Ancient Mysteries: Aztec Empire Secrets (S4, E10) | Full Episode | History

Summary

Highlights

• The episode explores how the Aztecs viewed human sacrifice as a necessary religious ceremony, rather than an act of violence. 🔪
• The Spanish conquistadors saw Aztec religious practices as barbaric, yet they brought their own brutality. ⚔️
• Montezuma's belief in the prophecy about the god Quetzalcoatl led to catastrophic decisions when the Spaniards arrived. 📖
• Tenochtitlan’s impressive infrastructure included floating gardens and extensive trade networks. 🏞️
• A serendipitous archaeological discovery in 1978 unveiled the magnificence of the Great Temple. 🏺

Key Takeaways

• The Aztecs built extraordinary cities and produced profound art, yet their practices of human sacrifice leave a complex legacy. 🏛️
• Despite their military prowess, the Aztecs' belief in prophecy contributed to their downfall. 📜
• Tenochtitlan was a marvel of urban planning, comparable to Venice, with its network of canals. 🌊
• The arrival of the Spanish, interpreted as the return of the god Quetzalcoatl, led to the empire's collapse. 🚢
• Aztec culture was a blend of stunning artistry and dark religious rituals. 🎭

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 10:00: The Rise and Mysteries of the Aztec Empire The Aztecs were the rulers of a vast and powerful empire in Mexico known for their architectural and cultural achievements.
• 10:00 - 20:00: Aztec Society and Its Complexities The Aztecs created a culturally rich and complex society, akin to their sophisticated art and music. Despite these achievements, their civilization was deeply rooted in a religion that necessitated human sacrifices, compelling them to kill thousands.
• 20:00 - 30:00: The Spiritual Beliefs and Human Sacrifice The chapter explores how the Aztec civilization became one of the most powerful and fearsome in the Western Hemisphere. It delves into the intriguing mysteries surrounding their practices, particularly focusing on why the Aztecs engaged in human sacrifice. The chapter also examines evidence pointing to the presence of cannibalism within Aztec rites and rituals and seeks to understand the reasons behind these practices. Additionally, it questions how the mightiest Empire of the time could have embraced such rituals as part of their spiritual beliefs and societal norms.
• 30:00 - 40:00: The Aztec Empire's Demise This chapter explores the factors leading to the demise of the Aztec Empire. It delves into how a small group of Spanish conquistadors were able to conquer this great civilization. Through an exploration of the wonder and magic of the Aztecs, the chapter seeks to uncover answers to these historical mysteries.
• 40:00 - 51:00: The Legacy of the Aztecs The chapter explores various myths about the origin of the Indians, with some beliefs suggesting they were born from springs of water or caves, while others propose that they are descendants of gods.

Ancient Mysteries: Aztec Empire Secrets (S4, E10) | Full Episode | History Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] the Aztecs rulers of a mighty Mexican Empire they built magnificent cities
• 00:30 - 01:00 composed sensitive songs and poetry [Music] they fashioned a society that was as rich in as complex as the transcendent works of art they produced yet they were committed to a religion in which their gods drove them to kill thousands in human sacrifice from their shadowy beginnings as a small wandering
• 01:00 - 01:30 tribe the Aztecs transformed themselves into the most powerful and fearsome civilization in the Western Hemisphere their mysteries still intrigue us why did the Aztecs practice human sacrifice what evidence points to cannibalism in Aztec rites and rituals and why was it performed and how could the mightiest Empire of
• 01:30 - 02:00 the new world be destroyed by a small group of Spanish conquistadors discover the answers to these and other mysteries as we explore the wonder and magic of the Aztecs [Music]
• 02:00 - 02:30 some say that the Indians were born of Springs of water others say that they were born of caves or that their race is that of the gods for the Diego to run
• 02:30 - 03:00 the Aztecs cast their mighty shadow across an empire stretching from northern Mexico to what is today Guatemala they ruled over ten million subjects dominating a far-flung kingdom of city-states at the height of Aztec power between 13 and 15 hundred their capital was the
• 03:00 - 03:30 largest city in the world but today that city is no more who were these people so brilliant in the arts so fierce in battle and so fanatically devoted to their religion of human sacrifice to this day their exact
• 03:30 - 04:00 origin is lost in the shadows of time heesu uno de los elementos por ejemplo one of the points specialists are still arguing about is where the Aztecs really come from whether the group was already settled in the valley of Mexico or if they came from the north these questions are still unanswered
• 04:00 - 04:30 despite the scholarly controversy Aztec legends relate that they first emerged from a supernatural place called the seven caves [Music] from there they journeyed to aztlán an island city in the middle of a lake [Music] it is from Aslan that they took their
• 04:30 - 05:00 name Aztec from Aslan in the year 1116 they began an epic 200 year Odyssey [Music] but what drove these Wanderers who like the Israelites of the Bible saw themselves as a chosen people searching
• 05:00 - 05:30 for their promised land [Music] according to Aztec legends the command to set forth came from their tribal deity quit seal approached Li the god of
• 05:30 - 06:00 the Sun and God of War [Music] as the tribe wandered the high priests carried an effigy of which Allah partly with them when their God spoke they obeyed [Music] but how did he communicate with them supposedly this image actually spoke to
• 06:00 - 06:30 them in their language but spoke through the medium of the priests and then the priests would transmit this message and the original message was now you must leave aslan you must migrate to the south but yeah and you must obey my commands but I promise you this great destiny I promise you the world [Music] the Aztecs felt that they were the people destined to maintain the cosmos and to see that the Sun would have
• 06:30 - 07:00 enough energy to fight his way across the sky and that the earth had enough nutrition to bear the crops and they felt that they could only do this by making offerings and mostly blood offerings according to Aztec beliefs the human heart was the most precious gift which mere mortals could offer to the gods the ritual of human sacrifice was not an act
• 07:00 - 07:30 of murder but proof of their devotion the basic rationale for it was that the Sun literally subsisted on human hearts and human blood they were feeding the Sun to maintain the universe they fell it was an obligation for the good of their community during their epic journey the Aztecs would sometimes settle for a time and work the land [Music]
• 07:30 - 08:00 to promote fertility they worshiped the rain god clock [Music] strangely their belief in Slawek would inspire even more extreme forms of human sacrifice the rain guards were conceived as infantile Dwarfs so in the cult of taluk it was considered particularly appropriate to sacrifice young children
• 08:00 - 08:30 up to the age of five and six the Aztecs believed that to obtain the blessings of flock the young victims must shed tears before their sacrifice [Music] and this apparently was a form of what they call sympathetic magic the tears of the children would bring down the tears
• 08:30 - 09:00 of the sky namely the rain which they were always so anxious to promote and then they would sacrifice them in the usual fashion by tearing out their little hearts after a 200 year Odyssey the Aztecs reached the valley of Mexico [Music] they're at the hands of a neighboring tribe they suffered a humiliating defeat
• 09:00 - 09:30 they were forced to retreat to the swamps of a tiny island in a vast lake [Music] it was here that their priestly Oracle's commanded them to search for an eagle perched upon a cactus this sign they said would mark the end of their quest for a homeland
• 09:30 - 10:00 [Music] at dawn they glimpsed a mighty eagle upon a prickly pear cactus they named the spot Tenochtitlan finally after 200 years their journey had ended you [Music]
• 10:00 - 10:30 by 1324 ad the Aztecs had finally reached their promised land an island in the middle of a lake [Music] in this most unlikely of sites they would somehow build Tenochtitlan one of
• 10:30 - 11:00 the most awesome cities the world had ever seen but how could a city built on a small island hold a population that would soon swell to a quarter of a million people [Music] using the simple but ingenious method of pounding stakes into the lake bed and then lashing them together with reeds the Aztecs poured in mud and rocks to literally build themselves more land
• 11:00 - 11:30 they expanded their small island into a vast 2,500 acres when the Spanish conquistadors first saw the Aztec city in 1519 they were amazed they're in the center of the lake was this gleaming white city it was something they had never seen before and for us we could almost imagine as
• 11:30 - 12:00 Dorothy looking at the you know at oz for the first time it was far larger at a quarter of a million people than any city they had ever seen in Europe by the 1500s Tenochtitlan was a teeming metropolis [Music] it held twice the population of London or Rome [Music]
• 12:00 - 12:30 elsewhere around the world at the height of the Italian Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci had invented a rudimentary tank in Germany Martin Luther tries to reform the Roman Catholic Church and is excommunicated while in Japan the performance of no drama had reached the height of its popularity
• 12:30 - 13:00 the creation of Tenochtitlan demanded a skilled army of thousands of craftsmen yet how the Aztecs performed this formidable task of construction remains a mystery for though the Aztecs used the wheel for their children's toys they put it to no practical use [Music]
• 13:00 - 13:30 without the wheel or beasts of burden how could the Aztecs build on such a monumental scale experts theorize the answer lies in the ingenious concept of the city itself like Venice Italy Tenochtitlan was criss-crossed by an intricate network of canals could the Aztecs have used thousands of canoes to
• 13:30 - 14:00 move the tons of materials needed for the city's construction however Tenochtitlan was completed the Spaniards were awed by this surprisingly modern city when they got closer to the city and began to walk down the causeways they were astounded at how clean the streets were in the city in fact refuse was taken out of the city daily they were astounded at the reuse
• 14:00 - 14:30 of everything they were master ecologists the way everything was so carefully painted and ornamented in it and how orderly Aztec life was to precisely determine the exact days for planting and harvesting the Aztecs established an accurate calendar systematically charting the heavens
• 14:30 - 15:00 Aztec medicine was also highly sophisticated with over 100 herbal remedies for specific ailments [Music] as impressive as he has six scientific achievements however was their creative genius to an extraordinary degree they viewed every aspect of life as an opportunity for creative expression [Music] Aztec society is known for its
• 15:00 - 15:30 militarism its interest in human sacrifice so that there's a tendency to look at all Aztec life as a very brutal but in fact there was an Aztec a rich Aztec tradition of poetry of music and of drama surprisingly many of the most sensitive antic poems came from the most unlikely composers the battle-hardened warriors
• 15:30 - 16:00 the gold and black butterfly is sipping the nectar the flower bursts into bloom ah my friends it is my heart I send on a shower of white frangipani flowers you [Music]
• 16:00 - 16:30 the Aztecs produced a dazzling variety of sculpture breathtaking in its austere beauty and awesome power [Music] researchers have been astounded that the Aztecs used only primitive stone chisels to create these monumental works yet for
• 16:30 - 17:00 all its life-affirming splendor Aztec culture was also steeped in a cult of death even the city's most remarkable architectural achievement the Great Temple had a dark purpose for here in the inner sanctum of shrines
• 17:00 - 17:30 to the gods flock and Witsel approach Li were bloody receptacles containing hearts of sacrificial victims and in the shadows of the temple another even more startling ritual was performed [Music]
• 17:30 - 18:00 by the 1500s the Aztecs dominated most of the surrounding city-states and governed an empire of over 10 million despite the Aztecs agricultural genius the capital of Tenochtitlan could not support itself economically to survive it required the tribute of conquered
• 18:00 - 18:30 peoples I believe that Aztecs are an example of a warring people par excellence their world was structured around war the young men knew that the only possibility they had to leave the harsh life of farming carrying stones working to build the temples and palaces was to be skillful in war
• 18:30 - 19:00 [Music] surprisingly the goal of Aztec warriors was not to kill their enemies in battle instead the Aztecs believed they had to capture them alive to sacrifice them to the gods I think the scale and scope of human sacrifice in Aztec culture was probably the greatest of any known culture but I think there's been a lot of misunderstanding about it there was nothing sadistic or savage or
• 19:00 - 19:30 barbaric as we usually define it it was just a religious obligation that they took very seriously scholars have been surprised to discover that - the Aztecs and their neighbors death by sacrifice was more honorable than death in battle in fact the sacrificial victims went willingly and in return the captive was
• 19:30 - 20:00 promised a world an afterlife in a world with the Sun himself he would live as a king in this world of the Sun may his heart not falter may he longed for the flowery death by the Obsidian knife may he save her the sweetness of the darkness as that prayer for sacrificial warriors presiding over these blood offerings were the priests both male and female
• 20:00 - 20:30 what drove them to slaughter thousands surprisingly scholars believe these religious acts were intended not to display the priests power but to show their humility go for the names they would let their hair grow long paint their bodies black and at a ceremony in which they extracted a heart they would let the victim's blood fall upon their
• 20:30 - 21:00 heads in such a way that the sticky dry blood the skin and the dirt symbolized the battle of man against his own vanity that repulsive look showed much devotion human sacrifice took many forms perhaps one of the most mystifying to scholars was the act of playing a captive and then wearing his skin
• 21:00 - 21:30 they really apparently developed surgical skills in dispatching their victims and then taking off their skins and we have a number of images stone idols of the gods sheep a shown actually wearing the human skin the purpose of this strange ritual still mystified scholars [Music] what the exact significance of wearing the skin was has been very controversial
• 21:30 - 22:00 and scholars disagree it seems to have had some connection with the promotion of fertility [Music] even the most forbidden of all human practices was viewed by the Aztecs as a sacred sacrament for after death the victims limbs were severed from the body stood and ritually eaten by the priests and the nobility the victim was
• 22:00 - 22:30 transformed sacralized as we say into the Godhead and by ingesting small pieces of the flesh of the victim they were ingesting into their own bodies the sacred essence when the first Catholic missionaries viewed these startling rites they were horrified for they viewed them as a diabolical perversion of their own ritual of communion
• 22:30 - 23:00 the Aztecs however saw them as essential for the survival of their world [Music] one rare ceremony only performed every fifty two years was considered the most vital of all [Music] as night fell the high priests dressed
• 23:00 - 23:30 to personify their most powerful gods ascended the highest hill in Tenochtitlan [Music] at precisely midnight one priest killed a captive and pulled out his heart then inside the victims chest cavity he attempted to Kindle a fire if the priest had failed to ignite this new fire the
• 23:30 - 24:00 universe would end the stars would turn into monsters they would descend from heaven they would devour mankind and that would be the end of everything but if the fire flared up then they knew there was renew at least for 52 years the Aztecs sacrificed to sustain their gods and to ensure the stability of the cosmos yet ironically they're very belief in the supernatural would lead to their annihilation
• 24:00 - 24:30 [Music] [Music]
• 24:30 - 25:00 proud of itself is the city of Mexico Tenochtitlan here no one fears to die in war who could conquer Tenochtitlan who could shake the foundation of heaven aztec poem 1400s by the year 1500
• 25:00 - 25:30 chitlin had attained the height of its power it was here in the capital that their all-powerful King motek azuma ii resided in awesome splendor the ruler who would be later known as Montezuma lived like a god because he and his subject believe he was wandering
• 25:30 - 26:00 Tocqueville II in me roughly you could not touch him you could not look at him commoners could not have any contact with him he thought he was a living God and no one could turn their back on him or look him in the eye despite his grandeur the Aztec empire was poised on the brink of destruction
• 26:00 - 26:30 for in the year 1519 the words of an ancient prophecy would come back to haunt Mata Kazama the prophecy told of the ancient God Quetzalcoatl was said to have departed Mexico on a raft of woven serpents [Music] curiously Quetzalcoatl is said to have been white skinned and to have worn a
• 26:30 - 27:00 beard before he left Quetzalcoatl would return to reclaim his throne the predicted year of Quetzalcoatl was to be the year one read on the Aztec calendar as fate would have it that year on the Christian calendar was 1519 the very year what the COS OMA received
• 27:00 - 27:30 reports of strange moving mountains seeing in the waters off the Mexican coast line the Armada of the Spanish conquistador Cortez had arrived was this one of history's most remarkable coincidences or had the ancient Aztec prophecy foretold their
• 27:30 - 28:00 own destruction as soon as the Spaniard landed what the kazuma sent him lavish gifts ironically the very gold intended to win Cortes favor would assure of Montezuma's destruction [Music] what occurs almas ambassador asked
• 28:00 - 28:30 cortez why he hungered for a mineral the Aztecs called the excrement of the dogs Cortez answer was surprisingly candid we expand yours a suffer from a disease of the heart which only gold can pure [Music] whatever gold the Aztecs could provide him only whetted Cortez appetite for more to achieve his conquest of Mexico
• 28:30 - 29:00 Cortez would rely on a frail Indian woman he encountered named Mullin for she spoke the Aztec language and became his interpreter she became the mediator between Cortes and all of the Aztecs that he came into contact with so she was she was the communications
• 29:00 - 29:30 link without her he never could have succeeded the Mexicans today used the term Malin Shaffer traitor and they see her as a traitor a woman who betrayed her own people [Music] with militias help Cortez launched his bloody invasion into the heart of the kingdom [Music]
• 29:30 - 30:00 at first local tribes resisted the Spanish onslaught but their arrows and war clubs were no match for the swords and cannons of the Spaniards [Music] some historians have suggested that the real secret weapon of the Spanish was the horse an animal which the Aztecs had never seen before there's a favorite
• 30:00 - 30:30 legends repeated in every book on the history of Latin America oh the Indians thought the horse and the man were one creature but how true that is how do we know what they really thought when they first saw a horse better the idea they thought it was a one creature like a centaur I think his message witnessing the Aztec practice of human sacrifice the spaniards viewed them as
• 30:30 - 31:00 barbarians yet the Aztecs were equally shocked by the brutality of the conquistadors these soldiers were setting fires these soldiers were killing these soldiers were branding the captured Indian slaves in the forehead with hot iron the Spaniards fought to kill and of
• 31:00 - 31:30 course the Aztecs fought to take sacrificial victims so an Aztec would never want to kill someone on the battlefield because it would be wasted blood the Aztecs saw that as an incredible waste of human life why on earth would anybody just recklessly destroy the human body to the Aztec the body was something sacred it did not really belong to man it belonged to a God but how could Cortes with only 600 men
• 31:30 - 32:00 16 horses and a few cannon conquer an empire of millions [Music] as he fought his way towards Mexico City Cortes made allies of the many tribes mocked the Kazuma had oppressed these warriors swelled his force into an army of thousands eager to destroy their Aztec overlords [Music]
• 32:00 - 32:30 whether the neighboring tribes the Aztecs had enslaved saw Cortes as a god or a man to them he represented salvation [Music] by November 7th 1519 the Spaniards and 50,000 Indian allies looked down upon Tenochtitlan [Music]
• 32:30 - 33:00 the stage was set for one of the most extraordinary confrontations in history [Music] scholars have been mystified that after waging so many battles against Cortez Montezuma welcomed him as the returning
• 33:00 - 33:30 God Quetzalcoatl oh our lord the haas come to arrive on earth thou has come to govern the city of mexico the ancient rulers departed saying that thou wouldst come now it has been fulfilled what a Kazuma ii but the Kazama invited the Spaniards
• 33:30 - 34:00 into the heart of the city there the Aztec rulers showered them with lavish gifts of gold and silver jewelry he indulged them in the splendor of his ornate palace and yet within one week Cortes repaid Misaka somas hospitality with betrayal [Music] the Spaniard had his men shackle mother
• 34:00 - 34:30 Kazuma in Chains [Music] you [Music] [Music] in November 1519 the Aztec ruler
• 34:30 - 35:00 Matsoukas OMA was held a prisoner in Chains in his own palace by Cortes and his men [Music] hungering for more gold the Spanish found the royal treasury and looted it [Music] priceless ancient artifacts were melted down into gold bars for the Aztecs the
• 35:00 - 35:30 Spaniards frenzy of greed seemed absurd [Music] they seized upon the gold as if they were monkeys clearly their thirst for gold was insatiable they starved for it they lost it for it they wanted to stuff themselves with it as if they were pigs from the Aztec accounts told to father Bernardino's Hagen 1577
• 35:30 - 36:00 part of the Spaniards mission had been to spread the true faith of Catholicism [Music] they saw the Aztecs gods as Devils and set out to destroy their idols Cortes did try to throw down some of the idols he demanded when he had motek uzoma a prisoner that they removed the two
• 36:00 - 36:30 principal idols of the temple of my ore which was a huge stone image of Huitzilopochtli and another of Lolich the preeminent rain God so the Indians took them down the stairs hid them someplace in a cave that never been found to this day scholars wonder whether this priceless lost treasure may be hidden somewhere in the valley of Mexico waiting to be discovered [Music]
• 36:30 - 37:00 On June 29 1520 with their temples desecrated and their Emperor in Chains the Aztecs finally rebelled against the Spanish invaders [Music] thousands surrounded the palace in this final climactic moment Cortez brought
• 37:00 - 37:30 maracas OMA out onto a balcony to calm the mob but his subjects shouted that motor Kazuma was a traitor [Music] and then something very mysterious happened the spaniards claimed that iraq did in fact impact Motyka sohma's head and didn't in fact fracture his skull according to Cortes otaku's OMA was then
• 37:30 - 38:00 was not dead at the time he was escorted back to his quarters where he then received the Holy Sacrament from a friar and died in heavenly bliss as a true Christian the Aztecs however tell a dramatically different story they insist that Cortez seeing Montezuma was no longer a value drew his dagger and drove it deep into
• 38:00 - 38:30 the Emperor's back was Cortez guilty of Montezuma's murder or was motor Kazama killed by his own people perhaps this mystery will never be solved what is known is that after motor kazuma's death Aztecs attacked the Spaniards with a vengeance during a
• 38:30 - 39:00 night of confusion and bloodshed Cortes fought his way out of the city but lost half his men [Music] ironically many wounded Spaniards drowned in the canals weighed down by the gold they had stolen
• 39:00 - 39:30 yet in the bloodiest defeat of their campaign the Spanish left behind something far more lethal than the blades of their swords smallpox there came to be prevalent a great sickness a plague many died of it no longer could they walk indeed many people died and
• 39:30 - 40:00 many just died of hunger there was no one to take care of another there was no one to attend another from the Aztec account told to father Bernardino de Zargon 1577 [Music] over the next decade 80% of the population of central Mexico would die from the Spanish conquistadors deadly
• 40:00 - 40:30 legacy as the epidemic began to take its toll the Spanish returned to Tenochtitlan they laid waste what once had been the mightiest city on earth so totally was the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan obliterated that even the location of the great temple had been lost for centuries modern Mexico covers the
• 40:30 - 41:00 ancient Aztec capital and every time a new building is built or a new foundation is dug they will come up with an ancient Aztec sculpture or an edge of an old Aztec temple or Palace because the great cities of Mexico are on top of the old Aztec cities so the mystery I think for today is what else is there
• 41:00 - 41:30 waiting to be found [Music] in September 1978 digging 15 feet below street level a workman made an astonishing discovery [Music] a magnificent sculpture of the Aztec moon goddess koyuki at over 8 tons an 11
• 41:30 - 42:00 feet in diameter she had rested undisturbed beneath the asphalt of downtown Mexico City for over 4 centuries [Music] even more surprisingly the sculptures seem to be part of a much bigger structure the Aztecs holiest shrine the long-lost great temple had at last been found [Music]
• 42:00 - 42:30 since 1978 professor Eduardo Montes Moctezuma and his team have excavated over 5,000 priceless objects at the ancient Aztec site relics which speak eloquently of a vanished way of life [Music]
• 42:30 - 43:00 I think the biggest misconception about the Aztecs is that people feel they were savages but in fact they were not they were deeply moral people and from the time an Aztec child was very young that child was taught to be prudent to be discreet to be modest and to always do the correct thing the Aztecs even though they did practice human sacrifice and their warriors were valiant were themselves circumspect and
• 43:00 - 43:30 moral people [Music] today in the shadow of a catholic cathedral built over what was once a holy aztec shrine the aztec civilization still survives for every year drawn from
• 43:30 - 44:00 villages throughout mexico the descendants of the aztecs make a pilgrimage here they come to celebrate a lost Empire which seems as distant as a dream yet as real as the land itself sweet flower of
• 44:00 - 44:30 cacao bursts open with perfume the fragrant flower of peyote falls in the raining mist I the singer I live my song is heard it takes root our flowers stand up in the rain aztec saw
• 44:30 - 45:00 [Music] you
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