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Cultures
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00:25Mexico City, one of the largest concentrations of
00:29humanity anywhere on the planet.
00:34It's currently estimated that around 26 million people live here, and the city stretches for
00:40miles in all directions.
00:45Let's scratch the surface and you'll find there was once another great city here, one
00:50that rivalled in size and complexity the cities of Europe, but whose religion, rights and ways
00:57of life and death, were utterly alien to Europeans.
01:04The people who lived here called themselves the Mexica and gave their name to modern Mexico,
01:09but they're universally known as the Aztecs.
01:12The Aztecs, one of America's great civilizations, and in 1502 their last and best known emperor
01:19was crowned.
01:20His name was Motekasuma, perhaps best known in the West as Montezuma.
01:37Montezuma.
01:38We're probably all familiar with the name, if only because of that slightly odd 1960s expression,
01:43Montezuma's Revenge, which has everything to do with an upset stomach and nothing at all
01:47with an actual character from history.
01:49But now, thanks to a major new exhibition at the British Museum in London, there's a chance
01:54to find out more about him as a man, why he's so fascinating and so worthy of a great exhibition.
02:06Each of the strange and enigmatic objects on display provides a window, a glimpse of the
02:13physical and cultural landscape of Central America 500 years ago, and the unique architecture,
02:19art and way of life of the Aztec people.
02:23They also invoke an incredible story, how Montezuma, sophisticated semi-divine emperor, came
02:30to fight a courageous psychological duel with a formidable opponent from another world.
02:35It's also the story of how, in less than two years, the Aztec civilization he governed would
02:41be virtually wiped out by a handful of European adventurers.
02:45But to begin, at the beginning.
02:49It's the year 1502 AD, not a year marked in Europe by any truly momentous events.
02:55Henry VII was on the throne of England.
02:57Michelangelo had just begun work on his sculptural masterpiece, David.
03:01But across the Atlantic, on the great continent discovered by Columbus barely ten years since,
03:06a significant event was taking place.
03:10Here in Mexico, a new emperor is being crowned.
03:14Montezuma II inherited off his uncle an empire that's expanded, galvanized, sophisticated and powerful.
03:24Montezuma's Aztec empire stretched from the Gulf of Mexico in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and
03:31as far south as Guatemala.
03:33His subjects are estimated to number as many as 10 million people, a greater population than Spain at the time.
03:40And in the high plains of central Mexico, where Mexico's capital is today, there was once an island city, Montezuma's
03:49own capital, home to 200,000 people.
03:53That's five times the population of Tudor London, bigger than Rome or Constantinople.
03:58And with its network of glittering canals, more beautiful, it was said, than Venice.
04:04This was Tenochtitlan.
04:07The focal point of the city was a huge walled enclosure which contains Montezuma's palace and many of the great
04:13Aztec religious buildings.
04:15But towering over them all was one extraordinary structure.
04:21Here at the heart of the sacred precinct, but also the heart of the city, the empire, and in fact
04:26the Aztec universe, was a great pyramid.
04:32The Templo Mayor.
04:40The incredible thing is that there isn't just one Templo Mayor pyramid, there are six of them, all built on
04:47top of each other.
04:50This is the outside of the great temple in Montezuma's time.
04:53He would have climbed these steps himself.
04:55What archaeologists have discovered as they've excavated this site is that each pyramid temple was built on top of a
05:03previous one.
05:03Like Russian dolls.
05:04So this is a previous generation's temple here and so on as you go deeper into this site.
05:10Now what's fascinating is that in the gaps between the temples, they've left votive offerings like these three replica statues
05:17here.
05:18But there would have been other ones like animal skeletons and small models of canoes and all that kind of
05:22thing.
05:23Each generation wants to enlarge on the previous generation's temple.
05:27That's where you get this layering effect.
05:29In the middle here, you can see the very earliest Aztec temple where their first rulers would have climbed up
05:36to intercede with the gods on behalf of their people.
05:40Unlike physically similar structures in Egypt, Aztec pyramids were not the burial places of great leaders or pharaohs.
05:47They were built to mirror the mountains, the physical environment that surrounded them.
05:54But the Templo Mayor also reflected an abstract philosophical structure.
05:58The 22 layers of the Aztec universe that passed right through this site, from the highest heavens to the deepest
06:05underworld.
06:09To Montezuma and his people, there is no more significant place on earth or in the universe.
06:15Here was a coming together of all that's sacred.
06:21The gods worshipped here at Templo Mayor were Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec tribal god associated with warfare in the life-giving
06:28sun, and Tlaloc, the god of rain.
06:31Both capricious and both essential to the survival of the Aztec people.
06:38As emperor, Montezuma would have presided over the major festivals in the Aztec religious calendar, overseeing the raw religious theatre
06:47that was human sacrifice.
06:51More often than not drugged, sacrificial victims were led up the steps of the pyramid to be greeted, then dispatched
06:58by waiting priests.
07:03The corpses of these sacrificial victims, minus their hearts, were then thrown down the front steps of the temple,
07:08and they'd have landed on or near this magnificent disc, truly one of the great treasures of all the Mesoamerican
07:15civilisations.
07:16It would have been brightly coloured, and it depicts Cotaxalqui, the sister and mortal enemy of the mythical founding father
07:24of the Aztec people.
07:25One day they fought on a mountaintop, he won, and her cut-up body was thrown to the bottom.
07:30It's this myth that Montezuma and his people were re-enacting every time they sacrificed a human victim.
07:39Looking at this, the lesson could not be clearer.
07:41This was the fate that awaited the enemy of the Aztec.
07:53To reinforce that message, the victims' heads were then chopped off and placed on long skull racks known as Tom
07:59Pantley.
08:04The body would then be dismembered and the limbs given to the warrior that had taken that victim prisoner.
08:10He would typically then eat them, mixed with peppers and salt.
08:14Now, it's easy to get hung up on the ghoulishness of this process,
08:16but the Aztecs powerfully believed that the perpetuation of life involved the giving of it.
08:26To them, sacrifice was a solemn sacrament.
08:30The body, the blood and the heart's energy given to ensure the fruitfulness of the earth
08:35and the continued passage of the sun through the heavens.
08:39Everything in the daily life of an Aztec citizen was governed by a complex calendar system
08:45and an endless cycle of ritual and ceremony.
08:48Central to all of them was Montezuma.
08:55During his time as emperor, Montezuma was called on to perform a very special ceremony indeed.
09:00Once every 52 years, the lights of Tenochtitlan were dimmed,
09:05and the population stood still, silent, in the dark, watching a distant hillside.
09:11Then a light flickered. A bonfire was lit.
09:15And in joyful ceremony, a procession of torches carried that light back from the hillside into the city.
09:21This ceremony represented the preservation of the universe and also the Aztec Empire for the next 52 years.
09:36The sheer theatricality of the Aztec belief system and their worldview is expressed powerfully in their art.
09:43And for state of the art, read Art of the State. It was meant to be scary.
09:50Amongst the art treasures that have survived are books.
09:53And while they look more like cartoons than Bibles, their purpose was deadly serious.
09:59The few that remain tell of a highly moral and ordered society.
10:02Everything in life and death was preordained.
10:07Birth itself was attended by soothsayers, who determined from their calendar books how auspicious a birthday was.
10:15It's a boy meant it's a warrior, born to die with honour.
10:20His umbilical cord taken away to be buried on a battlefield.
10:24Whereas a girl's umbilical was buried by the half stone.
10:27Here she was destined to sow, to feed, to breed.
10:31Some might wonder how much has changed.
10:34But probably uniquely anywhere in the world at the time, boys and girls were required to attend school.
10:41Montezuma himself would have attended an elite school, a cul-macac, a kind of Aztec Eton,
10:46where along with Aztec cosmology, poetry and music, Montezuma would have learned the art of battle.
10:57Central to any Aztec battle plan was one key aim, not to kill, but to take prisoners, captives for ritual
11:04sacrifice.
11:05That was its purpose.
11:07It was institutionalised and ritualised warfare, not unlike that of the samurai.
11:12A great warrior was one who took, say, four prisoners in hand-to-hand combat.
11:16This earned him great honour, distinctive battle dress and respect.
11:21All Aztec men were trained and expected to bear arms when necessary.
11:25But there were only two squadrons of full-time soldiers, the elite eagle and jaguar warriors.
11:30If a warrior died on the battlefield, a pool of his and others' blood was likened to flowers.
11:37And so-called flowery wars were an annual event between the Aztecs and a neighbour, the Clashgalans, whom the Empire
11:45surrounded.
11:47Montezuma likened them to birds in a cage, something to play with during the rainy season.
11:53And if the nature of battle was prescribed, then so too was the real reason for war itself, to expand
11:59the empire and exact tribute.
12:02Provided the vassal states paid the price that Montezuma wanted, they could carry on with business just about as normal.
12:09But it was a high price. This is a page from an Aztec tribute demand.
12:14It's absolutely stunning, but it's as exact as it is beautiful.
12:18Each one of these represents a certain number of the commodity shown.
12:22So for example here, the blue bird skins, there's 20, 40, 60, 80, 160 in all.
12:29Down here, lots of cocoa, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 200 lots of cocoa and 40 jaguar pelts.
12:39The sheer quantity of tribute goods entering Tenochtitlan every year from around the Empire was staggering.
12:46As well as shields, feathers, cocoa, headdresses, cochineal, pottery, gold, jade, turquoise and other luxury goods,
12:52came 4,000 tonnes of beans, 7,000 tonnes of maize and 2 million one-size-fits-all cotton cloaks.
13:01As for Montezuma, he would only eat off pottery from the tribute state of Cholula.
13:07Gold, known in Aztec as Teoquicatl, or the excrement of the gods, was less highly prized than turquoise or jade.
13:15But prized almost above anything else were brightly coloured feathers, shadows of the sacred ones, as they called them.
13:22It's safe to say that Aztec values were not those of contemporary Europeans.
13:27And if tribute wasn't forthcoming, then imperial retribution would be swift, uncompromising and brutal.
13:36No-one knows exactly how many human sacrifices were made in any given year.
13:41But we do know, for example, that Montezuma himself took 5,000 captives for sacrifice
13:46in a raid on two rebel townships as part of his coronation ceremony.
13:51But it was his uncle and predecessor, Awitsuttle, who changed the pace and intensity of warfare,
13:57inuring his people to bloodletting on a vast scale and turning captive-taking
14:02from the annual Conquer match of the Flowery Wars into an instrument of state terror.
14:07This ensured that his successor, Montezuma, inherited subjects who paid up on time,
14:12did what they were told, and were terrified.
14:18Whatever the continent, whatever the century, there's one truism that always holds firm,
14:23and that is an army marches on its stomach.
14:26Montezuma's military power relied on his ability to feed his troops
14:30and the 200,000 inhabitants of his capital city.
14:34Now, a third of that food came from tribute states,
14:37but the Aztecs had to find the other two-thirds by themselves.
14:44Just how they did that fully merits its World Heritage recognition.
14:48South of Mexico City, there's a vast 160-kilometre system of waterways.
14:54They're a honeypot for city dwellers, a day out on the barges with family and friends.
14:59They're a riot of colour and bank-to-bank mariachi bands.
15:05But this is only a fraction of what was here during Montezuma's time.
15:09And it's not the waterways that are important, but the highly productive fields they define and feed.
15:15The chinampas.
15:18They're still using the same methods here as the Aztecs did 500 years ago.
15:22As you can see, they place stakes into this marshy ground,
15:26put wattling in between them, and then plant these willow trees.
15:29And that creates artificial islands.
15:31In the middle, you put all sorts of organic waste, even human excrement,
15:34to create very fertile islands in this marsh,
15:37which you then farm by coming along here in your canoe or your punt.
15:41You take all that produce off to Tenochtitlan.
15:47During Montezuma's time, these chinampas extended over 9,000 hectares.
15:53That's over 34 square miles.
15:55There were a feat of planned and sophisticated agricultural engineering,
16:00far in advance of anything in Europe at the time, in scale or productivity.
16:05With huge quantities of food and tribute goods pouring into Tenochtitlan
16:10from all over the empire, an efficient distribution system was essential.
16:14The market.
16:24The market was vast, with up to 30,000 citizens visiting every day.
16:29Not only was the market the commercial and economic hub of Montezuma's empire,
16:33it was also the place to socialise.
16:35The way for the young ladies to attract the attention of the lads was to chew gum
16:39and slap some make-up on, yellow okra for blusher,
16:43and lacklustre hair washed in indigo to make it shine.
16:47Oh, and one other thing, the teeth.
16:49They'd be coloured red with cochineal for maximum impact.
16:53Nice.
16:55This truly was a society red in claw and tooth.
17:00And it's not just the amount of food for barter, it's the sheer variety.
17:05The range of crops cultivated was far in excess of anything in Europe at the time.
17:10The staple was maize, but there were also onions, squashes, beans, sweet potatoes,
17:15peanuts, manila, herbs, spices, fruits I've never heard of.
17:19It's amazing just how many of these Aztec crops and other foodstuffs have found their way into our vocabulary and
17:26our stomachs.
17:27Chilli, tomatoes, avocado, cocoa, chocolate.
17:33A drink that was enjoyed exclusively by Montezuma and the nobility.
17:37We know from contemporary accounts that Montezuma would dine behind a golden screen
17:41and be entertained by jugglers and musicians, but what sort of food did he eat?
17:46Perhaps the best person to ask is the leading Mexican chef and expert in Aztec banquets, Marta Ortiz.
17:53Hey Marta, this is incredible looking food.
17:56Yes, this is a Montezuma's table.
17:58This is what he would have eaten?
18:00Of course, try it.
18:02Those look like bugs.
18:03They are bugs.
18:04Are they? Yes.
18:06Are they good for you?
18:07Yes, minerals and proteins.
18:11Quite salty.
18:13But nice.
18:13The pulque.
18:14Please try the pulque.
18:16Before the sacrifice.
18:17You had this before you get sacrificed?
18:19Yes, before.
18:20What's this made from?
18:21From the maguey.
18:22From the heart of the maguey.
18:24Which is a cactus?
18:25It's a cactus, yes.
18:29That's quite rich as well.
18:30And they're quite unusual flavours, aren't they?
18:32Yes.
18:32For me.
18:33But I think they're fantastic.
18:35Delicious.
18:36I'll try these beautiful tortillas.
18:37Why are these so beautifully decorated?
18:39Because they were tortillas for an emperor.
18:42So everything has its meaning.
18:43Power.
18:44Beauty.
18:45Passion.
18:46Okay.
18:50What do you think?
18:52Mmm.
18:52That is good.
18:53I think it's sophisticated and luxury and beautiful.
18:57This is the real treasure that Mexico has given to the world.
19:02In the history of Western civilisation, I can think of few empires, other than ancient Rome perhaps, where state control
19:09over food production was as efficient.
19:11And it's clear that Montezuma was also trying to extend Aztec control over all aspects of daily life, further and
19:18further into his expanding empire.
19:31In the mountains, 50 miles south of Mexico City, there's another site I've been reading about that I've been really
19:38looking forward to visiting.
19:39It's said to be one of the most intact of all the Aztec remains in Mexico.
19:47At the top of this beautiful mountain pass, absolutely buzzing with cicadas, lie the remains of Malinalco.
19:56It's awe-inspiring.
20:00The core of this pyramid is a cave, apparently hacked out of the living rock, and we know from the
20:06Aztec records that it was completed during Montezuma's reign.
20:10But Malinalco's real significance lies in its function.
20:14There's no doubt that it was, in part, a religious building.
20:17The Aztecs believed that caves were places for communication with the earth gods, but there's more to it than that.
20:25These sculptures here are the clue.
20:27There are three of them, thrones for the civil and military commanders of the region.
20:31But if you look at the sculpture here, the design, they're Aztec motifs, the mountain lion and the two eagles.
20:37What Montezuma is doing here is absorbing this region more firmly into the Aztec empire by imposing Aztec administration and
20:46religious norms.
20:47A bit like the way the ancient Britons end up wearing togas and using the Roman legal code after the
20:52Roman conquest.
20:53Montezuma is trying to make the world Aztec.
21:04This was a huge advance for people who, just a few generations earlier, had been nothing more than a small
21:10band of nomads from the north.
21:13Their tribal god, Huitzilopochtli, had told them to settle where they saw an eagle land on a cactus.
21:19An eagle did land on a cactus on an island in the middle of a great lake.
21:24And in 1325 A.D., that island became their power base, Tenochtitlan, and the eagle and cactus still adorn the
21:31Mexican national flag.
21:34So there's a structured, highly complex society ruling over vast territories with a pantheon of gods worthy of ancient Rome.
21:41And Montezuma himself at the pinnacle of that society.
21:45And yet by the time he took over as ruler, the Aztec empire was barely 200 years old.
21:53It's a bit of a mystery. How did this sophisticated society with its belief systems and its organisations seemingly spring
22:00forth out of nothing?
22:02Well, I've come to a place that might give us a few answers.
22:13This is Teotihuacan.
22:42This is Teotihuacan.
22:55This place marks nothing less than the beginning of life itself.
23:00According to the Aztec creation myth, all was darkness and some gods gathered around a council fire.
23:06Two of them threw themselves into the flames and were reborn as the sun and the moon.
23:13Hence, the pyramid of the moon and the pyramid of the sun.
23:20If Teotihuacan represents the birth of the moon, the sun and of life itself,
23:24it was also the cradle of most of the key elements in Aztec belief, ritual, architecture and cultural expression.
23:32And yet it was a civilisation that had virtually disappeared a thousand years before.
23:37Still, the Aztecs wove what they discovered and understood of this and other later cultures into their own,
23:44forging quite literally their own sense of history, identity and continuity.
23:49Montezuma himself would make the 25-mile journey here on foot in homage to his adopted forebears.
23:55And whilst it seems certain that the people of Teotihuacan practised human sacrifice,
24:00it was a practice the Aztecs made perfect a millennium later.
24:05And though it might have been Montezuma's predecessor who turned this occasional ritual
24:09into a weapon of state terror, oppression and murder,
24:12it was a weapon Montezuma wielded with equal ferocity.
24:17As the annals show, during his time as holy Aztec emperor,
24:21Montezuma won many victories, consolidated his empire and exacted massive tribute payments.
24:27He also maximised executive power in himself.
24:31He legislated that no one should touch him or even look him in the face.
24:35So Montezuma, cultured, spiritual, vain and ruthless,
24:40believing the Aztecs to be a chosen people
24:42and believing it was his divine right and duty to lead them.
24:47Enter into his empire from Cuba,
24:50recently populated by the Spanish Hernán Cortés,
24:53trained in law, full of Catholic fervour,
24:56much given to quoting the classics,
24:58and fluent in ambition.
25:01It was now the year 1519.
25:03Henry VIII was on the throne of England.
25:06It was the year that Leonardo da Vinci died.
25:08Ferdinand Magellan set off on his epic voyage around the world.
25:12And on Maundy Thursday, April 1519,
25:16a small Spanish fleet made landfall off the modern-day port of Veracruz,
25:21some 250 miles from Tenochtitlan, as the eagle flies.
25:26On board, under the command of Hernán Cortés,
25:28there was a small army of some 400 soldiers and cavalry.
25:32They had just been put through their paces
25:34against a Mayan army down the coast on the Yucatan Peninsula
25:37and won easily.
25:40These dogs of war were now supremely confident
25:43in the effect of their battle drill,
25:44their armour and their horses
25:46against Central American peoples.
25:48They knew that their steel-tip weapons,
25:50their crossbows and their firepower
25:52could cause mass destruction.
26:08As well as the men in the hardware,
26:10Cortés also brought ashore a secret weapon.
26:13Her name was Malila.
26:18Rechristened Doña Marina by the Spanish,
26:21Malila was to become known in Mexican folklore and history
26:24as La Malinche.
26:28She was a slave girl the Mayans had given Cortés
26:31as part of the payoff following their recent battle.
26:34She was, by all accounts, a beauty.
26:36But the beauty for Cortés was that she'd been born
26:39an Aztec princess.
26:41She spoke Nahuatl, the language of Montezuma
26:44and the fabulous empire that he'd been hearing about.
26:47Cortés' instinct was that Marina would prove invaluable
26:50in helping him achieve his ambitions for the expedition.
26:54And he was right.
26:55But what was Cortés trying to achieve?
26:59I think Cortés' motivation as he landed on this coast
27:02can be summed up in four words.
27:05Gold, God, glory and greed.
27:09He wanted to win new lands and wealth
27:12for his sovereign, King Charles of Spain,
27:15and ensure that his own name made it into the history books.
27:17But he was also a passionate Christian.
27:20He had a crusading zeal to save the souls of heathens.
27:26But surely what drove Cortés the most
27:29and fired the imagination of his followers
27:31was a lust for gold.
27:33If there was an El Dorado out there
27:36ruled over by a heathen emperor, Montezuma,
27:38it was their Christian duty
27:40to relieve him of the burden of his gold
27:41and save his soul.
27:46But was this legend about the gold actually true?
27:51The answer came sooner than Cortés could have imagined.
28:00On Easter Sunday, just four days after landing,
28:04Montezuma's local steward arrived bearing greetings
28:06and chests full of priceless treasure.
28:11Through La Malinche, Cortés introduced himself
28:14as the ambassador of Don Carlos, king of Spain
28:17and ruler of the largest part of the world.
28:20He then said that some of his men were suffering
28:22from an affliction of the heart
28:23that could only be cured by gold.
28:27Does the great Montezuma possess gold?
28:29He asked.
28:30Indeed he does, came the reply.
28:33It was the correct answer,
28:34but it was the worst response
28:36in the history of Aztec civilization.
28:41News traveled as fast in the new world as the old.
28:45This might have been a civilization
28:47to whom the horse and the wheel were totally alien.
28:50Yet communication networks
28:52within the Aztec empire were phenomenal.
28:54It had taken Montezuma only a few days
28:56to find out about Cortés' victory over the Mayans
28:59and only a day and a half
29:01before he heard of his landings.
29:06It was a 250-mile journey,
29:08but relays of runners
29:10carried the troubling news to Tenochtitlan.
29:14One account says that Montezuma
29:15was in the snake house of his personal zoo
29:18when he heard the news
29:19that the messengers had returned
29:20from their meeting with Cortés.
29:22He prepared himself for the worst.
29:24He personally sacrificed two human victims
29:26and sprinkled their blood on the messengers.
29:29Then he heard what they had to say.
29:32Apparently, it filled him with dread,
29:34as if swooning.
29:35His soul was sickened,
29:37his heart anguished.
29:39He was then told about the strangers
29:41who covered their bodies with clothes.
29:43Their faces were white,
29:45their eyes like chalk.
29:46Most had long beards.
29:49Perhaps most worryingly of all,
29:51he heard of the cannon
29:52that tore trees and hills apart,
29:54of deer as high as houses
29:56that bore the men on their backs.
30:01Had the gods foretold this,
30:03did the arrival of these men
30:04mark the end of the world?
30:12Before long,
30:13there were to be two further meetings
30:14between Cortés and ambassadors
30:16from Montezuma,
30:17who brought gifts
30:18of unimaginable value and beauty.
30:22To Montezuma's mind,
30:23the gifts were meant to be seen
30:25as an indication
30:25of his sublime power and superiority.
30:28They were mere baubles,
30:30but they were given to Cortés
30:31along with a stern injunction,
30:34stay away from Tenochtitlan.
30:37But to Cortés,
30:38all this meant something
30:39completely different.
30:40Surely this was a grovelling peace offering,
30:43an admission of his superiority,
30:44and there must be plenty more
30:46where that came from.
30:47He decided to push on
30:48with his expedition.
30:52One thing Montezuma
30:53could not have known
30:54was that Cortés' campaign
30:55was barely legal
30:57and certainly did not have
30:58official sanction.
31:00The Spanish governor of Cuba
31:01hated Cortés,
31:02and his king,
31:03Charles of Spain,
31:04had no idea of his activities.
31:06So to avoid potential conflict
31:08with the king
31:09and to gain his blessing
31:10for this crusade,
31:12Cortés sent vast quantities
31:13of Aztec treasure
31:14back to Spain,
31:16declaring his intention
31:17to conquer and pacify
31:19the territory
31:20and to take Montezuma
31:21dead or alive,
31:22subject, of course,
31:23to His Majesty's will.
31:27Back in Tenochtitlan,
31:29there were wildly differing opinions
31:31on how to deal
31:31with the intruders.
31:33To the Aztec mind,
31:34nothing happened by chance.
31:36And if the year was 1519
31:38to the Europeans,
31:39to the Aztecs,
31:40it was the year
31:41Queacatl,
31:42a fateful year,
31:44a dangerous year.
31:51Long before the landings,
31:53ill omens had been observed,
31:55a great tongue of fire
31:56in the night sky,
31:58strange wailing
31:59in the streets at night.
32:00And Montezuma himself
32:02had had his image
32:03carved on the rock
32:04at Chapel Tepec,
32:06a sort of Aztec
32:07Mount Rushmore in miniature,
32:08perhaps his last testament
32:10in the landscape.
32:16No matter who they were,
32:18gods, freebooters
32:19or ambassadors,
32:20the consensus
32:21of the Aztec leaders
32:22was that the aliens
32:23had to be kept away
32:24from Tenochtitlan
32:25by bribery
32:27or by force.
32:28There is no doubt
32:30that this was a journey
32:31that was beginning
32:31to reveal and define
32:33the true character,
32:34not just of two alien civilizations
32:36in a titanic close encounter,
32:38but of two people,
32:39the two main protagonists,
32:41Cortes and Montezuma.
32:46Their interaction
32:47was beginning to resemble
32:48a game of chess,
32:49and Cortes,
32:51ever the opportunist,
32:52was about to find his pawns
32:54here at Sempo Alan,
32:56home of the Tottenacs.
33:06At Sempo Alan,
33:07Cortes befriended
33:08a Tottenac chief
33:09who bemoaned his fate
33:11as a tribute-paying
33:12vassal king to Montezuma.
33:14He was also told
33:15that other kingdoms
33:16hated the Aztecs
33:17every bit as much as he.
33:23This news was the opportunity
33:24Cortes had been waiting for.
33:26He immediately tried
33:27to persuade the king
33:28to cease his tribute payments
33:29to Montezuma
33:30and join him in the alliance.
33:32The king agreed.
33:33So long as Cortes
33:34would lead the force
33:35with his artillery and cavalry,
33:37the king would bring
33:38infantrymen and supplies.
33:40This was the first
33:42great transatlantic alliance
33:43in history.
33:44Spaniard and Tottenac,
33:46old world and new,
33:47allying against a common foe.
33:49Cortes had just removed
33:51the first stone
33:52from the base
33:53of Montezuma's pyramid.
33:56Tenochtitlan
33:57was now vulnerable
33:58and Montezuma knew it.
34:00Now, the Aztecs
34:01had no standing army,
34:02but he immediately
34:03mobilised a local militia
34:04to crush the Tottenacs
34:06and Cortes.
34:10It was a total rout.
34:12As soon as the Aztec army
34:14saw Cortes' men
34:15and felt the power
34:16of their weapons,
34:17they turned and fled,
34:19chased by the cavalry.
34:21Cortes now harboured
34:22a suspicion that even
34:23the massed imperial
34:25Aztec army
34:25wouldn't be able
34:26to stand up to his force.
34:27Their weapons were primitive
34:29and their battle discipline
34:30inferior.
34:35Perhaps what would have
34:36surprised and terrified
34:38them more than anything
34:39was this,
34:40the horse.
34:42What you're looking at here
34:43is one of the great
34:44weapon systems
34:45of the pre-industrial age.
34:48A man has a certain ability
34:50to inflict violence
34:51on his enemies.
34:52Put him on a horse,
34:53that ability is multiplied
34:55several times over.
34:58First of all,
34:59horses, of course,
34:59give you incredible mobility.
35:01You can strike
35:02over huge distances
35:03with the elements
35:04of surprise
35:05and at great speed.
35:08Horses also gave you
35:10a great advantage
35:11when you're up high,
35:12you can swing down
35:13with huge power
35:14on the enemy below you
35:15and it's very difficult
35:15for them to defend.
35:17And what all this adds up to
35:18is an impact weapon,
35:20a terrible psychological weapon,
35:22especially if you think
35:23about the Aztecs
35:24who have never seen
35:24these before.
35:26Europeans had generations
35:27to get used to the charge
35:29of heavy cavalry.
35:30The Aztecs had a few months.
35:35But Montezuma still had
35:37some distinct advantages
35:38and if it appeared
35:40as though the god of war
35:41had momentarily deserted him,
35:43not so Clalloc,
35:44the rain god.
35:46I've timed my expedition
35:48a little better than Cortes
35:49when he marched
35:50across this land.
35:51It was the rainy season
35:53and for the Spanish troops
35:54in full metal jackets,
35:56every step of the way
35:57must have been hell.
36:00Already,
36:01his Tottenac allies
36:02would have proved
36:03invaluable as guides
36:04and porters
36:05in this alien
36:06but beautiful terrain.
36:08I think what happens next
36:09is crucial
36:10as I try to understand
36:11Montezuma's character
36:12because from now on
36:14it becomes less and less clear
36:15who's the cat
36:16and who's the mouse,
36:18Cortes or Montezuma.
36:21I'm getting the feeling
36:22that Montezuma
36:23is doing his damnedest
36:24to manipulate Cortes'
36:25every move,
36:26watching,
36:27waiting for any opportunity
36:28to wrong-foot him.
36:30For weeks,
36:31he's allowed Cortes
36:32to march across
36:33his sovereign territory
36:34unhindered.
36:35He's even issued
36:36secret commands
36:37to petty chieftains
36:38to treat the Spaniards
36:40and their allies
36:40cordially.
36:42All the time,
36:43though,
36:43Cortes is getting
36:44further and further
36:45away from the coast
36:46and any hope
36:47of strategic support.
36:52And what lies ahead
36:53is a dangerous string
36:55of obstacles
36:56and redoubts.
36:58By late August,
37:00Cortes is about
37:00to encounter
37:01one of the most
37:01impressive of them,
37:03Montezuma's
37:04own worst enemy
37:05and a people
37:06who might not
37:06take kindly
37:07to a small invasion force,
37:08whoever they were,
37:09wherever they came from.
37:12The Clashclans.
37:15Cortes led his men
37:17into Clashcalan territory
37:18with one of his favourite quotes
37:19from the Emperor Constantine.
37:21He said,
37:22Gentlemen,
37:22let us follow the banner,
37:24the sign of the Holy Cross,
37:25and by this,
37:27we shall conquer.
37:29Maybe so,
37:30but not easily.
37:32Within a few hours,
37:33his scouts got embroiled
37:34in a skirmish
37:35with a small band
37:36of Clashclan warriors.
37:38Two of his horses
37:39were killed,
37:40a real blow to Cortes.
37:42Because if the native warriors
37:43had previously thought
37:44the horses were terrifying demons,
37:46they now knew
37:47that they were mortal.
37:49Then about 20 miles away
37:51from the Clashclan capital,
37:52a second wave of attacks,
37:54and Cortes found himself
37:55efficiently drawn
37:57into an ambush.
38:00He escaped,
38:01but he then took
38:02a terrible European revenge
38:05on some of the prisoners.
38:07He sent them back
38:08to their people
38:08without hands,
38:10ears,
38:10feet.
38:11He destroyed
38:12entire villages
38:13and slaughtered
38:15the inhabitants.
38:23taking prisoners
38:24was one thing
38:25both the Clashclans
38:26and Aztecs
38:27understood well.
38:28After all,
38:29that's why they fought battles,
38:30to take prisoners
38:31for sacrifice,
38:32not to mutilate them
38:34in the field like this.
38:38Cortes' rules of engagement
38:39were completely unintelligible
38:41to his opponents.
38:42Driven by ruthless pragmatism
38:44and not constrained
38:45by the brutal niceties
38:46of Aztec ritual warfare,
38:49Cortes deployed
38:49every European technology
38:51and tactical advantage
38:53he had
38:53on the battlefield.
38:56The Clashclan leadership
38:57decided if the aliens'
38:59way of fighting
38:59would give them
39:00a sharp and bloody edge
39:01over their ancient enemy,
39:03the Aztecs
39:04and their leader,
39:04Montezuma,
39:05then they too
39:06would join forces
39:07with Cortes
39:08in this venture.
39:13As soon as Montezuma
39:14heard about the rout
39:15of the Clashclans,
39:16he seems to have realised
39:17that in open battle
39:19his Aztec force
39:20stood no chance
39:21against Cortes' horses,
39:23gunpowder
39:23and superior tactics.
39:25He instead came up
39:27with a very interesting idea.
39:28He would lure
39:29the Spanish
39:30into the closed-quarters
39:32surroundings of a city
39:33where they could be ambushed
39:34and attacked
39:35from unusual angles.
39:36This way,
39:37he would negate
39:38Cortes' advantage
39:39in the open field.
39:42While Cortes
39:43and his troops
39:43were enjoying
39:44a little R&R
39:45with their newfound allies
39:46here in the Clashclan capital,
39:48Montezuma was trying
39:49to second-guess
39:50their next move
39:51and he decided
39:52to use as his killing fields
39:53the narrow streets
39:54of the nearby city
39:55of Cholula,
39:56the next obvious
39:57stepping stone
39:58for Cortes
39:59on his way
39:59to Tenochtitlan.
40:02Despite
40:02Tlashclan intelligence
40:04and an ambush
40:04was being prepared,
40:05Cortes was keen
40:06to push ahead
40:07to Cholula.
40:07If Montezuma
40:08had set a trap,
40:10he was going
40:10to spring it.
40:13On the 12th of October
40:141519,
40:16Cortes,
40:16with a small army
40:17of Clashclan
40:18and Tottenac troops,
40:19broke camp
40:20and marched
40:21on Cholula.
40:23Cholula was a major city
40:24and a major challenge
40:26and a major challenge
40:26for Cortes.
40:27With a population
40:28of around 100,000,
40:30it was a vital tribute kingdom
40:32of the Aztec Empire,
40:33famous for its precious stones,
40:35its brilliant featherwork
40:36and the pottery
40:37so admired
40:38by Montezuma himself.
40:40It was also a key religious centre
40:42on a par, I suppose,
40:44with somewhere like Mecca
40:45or Rome.
40:46An indication of that
40:48is this vast pyramid.
40:49It actually stretches
40:50from the edge
40:51of that mound there
40:52through this rather nice
40:53reconstructed section
40:55to the other edge
40:56of the mound
40:56right over there.
40:58At its height,
40:59this pyramid
40:59was bigger
41:00than the Templo Mayor
41:02in Tenochtitlan.
41:03And in fact,
41:03with a base area
41:04of 500,000 square feet,
41:06this had a bigger footprint
41:08than any of the pyramids
41:09in Egypt.
41:12And it's at this holy site
41:14that the true character
41:15of Cortes
41:16was about to come
41:17to the fore.
41:18Having received confirmation
41:20from Marina
41:21that an ambush
41:21had indeed been laid
41:22at Cholula,
41:23Cortes took preemptive action.
41:27He ordered all the lords
41:28of Cholula,
41:29dozens of them,
41:30to assemble
41:30in the temple courtyard
41:31and then demanded
41:33to know why they wanted
41:34to kill him.
41:35Montezuma ordered it,
41:37came the reply.
41:42Playing judge and jury,
41:43Cortes declared
41:44that the assembled nobles
41:46were guilty of treason.
41:49Then he turned executioner
41:51and ordered his men
41:52to fire their muskets
41:54into the courtyard
41:54until not one man
41:56was left alive.
41:58After that,
41:58he unleashed
41:59his new Indian allies
42:01on the ordinary people
42:02of Cholula.
42:03It was an orgy
42:04of destruction.
42:04Those that weren't massacred
42:06were dragged off
42:07as prisoners
42:07for human sacrifice
42:09at a later date.
42:10After two days,
42:12Cortes called a halt.
42:27Using the same weapon
42:29of terror
42:29that for so long
42:30had been an adhesive force
42:32in Montezuma's empire,
42:34Cortes was now violently
42:36destabilizing it.
42:37From this point onwards,
42:39Cortes would have known
42:40that he had the chance
42:41to aim for nothing less
42:43than the total destruction
42:45of Aztec power.
42:50Incredibly, perhaps,
42:51Montezuma's ambassadors
42:52had been present
42:53throughout the massacre
42:54and were said
42:55to have been
42:56half dead with fear.
42:57And here,
42:58I have to say,
42:59I don't doubt the accounts.
43:01Cortes sent them
43:02on their way
43:03with a clear message
43:04for Montezuma
43:05that he and he alone
43:06was to blame
43:07for the massacre
43:08at Cholula.
43:09The Spaniard insisted
43:10that he had come
43:11in friendship and peace
43:12but had been betrayed.
43:14Now,
43:15he meant war.
43:17Despite protestations
43:18of innocence
43:18from Montezuma
43:19and gifts
43:20of still more gold,
43:21on the 1st of November,
43:231519,
43:24Cortes and his growing army
43:26left for Tenochtitlan.
43:27The route he chose
43:29was one that left him
43:30least open
43:31to further ambush.
43:35It meant heading
43:36for the past
43:37that lies between
43:38the volcanoes
43:39of Popacatapetl
43:41and Ishtac Sea Wattle,
43:43a past still called
43:44after him to this day,
43:47Paso de Cortes.
43:49and Ishtac Sea Wattle.
44:42This is the past
44:44of Cortes,
44:45a gap between
44:46these massive volcanic peaks
44:48and its scenery
44:50is just breathtaking.
44:51In fact,
44:51literally so
44:52because I'm up here
44:52at 13,000 feet
44:54and I'm trying to imagine
44:55what it would have been like
44:56for those Spanish soldiers.
44:58They'd survived voyages
45:00in leaky ships
45:01through uncharted waters,
45:03the heat of Veracruz,
45:05ambushes and battles.
45:07They'd risk death,
45:08human sacrifice,
45:10being eaten
45:10and now they're up here
45:12with their limbs
45:13feeling like lead,
45:14short of breath,
45:15all to follow a man
45:16whose towering ambition
45:17was simply leading them
45:19further
45:19into lands
45:20that no European
45:21had ever seen before.
45:39Then, beyond them
45:40in the mist,
45:40they caught
45:41their very first glimpse
45:42of the fertile
45:43highland valley
45:44of Mexico.
45:54A scouting party
45:55reported back
45:56to Cortes
45:57what they'd seen
45:57in the distance.
45:58Another new world
46:00and a sea
46:01and in the middle of it
46:02a very great city.
46:10Now within reach
46:12was the heart
46:12of the Aztec Empire
46:14and the power base
46:15of Montezuma himself,
46:17Tenochtitlan.
46:22On the 8th of November,
46:241519,
46:25eight months
46:25after they'd first landed,
46:27Cortes and his men
46:28made their way
46:29across the long causeway
46:30to the fabled city
46:32of Tenochtitlan.
46:33He was determined
46:34to put on a good show.
46:36In the vanguard,
46:38four horsemen
46:38in full regalia.
46:39Then came the infantry,
46:41swords drawn
46:42and flashing
46:42in the sunlight.
46:43Then more cavalry,
46:45crossbowmen
46:45and artillery
46:46and surrounded
46:47by his own colour troop,
46:49Cortes.
46:50Behind him,
46:51whooping and whistling,
46:52his native allies.
46:55It's hard to say
46:56who would have been
46:56more awestruck that day,
46:58Cortes and his troops
46:59or the thousands
47:00of city dwellers
47:01who'd turned out
47:02to gawk
47:03at the Spanish cybermen.
47:06Certainly the Spanish
47:07couldn't believe
47:08their eyes.
47:09Contemporary eyewitness accounts
47:11capture the moment.
47:12We were astounded.
47:14Great towns
47:15and buildings
47:16rising from the water,
47:17all made of stone.
47:19They seemed like
47:19an enchanted vision.
47:21Indeed,
47:21some of our soldiers
47:22asked whether it was
47:23not all a dream.
47:24It was all so wonderful
47:26that I do not know
47:27how to describe
47:27this first glimpse
47:29of things never heard of,
47:30seen nor dreamed before.
47:34Castellated fortresses,
47:35splendid monuments,
47:37royal dwelling places.
47:38How marvellous it was
47:40to gaze upon them,
47:41all stuccoed,
47:42carved,
47:43and painted with animals,
47:44covered with stone figures.
47:47As to what happens next,
47:49we actually have Cortes'
47:50own account
47:51of the action.
47:52Now, he's an accomplished
47:53spin doctor,
47:54but much of this
47:54does ring true.
47:55He says that
47:56when we met,
47:57I dismounted
47:58and stepped forward
47:58to embrace him.
47:59But the two lords
48:00who were with him
48:01stopped me with their hands
48:02so that I should not touch him.
48:04He goes on to say
48:05that I took off a necklace
48:06of pearls and cut glass
48:07that I was wearing
48:08and placed it around his neck.
48:10After we'd walked
48:11a little way,
48:11a servant of his
48:12came up with two necklaces
48:13made from red snail shells
48:15and from each necklace
48:16hung eight shrimps
48:18of refined gold,
48:19almost a span in length.
48:22So far, so good.
48:23But Cortes was writing
48:24to his monarch,
48:25Charles V of Spain.
48:27And it's what comes next
48:29that doesn't really pass
48:29the lie detector test.
48:31Cortes claims that Montezuma
48:33had another audience with him,
48:34during which time
48:35he reassured Cortes
48:37that we shall obey you
48:38and hold you as our lord
48:39in place of that great sovereign
48:41of whom you speak.
48:42And all the land
48:43that lies in my domain,
48:44you may command as you will,
48:46for you shall be obeyed,
48:48and all that we own
48:49is for you to dispose of
48:51as you choose.
48:53The supreme ruler
48:54of the Aztec empire
48:56abdicating his power
48:57to Cortes?
48:58I don't think so.
49:01Montezuma knew
49:02that although his ambush
49:03had failed at Cholula,
49:05here in Tenochtitlan,
49:06all he had to do
49:07was wait and try again.
49:10In the meantime,
49:12he had his guests housed
49:13and fed well
49:14at his father's ancient palace.
49:15And with Marina
49:17as interpreter,
49:18something resembling
49:19cordial relations
49:20were established.
49:21But Montezuma was playing
49:23a dangerous game
49:24against a wily opponent.
49:26Cortes,
49:27only too aware
49:28of how vulnerable
49:28he really was,
49:30decided on an incredibly
49:31bold move.
49:33He took Montezuma prisoner.
49:40He was held somewhere here,
49:42in the palace
49:43that Cortes and his men
49:44were billeted in.
49:45He was treated well.
49:47His advisors
49:47were even allowed access to him.
49:49But he'd lost the initiative.
49:51And his background
49:53had taught him
49:53one thing about captives.
49:55They were destined
49:56to become human sacrifices.
49:59Losing that initiative
50:00was crucial.
50:01For one thing,
50:02it gave later commentators,
50:04both Aztec and Spanish,
50:06free reign to condemn Montezuma
50:07for being paralyzed by fear
50:09or a traitor to his people,
50:11his mind distracted
50:12by a supposed prophecy
50:14about white-faced,
50:16bearded gods from the East
50:17reclaiming their birthright.
50:19But these were largely
50:20retrospective assessments
50:22of Montezuma's character
50:23and the events
50:24that were unfolding.
50:26But as soon as
50:27the slightest opportunity arose,
50:29he acted.
50:30That opportunity
50:31came in the form
50:32of Panfilo de Arnavaez,
50:34the governor of Cuba's
50:36lieutenant,
50:36who landed at Veracruz
50:38with a large squadron
50:39of troops and horse.
50:40His mission,
50:41to arrest Cortes for treason.
50:44The exploits
50:45and rumored success
50:46of Cortes
50:47had made the Cuban governor
50:48insanely jealous.
50:51Cortes knew
50:51he'd have to act fast
50:52if he was going to
50:53contain this situation.
50:55Cortes left
50:56his second-in-command,
50:58Pedro de Alvarado,
50:59to look after Montezuma
51:00and the capital city
51:02and himself set out
51:04on a forced march
51:04across the mountains.
51:06He arrived here
51:07in Veracruz
51:08and took Navarrez
51:09totally by surprise.
51:19He outmaneuvered him
51:20and, after a short
51:21but bloody skirmish
51:22took him
51:23and his entire
51:24expeditionary force
51:25prisoner.
51:28But for Cortes,
51:29the sweet taste
51:30of victory
51:31soon turned sour.
51:32From his prisoners,
51:33he discovered
51:34that Montezuma
51:35had been in secret
51:36negotiations
51:37through a messenger
51:38with Navarrez.
51:39Montezuma had been
51:40trying to secure
51:41his own release
51:42and the capture
51:43and imprisonment
51:44of Cortes.
51:45Again,
51:46the impression of Montezuma
51:47is as a desperate man
51:48who may have made mistakes
51:50but he's not a man
51:51paralysed by fear
51:52and he's certainly not
51:54a traitor to his people.
51:55In a way,
51:57Cortes actually benefited
51:58from the conspiracy
51:59against him.
52:00The expeditionary force
52:02became recruits
52:02and converts
52:03to his cause
52:04when they heard
52:05of the Aztecs' wealth
52:06but a nasty surprise
52:08awaited them
52:09at the end
52:09of their journey.
52:13When Cortes
52:14returned to Tenochtitlan,
52:16he discovered
52:17that all hell
52:17had broken loose.
52:19His second-in-command,
52:20Pedro de Alvarado,
52:21had heard about
52:22a plot
52:23aimed at the Spanish.
52:24He'd taken
52:25preemptive action
52:26and had slaughtered
52:27a group of Aztec nobility
52:29at a religious festival.
52:32This was the festival
52:33of Tlaxcatl,
52:34during which,
52:35traditionally,
52:36the Aztecs
52:36sacrificed,
52:37captured Tlaxcalan warriors.
52:39So the Spanish
52:40would have had
52:40enthusiastic backing
52:42from their Tlaxcalan
52:43allies
52:43for their butchery.
52:46What happened next
52:47has been the subject
52:48of much conjecture
52:49and debate.
52:51Some versions have it
52:52that Montezuma
52:53was led onto the balcony
52:54of the palace
52:54to call for peace
52:55but that he was stoned
52:57by his own people
52:58and later died
52:59of his wounds.
53:01Others blame the Spanish,
53:02claiming that they
53:03stabbed Montezuma
53:05to death.
53:06I think, on balance,
53:07the Spanish
53:07are the prime suspects.
53:09Cortes was certainly
53:10furious with Montezuma
53:12for conspiring
53:12with Narvaez
53:13against him.
53:15Secondly,
53:16he'd lost his usefulness
53:17to the Spanish
53:18as a mediator
53:19with the Aztec people.
53:20They had now spurned
53:22Montezuma
53:23for failing to lead them
53:24in revenge
53:24for the sacrilege
53:25and murder
53:26wrought by the Spanish.
53:28No longer
53:29did Montezuma
53:30speak for them
53:31with gods
53:32or mortals.
53:36Whichever version
53:37of his death
53:37is true,
53:38Montezuma
53:39had now become
53:39a sacrificial victim
53:41as well as
53:42a scapegoat
53:43and the Aztec people
53:45had just lost
53:46their last emperor.
53:49What followed
53:50was dramatic.
53:52Cortes lost control
53:53of the city
53:53and then recaptured it
53:54after a terrible siege.
53:57New Aztec leaders
53:58emerged
53:59who fought a legendary
54:00and heroic rearguard
54:01action against the Spanish.
54:03But the game was up.
54:05Soon,
54:06Tenochtitlan,
54:06the hub of empire
54:07was in ruins.
54:08A body dismembered,
54:10its heart excised.
54:14A contemporary Aztec poem
54:16sums up the devastation.
54:23Broken spears lie in the roads.
54:25We have torn our hair with grief.
54:27The houses are roofless now
54:29and their walls are red with blood.
54:32The water has turned red
54:33as if it were dyed
54:35and when we drink it,
54:36it has the taste of brine.
54:38We have pounded our heads
54:40in despair
54:40against the adobe walls
54:42for our inheritance.
54:43Our city is lost and dead.
54:46The shields of our warriors
54:47were its defence,
54:48but they could not save it.
54:51The death of Montezuma
54:52and the destruction
54:53of Tenochtitlan
54:54sent shockwaves
54:55across the empire.
54:57Montezuma's strength
54:58had always been
54:59the empire's potential weakness
55:01because all Aztec power,
55:03temporal and spiritual,
55:04had been embodied in himself.
55:06With his death,
55:07the empire quickly imploded.
55:09But not everyone
55:11was grief-stricken.
55:13The collapse of the empire
55:14had much to do
55:15with the revolt
55:16of its vassal states,
55:17men embittered
55:19by years of high-tribute demands
55:21from a vicious,
55:22tyrannical government.
55:23And the catalyst for all this
55:25came from a different world.
55:29Cortes's genius
55:29was that he turned this revolt
55:31into conquest.
55:34But the subjects
55:35of the Aztec empire
55:36would soon rue the day
55:38Cortes liberated them
55:39from the yoke of tribute
55:40and the tyranny
55:41of human sacrifice.
55:43For along with their new technology
55:45and the gift of Christianity,
55:47his troops brought something else.
55:49Disease.
55:51Recently,
55:51we might be forgiven
55:52for associating Mexico
55:54with a pandemic of flu
55:55visited on the rest of the world.
55:57Montezuma's only revenge, perhaps.
55:59But compare that
56:00to the destruction
56:01wrought by the European diseases
56:03on the Aztec people,
56:05smallpox in particular.
56:06Before the Spanish arrived,
56:08there was a population here
56:09estimated at 10 million people.
56:11By the year 1600,
56:14nine out of ten of those people
56:15had died of disease.
56:18The conquistadors
56:20in their Christian zeal
56:21also obliterated
56:23the Aztec secular
56:24and religious landscape.
56:25Temples,
56:26sacred enclosures,
56:27palaces.
56:28Their invented past
56:30as well as their very real present
56:31were bulldozed.
56:35Take this place,
56:37for example,
56:37Cholula,
56:38one of the finest churches
56:39in Mexico,
56:40sitting on top of a hill
56:41looking down on a city
56:43famous for its churches.
56:45Except if you look closely
56:47at the base of this hill,
56:48you'll realise
56:48it's not a hill at all.
56:49It's a pyramid,
56:51the one that in its time
56:52was the greatest of its kind
56:54anywhere in the world.
56:57The Spanish built this
56:58as a demonstration
56:59of the superiority
57:00of the Christian god
57:02over all others.
57:06On the one hand,
57:07what happened at Cholula
57:08can be seen as emblematic
57:09of something that was to take place
57:11throughout Aztec Mexico,
57:13a gradual blending
57:14of old and new worlds,
57:16a fusion of customs,
57:18beliefs,
57:19food, language,
57:19and most importantly,
57:21people.
57:23Much of the Mexican identity today
57:26stems in one way or another
57:27from the events of 1520 AD,
57:30the death of Montezuma,
57:31and the destruction of Tenochtitlan.
57:34That's the positive spin.
57:36Yet over the next 400 years,
57:38as Europeans thrust
57:39into new continents,
57:40Asia,
57:41Africa,
57:42and Australasia,
57:43what happened here
57:44can be seen
57:45as a bloody dress rehearsal
57:48for the greatest
57:49imperial expansion
57:50in the history
57:51of the human race.
57:52And that's what makes
57:53the obliteration
57:54of the Aztecs
57:55so powerful,
57:57so evocative.
57:58They're the first
57:59major civilization
58:00to be wiped out
58:02as the Europeans raced
58:04to dominate
58:05and exploit new worlds.
58:08That's also why I believe
58:09that these objects
58:10from the lost Aztec empire
58:12belong on a world stage.
58:14They're an eloquent reminder
58:16of a clash of civilizations
58:17that resonates to this day.
58:22They also give us a chance
58:24to reevaluate the central character,
58:26a man not now remembered
58:28as a hero,
58:29but one I think
58:30who showed considerable heroism
58:32in his attempt
58:33to hold back
58:34the irresistible force
58:36of a European invasion,
58:38Montezuma.
58:47Stay with us on BBC HD.
58:49From blood and guts
58:49to foaming at the mouth,
58:51one of the visiting mongrels
58:52has a problem.
58:53That's next,
58:54and later on,
58:55more comedy
58:55not going out.
58:56The End
59:00Splayed趵