What really killed the Aztecs? Between 1545 and 1550, over 15 million Aztecs — nearly 80% of Mexico’s native population — vanished in one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. Historians called it Cocoliztli, the mysterious pestilence that erased an empire. But was it smallpox? Typhus? Or something even more terrifying? In this documentary, we uncover the shocking truth — how a microscopic killer brought by European contact, combined with famine and drought, caused one of the greatest population collapses in history. What killed the Aztecs Cocoliztli plague Aztec disease Fall of the Aztec Empire Aztec history documentary Salmonella enterica Aztecs Deadliest pandemics in history History of Mexico Spanish conquest of the Aztecs Ancient epidemics Aztec civilization collapse Smallpox in the New World Mesoamerican history Lost civilizations Ancient mysteries explained #Aztecs #AztecEmpire #Cocoliztli #AncientHistory #HistoryDocumentary #AztecPlague #LostCivilizations #MexicoHistory #Pandemics #SpanishConquest #Salmonella #AztecMystery #WorldHistory #AncientMysteries #HistoryUncovered
00:00Imagine a mighty empire, cities larger than London, markets overflowing with gold, art, and music, and then, in just five years, it's gone. No war, no explosion, no natural disaster, just silence and death.
00:21Between 1545 and 1550, more than 15 million Aztecs, nearly 80% of Mexico's native population, vanished. Historians called it coccolisthly, a mysterious plague.
00:38Before tragedy struck, the Aztecs ruled a breathtaking empire in central Mexico. Their capital, Tenochtitlan, stood proudly on a lake, a city of shining temples, floating gardens, and nearly 200,000 people.
00:58They built causeways, canals, and temples that dazzled early explorers. They studied the stars, grew maize on water, and thrived as one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas.
01:12But everything changed in 1519, when a man named Hernán Cortés arrived with only a few hundred soldiers, and something far more dangerous than weapons.
01:24In 1520, smallpox entered the Aztec world. It came with one of Cortés' enslaved Africans, a man unknowingly carrying a virus the Aztecs had never seen before.
01:38Within weeks, the disease spread like wildfire through Tenochtitlan. Fever, blisters, pain so intense that survivors said entire families died, clinging to one another.
01:49Even the Aztec ruler, quitlachuaq, fell victim. The great city that had once echoed with drums and song, now echoed with cries.
01:59The Spanish didn't conquer the Aztecs with steel. They conquered them with disease.
02:06For the next two decades, the survivors tried to rebuild. They farmed again, traded again, prayed again. But in 1545, the pestilence returned.
02:19It began quietly. A few zevers here and there. And then suddenly, entire villages collapsed in days.
02:28People bled from their eyes, nose and mouth. Dark spots appeared under the skin. Death came in three or four days.
02:37The Aztecs called it cocolizli, the pestilence. Spanish priests wrote in horror.
02:45It was as if the earth itself was weeping blood. Within months, millions were dead.
02:52For centuries, no one knew what this killer was. Was it plague? Typhus? Measles? The truth stayed buried until science caught up.
03:04In 2018, archaeologists studying 16th-century skeletons in Mexico made a shocking discovery.
03:12Inside the teeth of the victims, they found DNA from a deadly bacterium, Salmonella enterica, Cerevar paratyphi C.
03:22That's right, a type of salmonella, the same family that causes modern-day typhoid fever.
03:29It had likely been brought by Europeans, spread through contaminated food and water, thriving in a land weakened by conquest.
03:38The Aztecs were facing an invisible enemy their bodies had never known.
03:43But disease alone wasn't the only killer. Around that same time, Mexico suffered one of the worst droughts in centuries.
Be the first to comment