As someone who had to learn this in history class (being mexican), Iâd like to chip in my $0.4MXN.
First, the Aztecs (or, more specifically, the Mexica, and yes thatâs where âMexicoâ comes from) were absolute bastards. They were descended from a group of mercenaries who were exiled for skinning the daughter of their patron alive, which was such a âWhy the fuck did you do that momentâ that their own creation myth (which was passed on to modern Mexico) basically pretended that part didnât happen. And for all that Mexico-Tenochtitlan was a truly impressive city (the Spaniards comparing it favorably with Venice, for example), it was built almost literally on the corpses of their enemies.
(As a sidenote, âAztecâ is a name coined much after by Humboldt and refers to the people of the Valley of Mexico as a whole, and what most people call the âAztec Empireâ was actually the aliance between three city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan.)
The list of shit the Mexica did is very long indeed, but Iâll try to list out the important points.
First, human sacrifice. The image of people sacrificed on top of a pyramid (which was the sacrifice to Huitzilopochtli, the Sun/War God) was indeed a thing, and practiced multiple times a day over various temples across the Aztec empire. But what has to be mentioned is that the Mexica had several more gods, and a few of them also required human sacrifice. To name three:
Tezcatlipocaâs sacrifices were required to be killed in gladiatorial combat, where the victim would be tethered in place, given a mock weapon, and then trained, armored and armed warriors would slaughter him.
Huehueteotlâs sacrifices involved a large feast. At the end, captives would be burned alive, and then have their hearts cut out before they perished.
Tlalocâs sacrifices were children bought from their mothers. In the months leading up to the rainy season, theyâd slay a group each month, and continue until the rains began. Since Tlaloc specifically required their tears, the victims were beaten, had their mouths and noses blocked by rubber,and thrown into a pool to drown. Again, children.
Needless to say, this was all kinds of fucked up. And the Mexica practiced this fuckery on a scale that makes me shudder at the thought. Their need for sacrifices was such that they conducted what they call âFlower Warsâ, which is the second item on this list.
What were âFlower warsâ, you might ask? Flower wars were wars waged not for territory, resources, or more conventional reasons, but to capture people to sacrifice to their gods. For the Mexica, âThereâs a famine, so we need more sacrificesâ was a perfectly acceptable and commonly used casus belli, and their warriors were encouraged not to kill their enemies when possible, so they could be captured and slain at the altars.
Indeed, their constant need for sacrifices went on to bite them in the ass; literally the only reason Cortez was able to win against the Triple Alliance was because everyone else was sick of their shit. Most of the troops who fought on the Spanish side during the conquista werenât Spaniards, but native mesoamericans.
And the final item on this list will be the fact that the Triple Alliance dealt in that universal human evil: slavery. It had more in common with Greek or Roman slavery than the chattel slavery that would come later, but a dog is a dog regardless of breed. The Flower Wars mentioned above would also produce slaves along with victims for the altar, and some specific sacrifices required that the victim be a slave as well, although at that point itâs just piling injury over insult over injury.
So the next time some pendejo goes on to claim that the natives were innocent and pure and much more advanced than the dirty, filthy Europeans who crossed the atlantic, youâre free to show them this and laugh in their fucking face. A shiny city does not hide the blood that runs over over the stones.
