- 1 hour ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:008th of November, 1519.
00:10In a magnificent city, surrounded by water,
00:15an all-powerful Aztec ruler prepares to meet a man like no one he's ever seen before.
00:22Imagine, in your mind, blue sky, beautiful weather, sunlight glittering on the lake.
00:35And these basically visitors from Mars advance across the causeway.
00:41These are the Spaniards.
00:44They wear unfamiliar clothes and carry strange weapons.
00:49The first meeting between Cortez and Moctezuma is one of the great moments in human history.
00:58This is the moment when the two halves of humanity come together.
01:04Old world meets new.
01:11Changing forever the course of history.
01:14One, a formidable ruler who has been dominating his world for 20 years.
01:22The other, one of the most ruthless, effective, brilliant, brutal opportunists in world history.
01:29This fateful meeting will expose fault lines at the heart of the Aztec Empire.
01:42A harsh regime fueling resentment.
01:46And a fatal weakness in the face of an invisible killer.
02:09Ancient Egypt.
02:10The Roman Empire.
02:13The Roman Empire.
02:18The Aztecs of Mexico.
02:22And the samurai of Japan.
02:27Four great civilizations.
02:31Each a pinnacle of human ingenuity and achievement.
02:34Each lasted for centuries.
02:40Their people thought they would endure forever, until suddenly, everything changed.
02:54These civilizations faced challenges that are all too familiar today.
03:04Climate catastrophe, pandemic, war, challenges for which ancient societies had few solutions.
03:24But what if there was a place that had the answers to what went wrong?
03:34A place full of secrets and stories.
03:39A repository of memory, stretching back through time.
03:47The British Museum, home to more than eight million artifacts, is a record of how and
03:54why the greatest civilizations rose to power and then spectacularly fell.
04:04Its treasures are the human traces that survived disaster.
04:10But might they also hold lessons for our own future?
04:18Every civilization throughout history has had an expiry date.
04:22With great societies, the seeds of their destruction are sown within the society.
04:29They're already there.
04:30No civilization ever thinks it's going to fall.
04:36But the question is, what can we learn from the past?
04:41In the shadow of volcanoes, on an island in the middle of a vast lake, the city of Tenochtitlan,
04:48is home to around 200,000 people.
05:13It is the dazzling jewel at the heart of the mighty Aztec Empire.
05:28Stretching from coast to coast, across what is modern day Mexico, its territory covers over
05:3577,000 square miles.
05:42Tenochtitlan is far more advanced than most European cities of this age.
05:48Five times the size of Henry VIII's London.
05:52Tenochtitlan is not like an old medieval European city.
05:58It was planned in the form of a grid, rather like Manhattan is today.
06:05The city is green and lush.
06:09Fertile water gardens produce multiple crops each year.
06:15This civilization created the technology in order to use this water and also to construct fields on the water.
06:26And these people, it's possible to sow corn, to sow beans, to sow tomatoes on these fields.
06:34You have all kinds of foods, chilies, peppers.
06:42You can buy fish pre-wrapped in a maize leaf, so you can kind of take away your dinner if you'd like.
06:50They have huge kind of seething markets where tens of thousands of people go shopping every day.
06:59This city is teeming with life.
07:01There are priests and soldiers, weavers, traders.
07:05The city is overwhelming in its colours and its smells and the sort of atmosphere of excitement and bustle.
07:14Much of what we know of this civilization, and the clues to its catastrophic collapse,
07:33lie in a remarkable set of books that survived from that time, written by the Aztecs themselves.
07:41We have hundreds and hundreds of pages in the Aztec language.
07:46They're called the codices.
08:04Today, we can look at the beautiful images and the alphabetic writing
08:08and learn a great deal about their political history, their religious beliefs.
08:16The Aztecs have a very long tradition of writing.
08:24This is my mother tongue, and this is the language that my parents transmitted to me in the 20th century.
08:31We feel very proud to find a very strong legacy in the history of the Aztec society.
08:50You're hearing things that were said, performances that were given, prayers that were uttered.
08:54It's really quite extraordinary.
08:59The picture that emerges from these manuscripts is of a community bound together by a level of equality,
09:07very unlike Europe at the time.
09:09The Aztec society is incredibly progressive.
09:15You have institutional education for boys and girls.
09:21They instill the children with an understanding of being part of that Aztec machine.
09:28Men and women have very specific and very different roles,
09:31but both are regarded as equally essential to the successful perpetuation of their culture.
09:46The Empire and its five million inhabitants
09:49are under the control of a single, all-powerful ruler.
10:05Moctezuma was a man in his early 40s.
10:08He had been emperor for 17 years and a very successful one.
10:12His name Moctezuma means frowns like a lord.
10:17So presumably he was high-handed and had a temper.
10:23Moctezuma became ruler after the death of his uncle.
10:28He did not inherit the throne.
10:31He was chosen.
10:33The Aztecs are so interested in who's going to do a good job
10:37that that takes over from who is the closest relative.
10:43Moctezuma looks like a good bet as ruler.
10:45He is a brilliant, effective warrior.
10:50There's good evidence that he himself went out into the field
10:55and led armies and was a successful general.
11:00However, in private, Moctezuma appears to be an emperor
11:04who likes to sit in Tenochtitlan and read books
11:08and learn about his empire.
11:10He is intelligent and he has a thirst for knowledge.
11:16Moctezuma believes in his own ability
11:20to understand and control the world around him.
11:26His people revere him as a demigod.
11:28But soon he will face a challenge for which he is completely unprepared.
11:33a leap for which he is completely unprepared.
11:36Moctezumacases
11:401,500 miles away, on the island of Cuba,
12:05a Spanish adventurer is plotting a bold expedition.
12:15His name is Hernan Cortes.
12:21The single most important thing about Hernan Cortes is that he is a nobody.
12:27He was born in 1485 in Estro Maduro, a kind of scrubby frontier bit of Spain.
12:33He could have stayed in Spain, but he is clearly very ambitious.
12:43It has been nearly 30 years since the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.
12:51Since then, Spanish explorers, mercenaries and merchants have been travelling to the Caribbean
12:57in their thousands, looking for land, gold and glory.
13:07They are known as conquistadors.
13:12Everyone who's going to the New World is going to seek their fortune.
13:19It's the American dream. It's the idea of anyone can go and make something of themselves.
13:29They're a bit like venture capitalists investing in tech.
13:33They're looking for the next frontier, the next big thing.
13:36Cortes, growing up in Spain, saw ships laden with treasure arriving from the New World.
13:48He followed the lure and joined the ranks of the conquistadors.
13:54Cortes wants money and gold and probably also fame and recognition.
13:59Cortes is a narcissist. He's possibly a sociopath.
14:09He's a clever guy, but he's an awful person.
14:15Cortes will sacrifice friendships and betray his colleagues in order to get what he wants.
14:24Cortes has set his sights on the mainland to the west.
14:37A previous expedition has explored its coast and brought back tales of a mysterious kingdom beyond.
14:44Said to be laden with gold.
14:48He starts drumming up support and gathering men,
14:53promising them great wealth if they come with him.
14:58Cortes is often described as a very Machiavellian kind of character,
15:04very manipulative.
15:06He's highly ambitious.
15:11Leading 11 ships and some 500 men,
15:15Cortes's thirst for gold is about to take him into the unknown
15:20and into the heart of the most powerful warrior culture in the Americas.
15:28Do Cortes and any of his men have any sense of Tenochtitlan,
15:31of the Aztec Empire, of the extraordinary power of this civilisation?
15:35I think the answer is clearly no.
15:49Throughout his rule, Moctezuma has ruthlessly expanded his empire.
15:54Backed by an army of some 200,000 warriors.
16:05Inspired by the ferocious power of the apex predators that hunt in the wilds of the Aztec world.
16:12Everything in nature, whether it be animals or mountains or plants or trees,
16:22is seen as part of their worldview.
16:24They feel that there are strong spiritual bonds there.
16:28Aztec warriors even dress as the animals whose primal violence they seek to harness.
16:34Eagle and jaguar warriors were the two highest orders in the Aztec army.
16:45They symbolise bravery, proximity to power and to creation.
16:54The Aztecs aren't just a fearsome military culture.
16:58Their religious beliefs also lead them to practise a terrifying ritual.
17:10It's hard to get away from sacrifice when it comes to the Aztecs.
17:28The popular image of Aztec culture is basically, they love a sacrifice.
17:34They love nothing more than plunging a knife, ripping out your heart and holding it up to a baying mob.
17:42Everybody's covered in blood.
17:44But it's not how the Aztecs behave.
17:47They almost certainly saw these as very serious kind of religious rituals.
17:52This knife clearly is an incredible, symbolic object.
18:04Knives like this are often used as part of ritual offerings.
18:12The blade is crafted from razor-sharp flint.
18:16The handle carved in wood.
18:19Then decorated in mother of pearl.
18:22The blade is called the star-spangled-sharp flint.
18:26To depict one of the most formidable of all Aztec fighters.
18:32The eagle warrior.
18:35The black patches at the tips of the eagle's wings, those are singeing from the Sun.
18:40Because supposedly they were the animals that stood the closest to the Sun at its creation.
18:44The Aztecs see it as their duty to uphold the balance of the cosmos.
18:53To achieve this, they must feed the Sun and the Earth.
18:59With blood.
19:00The most common ritual sacrifice takes place on top of the temple pyramid.
19:13Four priests would stretch the arms and legs of the person backwards over a pointed stone.
19:19They stretch the arms of the victim backwards and then a fifth priest removes the heart from the ribcage which is extended.
19:30And the heart is given to the gods.
19:42Human sacrifice also allows Moctezuma to rule his empire with absolute authority.
19:48This isn't just about saying, look how many people will die.
19:58It's about saying, look how powerful our gods are.
20:02It's about Moctezuma being at the heart of that power and being the figure around which the cosmos
20:08is swirling. He is the man who has to hold all those forces in balance. And that is a big statement about power.
20:17The Aztecs wanted to frighten people. Human sacrifice became a weapon in their war against others.
20:25For now, Moctezuma is terrifying his enemies into submission.
20:31But he is about to face an entirely new kind of opponent.
20:38He is about to face an entirely new kind of opponent.
20:53Two months after setting out from Cuba,
20:56the conquistador Hernan Cortez reaches the coastline of the Aztec empire.
21:02When the Spaniards first arrive on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, their expedition is being watched.
21:14It's the first time that the Aztec people are observing strange people. Their skin was more or less white.
21:24They were using swords riding horses. These animals were not known in central Mexico.
21:39They have ships that are large. They have different clothing and weaponry.
21:44They are hairier, smellier, and the Spaniards seem and are grubby.
21:57Moctezuma's spies are watching. And he soon hears reports of the strange new arrivals.
22:04He could crush the Spaniards, but he chooses to let them live.
22:17Moctezuma is curious and he wants to see them.
22:23If an alien spaceship landed and aliens looked human, got out and walked around,
22:29your first instinct wouldn't be, we must immediately kill them.
22:32You'd want to talk to them and find out where they've come from.
22:36He cannot possibly think that they pose a threat to his life or to the survival of his empire.
22:44Moctezuma sends a message to the newcomers intended to show his strength.
22:51But it's a message that will be misread with tragic consequences.
22:58He dispatches a gift of gold.
23:20The Asics had a special name for gold,
23:24which was the excrement of the gods.
23:28Something so precious and so beautiful that only gods could do.
23:42A few items made of gold from the Aztec world still exist.
23:57We often hear the Asics prefer turquoise, but this is really not true.
24:04Once they discover the beauty, they go crazy with gold.
24:14We see the Asics being in a way like nouveau riche,
24:18that has acquired wealth suddenly and is showing it off.
24:24It's the equivalent to a Rolex watch.
24:27For the Aztecs, gold is not just valuable, it is sacred.
24:38A sign of the presence of gods on earth.
24:41This ring is depicting a jaguar, the most powerful feline in the Americas.
24:59This could have been worn by a noble or a priest or a distinguished warrior.
25:09So it's a symbol really of power and it's a symbol of strength.
25:15It's a symbol of power and it's a symbol of power.
25:22Moctezuma's gift of gold is extremely valuable to the Aztecs,
25:27but it is not meant as a welcome.
25:32I would read that as a display of power,
25:36or else a grand display.
25:38Look how rich I am, I can give you all of these things,
25:40so you should go away.
25:42The Spanish, of course, see it as a submission.
25:45Oh, he's agreed that you'll give us all these gifts,
25:48and so we're going to be in charge.
25:52Moctezuma believes he's shown his strength.
25:56What he fails to realise is that he has just made Cortez
26:00more determined than ever.
26:04It is a catastrophic mistake.
26:10Four months later, Cortez and his men are forging a path inland,
26:36up through the lowland jungle.
26:41They are beginning to understand that to get their gold,
26:44they will have to take on a vast warrior empire.
26:51But then Cortez discovers a weakness that he can exploit.
26:58There are plenty of people who've been suppressed by the Aztecs
27:01who might want to take advantage of the arrival of a new power player
27:05in the territory.
27:06There is a simmering resentment against Moctezuma.
27:13The source of this resentment is encoded in a remarkable object
27:17from the Aztec world.
27:34This is a human existence that has been transformed into a work of art.
27:39Beneath a layer of precious stones is a human skull.
28:00We call it the decorated skull, but it's not a decorated skull.
28:10It's a power object.
28:12It's mosaic covering is of dazzling turquoise, black lignite and red oyster shell.
28:24Precious materials Moctezuma demands from the wider Aztec empire.
28:29Part of a harsh system of taxation imposed on his subjects.
28:37The city of Tenochtitlan is a parasite on other territories.
28:41So tribute can encompass everything from raw materials and currency,
28:47so things like gold and cacao and cotton, to fully created warrior outfits,
28:54and even in some cases sacrificial victims.
28:57The richly decorated skull attached to a deerskin belt was designed to be worn by an Aztec warrior,
29:09strapped to his back, to strike awe into those that followed.
29:14The idea that this skull mask could be attached to the body, looking behind you as you move forward
29:25as a priest or a warrior, that in some senses here is this object that talks about the overcoming of death.
29:35I can imagine the warrior going into battle wearing this thing, somehow feeling invincible.
29:44Protected, being reinforced in their own inner potency.
29:52The decorated skull, built from cruel tribute, is a symbol of Aztec domination.
30:01But it also holds a warning for Emperor Moctezuma.
30:05The danger for him is that there will be some people who think,
30:09God, you know, the Aztecs are very overbearing.
30:11This guy Moctezuma, you know, he's a real menace.
30:14Like, I can't wait to see the back of him.
30:16And that, of course, means that there are people who, if a new group entered the arena,
30:22would be very keen to ally with them against Moctezuma.
30:25It's a curse often to be in a position of power. You are in a position that is incredibly precarious.
30:36In the case of the Aztec Empire, it was even worse because this was an empire that was recently built
30:40upon conquest of multiple different groups and ethnicities.
30:44It was bloated, overtaxed, unequal, and fragile.
30:49Cortes and his men press on.
31:02And now they discover that Moctezuma's empire doesn't just harbour people who resent his rule.
31:09There are also those prepared to resist.
31:12There are city-states within Mexico which don't send tribute to Tenochtitlana and actually defy it.
31:24Most famously, its big rival is a place called Tlaxcala.
31:28Tlaxcala is a pocket of independent territory that lies directly on Cortes' route to the Aztec capital.
31:41When the Spanish first arrive, Tlaxcalan warriors try to drive them back.
31:49But Cortes has a secret weapon.
31:52Someone who can help him negotiate with the people of Tlaxcala.
31:58When the Spaniards first arrive on the coast, Cortes is very lucky
32:02that the Spaniards are given 20 girls to be part of the Spanish entourage.
32:11Among them is a young woman who will help change the course of history.
32:16In Spanish, she is known as Malinche. The Aztecs call her Malincin.
32:22Malincin is said to have been born in the household of a nobleman very near the Gulf of Mexico.
32:34Between 8 and 12 years old, she was captured and sold into slavery.
32:41We did not know how many people had owned her.
32:49Hernan Cortes gave Malincin to the highest-ranking Spaniard in his group,
32:55who was very impressed by Malincin because she was beautiful and also she was very confident.
33:02Malincin soon proves extremely useful to Cortes.
33:10Born just outside the Aztec Empire, she speaks their language.
33:14Now she learns Spanish as well.
33:20Almost overnight, she moves from being a sexual servant to being a translator,
33:28directly engaging and working with Hernan Cortes.
33:31Images of Malincin herself can be seen in the Aztec record books.
33:43She often appears either as large or larger than Hernan Cortes, which points to her importance.
33:54Malincin is helping Cortes, but she has her own agenda.
34:01She holds a deep grudge against the Aztecs.
34:05It was they who tore her from her family and sold her into slavery.
34:13Malincin is really advancing her own interests.
34:18We can well imagine that it might have seemed like an opportunity for her to escape slavery.
34:31The Clascalan's own records capture the moment when, with Malincin as his translator,
34:41Cortes tries to persuade them to help him.
34:43The Spanish have to work really hard before the Clascalan's eventually decide,
34:52OK, it looks like we might have a chance of defeating the Aztecs, so let's join forces.
34:58Six months after setting foot on the mainland,
35:13Cortes and his men, backed by 6000 of their new local allies,
35:31cross the mountain passes surrounding Tenochtitlan.
35:37They finally get their first glimpse of the spectacular Aztec capital.
35:42They start to proceed across the causeway.
35:49Cortes and his captains leading this column of Spaniards.
35:54They have all their finery. They want to impress their hosts.
36:03Moctezuma believes in the strength and power of his empire.
36:10So he welcomes the Spanish, but he also reminds them who has the upper hand.
36:16There really is an enormous power imbalance. And Moctezuma emphasizes that power imbalance by
36:25making Cortes wait for ages and ages and ages. And he has to wait for absolutely hours before
36:33and eventually he meets Moctezuma himself.
37:03So this moment is, I think, the most richly symbolic, the most momentous meeting of two human beings
37:14in world history. Because it stands for something much bigger,
37:21which is the European discovery of the New World and, of course, the New World's discovery of Europeans.
37:26And all of that is embodied in these two extraordinary people.
37:46First comes an exchange of gifts.
37:49Cortes presents a necklace of pearls and glass beads.
38:00It's no match for the craftsmanship Moctezuma can call upon.
38:06One written account records the gift of a carved serpent covered in turquoise.
38:12Remarkably, an Aztec artifact to match that description has survived.
38:20And it holds clues to the message Moctezuma meant to convey.
38:43The double-headed serpent is this absolutely exquisite object that,
38:48from the moment you first see it, you can never forget.
38:52Because it imprints itself on your memory.
38:54So this is a story.
39:10Snakes, for the Aztecs, represent fertility.
39:13They represent life and death.
39:16The shedding of the skin symbolises rebirth.
39:19This is to be seen, to be admired, to be shown to the world.
39:32It's part of the pride that the Aztecs have, is a display of power.
39:39The person that made it must have been aware of the emergent power of this object,
39:53and been spellbound by it as it was being made.
39:56The gift is meant to impress Cortez, but it may also be a warning.
40:14The double-headed serpent is an ambiguous symbol.
40:17It can be a negative omen, because you have the two of them pulling in different directions.
40:23So there's that slight hint of danger underlying it.
40:32If you're a betting man, and you look at these two blokes, you say,
40:35come on, there's only going to be one winner here.
40:38And it's not the Spaniards, who's got a few hundred adventurers and ruffians at his back.
40:43It's the bloke with a massive capital city and kind of millions of people.
40:47It seems like no match at all, but Moctezuma critically underestimates the threat.
40:57He treats Cortez like a friendly visitor, a courtly prince, when in reality he is a ruthless mercenary.
41:05He says to Cortez, welcome, this is your home, please come into the city, everything is yours.
41:13You know, we're so delighted that you've come.
41:17This was basically like people who say, oh, come into my house, but you never really mean it.
41:23You're saying polite things, these are the courtly conventions, the courtesies, that you extend to your guests.
41:30That's what Moctezuma is doing. And I think the Spanish take that literally.
41:35Cortez is like, great, you know, let's go.
41:42The Spaniards, along with the Clasgarland leaders, take up residence inside the Aztec capital.
41:53Moctezuma thinks, I am much more powerful than the Clasgarlands,
41:58and these guys will be overwhelmed by my city and me and my power,
42:03and probably they'll abandon the Clasgarlands and come and work for me.
42:12Cortez is clearly in awe of this wonderful city.
42:16One of the other conquistadors later says, we wondered if it was not a dream because it was all so beautiful.
42:22He and his men are housed in a palace next door to Moctezuma's own palace.
42:27We have this sense that he is building a relationship, a rapport with Moctezuma.
42:33The Spaniards are engaging in a kind of prolonged diplomatic encounter.
42:37They go hunting together.
42:41They were very impressed by the market.
42:43They saw the inside of temples.
42:46They were taken by boat to the other side of the lake shore to see other little towns and villages.
42:54The more the Spanish see of this fabled land, the more desperate they are to get their hands on it.
43:01The problem for Cortez is that there's no apparent end point to this prolonged period of diplomacy.
43:21After five months of diplomatic stalemate, Cortez receives news that forces him to act.
43:37Cortez learned that some other Spaniards had arrived on the coast.
43:42He knew he had a problem because he didn't have the permission to be there.
43:46Cortez has embarked on his bold venture without getting approval from the Spanish authorities.
43:57Cortez has gone rogue.
43:59Effectively, Cortez is attempting to defeat an empire without actually having a license
44:06from the King of Spain to do what he's doing.
44:09The new arrivals are here under orders to arrest Cortez.
44:13He needs a bargaining chip.
44:17So he takes a huge risk.
44:20Cortez thought it would go better for him if he could say that he had control of the kingdom
44:25through a hostage prince. This was an age-old way of making war in Europe.
44:29You take the prince hostage and then you have control over their people.
44:33He had the nerve to send a group of men into the throne room where Motezuma was
44:48and literally take him prisoner.
44:59He's like, okay, I'll go. Such a mad gamble. Such a mad thing for Cortez to do to take
45:20not because he's a prisoner.
45:34You get this sense of Cortez being this amazing maverick who makes the right choices at the right time.
45:41What's often forgotten is the fact that he is a desperate man. He can't turn back.
45:49He's got no choice, so he may as well plough on.
45:54The gamble pays off.
45:57And Cortez bribes the new arrivals to join him in his quest for gold.
46:02Cortez is able, through his usual mix of military and diplomatic prowess, to win the new Spaniards over.
46:12In fact, it takes almost no winning over at all.
46:16He now has 800 additional soldiers. But having kidnapped Moctezuma,
46:22Cortez has made the whole population of the Aztec capital his enemy.
46:26Once they have taken Moctezuma prisoner, the mood in the city has definitely darkened.
46:43There's a few hundred Spaniards, they're in this palace, but around them,
46:48it's not merely the city with hundreds of thousands of people, but there's a whole massive empire.
46:56A band of Aztec warriors stages an attack on the palace where Moctezuma is being held prisoner.
47:07The emperor is ordered by Cortez to try and defuse the situation.
47:13Moctezuma was forced on a balcony to appeal to his people.
47:18They're kind of using him as a bit of a hostage, a human shield, possibly still hoping that he can act
47:23as an intermediary with the people, although I think it's pretty clear by this point
47:28that his authority has drained away and that people are no longer listening to him.
47:36The emperor has lost all control over his people.
47:42Once hailed as a demigod, he is now powerless.
47:45And all too mortal.
47:51Moctezuma is a hostage who has outlived his usefulness.
47:54We know the Spanish kill all their other hostages, and there are sources that say
47:59the Spanish basically came into his room and killed him.
48:02The corpse of the once-mighty leader of Central America's greatest civilisation
48:13is left on the street to rot.
48:15The corpse of the once-mighty leader of Central America's greatest civilisation
48:29is left on the street to rot.
48:46Before the Aztec warriors can take their revenge,
48:50the Spanish decide to grab what they can and make their escape.
48:54They're sneaking through the streets, which seem deserted.
49:00How are we going to get out of here with our lives?
49:04They are seen by a woman who's collecting water, and she raises the alarm.
49:12And then it's as though the whole city is pouring out of the buildings.
49:16Canoes are swarming around the Spaniards.
49:28The mortality rate is just piling up.
49:31Horses are being killed. People are being killed by the hundreds.
49:37In the chaos, around two-thirds of the Spaniards die, some 600 men.
49:43Cortes himself is quite badly injured, but he survives.
49:49This night has gone down in history with the name of La Noche Triste, the Night of Sorrows,
49:55because for the Spaniards, it is a tragedy.
49:59From the indigenous point of view, maybe we might think of it as more like a night of triumph.
50:04But finally, the Aztecs have rid their capital city of the newcomers.
50:13The whole city celebrates. The Spaniards are gone.
50:19But they have left behind a parting gift.
50:23An invisible threat that will bring the Aztecs to their knees.
50:34After the Spaniards left, for a few weeks, people were very happy.
50:52But then people began to die.
50:53For the Aztecs, can you imagine the horror as this silent, unexplainable killer first appears among them?
51:02Tantalising evidence for this mystery disease may be embedded in the most iconic artefact from the Aztec world.
51:25Masks were a central element of Aztec life.
51:48Turquoise masks were usually placed on corpses at the time of a funeral.
51:55Here we see an Aztec with ammoni-like eyes, aquiline nose and beautiful teeth.
52:13But this mask contains some unexpected details.
52:18We see these stones, they stand out, so the imperfections of the skin are being shown.
52:31We see the man being afflicted, he is showing us what he's suffering from.
52:37The lumps on the skin might represent the disease of leprosy, widespread in the Americas.
52:48But they are also a remarkable match for a killer plague that the Spanish have introduced to the new world.
52:57Smallpox.
52:57It seems very evident to me that those bigger bits of turquoise on the surface, that is the lumps that you would find on the face of somebody afflicted by smallpox.
53:11It's hard not to associate the mask with exactly that, this wave of mortal disease that decimated 40% of the population.
53:25Since the Spaniards' arrival, smallpox has spread inland from the coast, before engulfing the Aztec capital itself.
53:43This population was virgin population in the sense that they had never been exposed to these western microbes.
53:50They all got sick.
53:55They had no medicine that worked for it, no way to understand it.
53:59It was psychologically devastating.
54:06Smallpox is one of the most deadly diseases we've had in the history of humanity.
54:11Infectious enough to spread quite quickly, but deadly enough that actually it kills a third of people infected.
54:17It is higher than SARS, which is 10%, it's higher than COVID-19, which was, you know, one to two percent.
54:28When you get it, you start feeling unwell, high fever, headaches, vomiting.
54:34The next stage is the tongue and the mouth get covered with pus-filled little sacs.
54:39Once your skin starts rising up, almost like little peas underneath your skin, incredibly painful.
54:47Students come all the way up and develop into scabs.
54:50Once it's in your home, everyone will get it.
54:52And then it's the question of how many will survive.
55:00Disease is the greatest reaper across human history.
55:03More people have fallen to pathogens than they have to any other cause.
55:08Epidemics are a shock, but ultimately what's more important is how vulnerable is a society which is hit by an epidemic.
55:20Nearly 14 months after he fled the Aztec capital, Cortez has returned to a civilization in its death throes.
55:28Now, backed by his local allies, he launches a brutal attack.
55:38They're fighting a disease-ridden, weakened, starving population.
55:43And I think that is massive in explaining how he's able to achieve what he does.
55:49The Aztecs insist on fighting to the death.
55:51So, the Spanish start moving through the city, practicing total war.
56:02It's simply the only way the Spanish are able to force the Aztecs, this proud warrior culture, to surrender.
56:21Finally, the mighty warrior empire of the Aztecs
56:30has fallen.
56:31The Aztec empire fell apart within two years.
56:44This makes it one of the fastest collapses throughout world history.
56:49That was due to the sheer variety of threats it faced.
56:51An overbearing leader who demanded tax and tribute.
57:00A disaffected people with nothing to lose.
57:05And a ruthless opponent who exploited these fault lines for his own gain.
57:10Once you think about the huge amount of indigenous people who were not happy
57:19and were ready to fight against the Aztecs, you get a very different view of the situation.
57:28This is an indigenous civil war, an empire that has collapsed in on itself.
57:34A collapse, hastened by an unforeseen killer.
57:38Disease is still one of the greatest threats to civilization.
57:43We do need to look at our collective vulnerability.
57:46Just think of what happened with COVID.
57:48Pathogens always seem to be two steps ahead of us and we're trying to catch up in that race.
57:55The story of the Aztecs is ultimately a story about the arrival of the unexpected.
58:00And I think that has to be a pretty sobering lesson for us.
58:04We are deluded if we think that everything we take for granted will be here forever.
58:18Japan, a unique culture closed off to the west for centuries, is on a collision course with the modern world.
58:32As foreign aggressors arrive on their shores,
58:35Japan's ancient warrior class, the samurai must fight to save their way of life.
58:52It is about the effects of the universe.
58:56We are not a confiance.
58:57If you can't, that is a doctrine of the universe.
58:58It is about its coconut.
58:59Sometimes it is about to assist us to the other people.
59:00We are not a faithful one.
59:01In the sense of the universe, we have to witness this.
59:02We actually have to have the right side of the world.
59:02We are not a faithful one.
59:03We can't even stand it anymore.
59:05We have to die for this.
59:05We have to trust ourselves and that trust ourselves.
59:06We have to take advantage of our natural life has to come,
59:07as the Mt. 4th creature who has to lead us.
59:08We are the first one to the most.
59:10We have to do this.
59:12We will be the right side of the world in this country.
59:13We have to be the right of the world that asks,
59:16our ancestors.
Be the first to comment