00:09:22]>> I know. It's crazy.

[00:09:23]>> It's, you know, it's a mini Atlantean-looking [ __ ] thing.

[00:09:28]>> Right.

[00:09:29]>> Yeah, it's it's insane. It's out in the middle of this lake. And those causeways, you see those little yellow bridges there, they try to sneak across, but before they know it, everybody sees what's happening.

[00:09:42]And basically a massacre happens. Half the conquistadors get caught by the the Aztec.

[00:09:50]And King Hernán Cortés and the several, you know, the rest get out of there.

[00:09:57]And the story is that they watched from a distance and heard from a distance their brothers in arms being sacrificed alive.

[00:10:06]>> Sacrificed alive?

[00:10:07]>> Sacrificed alive. That >> captured and then what would they Where were Where are they sacrificing them on what >> Templo Mayor, Templo Mayor in the center. Um >> What is that? When they're sacrificing them alive, what does that consist of?

[00:10:20]>> Oh, I So, you know, this is probably Luke Caverns territory a little bit better, but it an obsidian blade and uh probably some type of ritual. I don't know, but that the story that that's this is called La Noche Triste. If you pull up La Noche Triste, which is the sad night, uh read some of the details on this because um it's a crazy story.

[00:10:45]You know, they think it it could have been tens to hundreds of of them sacrificed that night and then many more killed, so.

[00:10:54]>> What a [ __ ] horrible way to go.

[00:10:57]All right. So, the sad night, the night of sorrows, called victorious night by some sectors in Mexico.

[00:11:04]It's the name of the defeat suffered by the Spanish troops of Hernán Cortés at the hands of the Mexica army on the night of June 30th or July 1st, 1520.

[00:11:13]The last day of the month, I'm not even going to try to say that word, Tecna something something, on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan in Tacuba under a leafy ahuhuete tree in what is now Mexico City. On November 8th, 1519, Hernán Cortés and his army entered Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. Emperor Montezuma the second surrounded by Aztec nobility awaited him. Cortez dismounted to embrace the Aztec ruler, but >> Right.

[00:11:38]>> Cacamatzin, lord of Texcoco and Cuitláhuac, lord of Iztapalapa, prevented him as the Aztec sovereign was considered untouchable. Cortez removed a necklace of margaritas glass beads and placed it around Montezuma's >> is let's not to interrupt you but this is kind of the beginning story of this whole thing.

[00:11:59]>> That's it.

[00:12:00]>> You go all the way down to >> the massacre at Templo Mayor? Is that what you want?

[00:12:05]>> So when Cortez had to had to leave to confront Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, he left What was that again?

[00:12:13]>> Yeah, so this is when he goes to basically take care of the Spaniards that are on the coast. Yeah, that are trying to get him. And he this massacre right here happens while he's away. So if you scroll down a little bit more to actually La Noche Triste.

[00:12:29]Um Yeah, the night of sorrows. This is this is this is the one.

[00:12:34]>> So the fighting between the Mexican and Spanish had already lasted a week. The Spanish and their indigenous allies were besieged in and around the palace of Axayacatl.

[00:12:43]Almost without food, so they decided to flee at midnight on June 30th, 1520.

[00:12:47]Cortez gave the signal to leave and under orders of silence they marched stealthily across a bridge of canoes toward Tlacopan, careful to avoid the whinnying of their horses. Upon Imagine I'm just like it shut the [ __ ] up.

[00:13:00]All right. So upon reaching the Toltec canal, an elderly Mexico woman who had come out to fetch water from a jug noticed the Spanish escape and alerted the Aztec warriors.

[00:13:12]Soon the serpent skin drum from the temple began to sound and the Spanish found themselves surrounded by thousands of enraged warriors. Within minutes the lagoon surrounding Mexico Tenochtitlan was teeming with canoes full of natives armed in spears and arrows the rooftops thousands of warriors attacked the rearguard and other natives cut the bridges to the mainland which was made of canoes tied together. It is said that the soldiers who chose to rid themselves of their jewels and gold survived while many of those burdened by steel armor, gold bars, and jewels died rich. But there is also an element of legend here and a night battle on a narrow causeway built over water attacked by thousands of enemies simultaneously from both flanks and the rear. Salvation could only have come from courage or luck. Alvarado himself was saved by Martin de Gamboa who lifted him onto the back of a horse and later declared that Alvarado was were only a cotton armor of Mexican design and his Toledo sword at his belt.

[00:14:07]Men and horses drowned in the ditches and pools. Artillery was lost. Cortez's indigenous allies were massacred. The term is accurate of more than a thousand Tiaxcan allies. Barely a hundred survived and half of the Spanish troops were killed with almost the rest wounded.

[00:14:23]So during the ceremony for the ascension of the new emperor, captured Spaniards and Tiaxcan were sacrificed. It was claimed that 90% of the loot from Montezuma's treasure was lost.

[00:14:36]>> Yeah, at the bottom of Lake Texcoco. And the idea that they they drowned because they didn't want to empty their pockets.

[00:14:42]You see that tree right there? The legend is that Hernan Cortez wept at that tree as they listened to what happened to the people that were left behind.

[00:14:52]Um and that tree is still there.

[00:14:54]>> Thank you guys for watching the episode.

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