Engineering an Empire: The Aztecs (S1, E3) | Full Episode | History

Summary

Highlights

• The Aztecs transformed from a tribe of nomads to the greatest empire in the Americas in just two centuries! 🚀
• Their capital, Tenochtitlan, was a marvel of engineering, aweing European explorers as the 'Venice of the New World'! 🎇
• Ingenious engineering feats included constructing aqueducts and colossal pyramids! 🏗️
• Their religious practices included sacrificial rituals where human blood was seen as 'precious water' for their gods! 🌕
• The dramatic downfall came when Hernán Cortés led the Spanish conquest, dramatically ending their reign! 🛡️

Key Takeaways

• The Aztecs built the greatest empire in the Americas in just 200 years! 🌟
• Tenochtitlan was dubbed the 'Venice of the New World' by European explorers! 🌊
• Aztecs created impressive engineering feats like aqueducts and pyramids! 🔧
• Their ritual human sacrifices were meant to appease their gods with 'precious water' (blood)! 💧
• The Aztecs were toppled by Cortez and his Spanish forces, marking a pivotal moment in history! ⚔️

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to the Aztec Empire The chapter provides an introduction to the Aztec Empire, exploring the myth and legend surrounding their rise from a nomadic tribe to a sophisticated civilization. Within a span of just two hundred years, the Aztecs engineered one of the America's greatest empires, devising new systems and employing advanced technologies that were unparalleled for their time. Their civilization was noted to rival the sophistication of ancient Rome.
• 01:01 - 03:00: The Founding Myth of Tenochtitlan The chapter delves into the legendary founding of Tenochtitlan, a city that stood as a pinnacle of Aztec civilization, showcasing their advanced engineering and architectural prowess. The city, often likened to Venice, was a marvel to European explorers for its gleaming canals, lavish palaces, towering pyramids, and grand temples, all built in devotion to their gods and embodying the zenith of human achievement.
• 03:01 - 06:00: Tenochtitlan's Architectural Innovations Tenochtitlan's rise was marked by architectural marvels, showcasing their grandeur through beautiful mansions. However, their intense pursuit of power and violence set them on a tragic path, culminating in a swift and unparalleled downfall.
• 06:01 - 09:00: Water Management and the Aqueduct This chapter sets the stage in central Mexico, near what is now Mexico City. The narrative introduces a young girl, the daughter of a tribal king, who is preparing for her wedding. Her marriage signifies a union with a new tribe that has been hosted by her kingdom. This tribe, known today as the Aztecs, plays a central role in the unfolding story.
• 09:01 - 11:00: Chinampas and Agricultural Advancements In this chapter, a ritual ceremony is described where five Aztec noblemen lead a woman to an ancient temple. Initially, it appears she is being brought to the altar for a ceremony, but abruptly, the noblemen divert her to a sacrificial stone slab. Each man holds one of her limbs, allowing the fifth to wield an obsidian knife, which he uses to cut through her chest, extracting her heart.
• 11:01 - 14:00: The Expansion of the Aztec Empire The chapter describes a gruesome ceremony in the Aztec Empire where a king is invited to celebrate a marriage but instead witnesses a horrific ritual. A priest performs a dance wearing the skin of the king's daughter, who has been flayed as an offering to the god of fertility. The king is horrified by this brutal display.
• 14:01 - 17:00: The Arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors This chapter begins with the Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés arriving in the Americas. They quickly pursued the Aztec forces, driving them into a lake and onto an inhospitable island. Despite the unfavorable conditions, the Aztecs managed to overcome these challenges and established what would become the most formidable empire in the Americas.
• 17:01 - 21:00: The Fall of Tenochtitlan The chapter opens with the speaker, Peter Weller, sharing his personal impressions and thoughts on the Aztec civilization. He envisions them as a refined and elegant people, adorned with vibrant headdresses, and recalls a song by Neil Young that mentions Montezuma and Cortez. However, he also acknowledges the darker aspects of their culture, specifically the brutal rituals involving obsidian blades and human sacrifices.
• 21:01 - 23:00: Legacy and Reflection The chapter titled 'Legacy and Reflection' discusses the significance of human sacrifices in Aztec history, explaining that these sacrifices were conducted in a temple atop a stone pyramid. The Aztecs believed that such offerings were essential for the continuation of the universe, as they thought the sun would not rise without them. Although Aztec history combines elements of fact and myth, it is clear that these sacrificial practices were both the beginning of the Aztec empire and a symbolic starting point for its rise.

Engineering an Empire: The Aztecs (S1, E3) | Full Episode | History Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 it is a story wrapped in myth and legend how did a tribe of wandering nomads engineer the America's greatest empire in just two hundred years they have to devise these new systems which were storing them for their age their civilization rivaled Rome in its sophistication the Aztecs have the best technology that could be produced in the
• 00:30 - 01:00 conditions of which they live aqueducts palaces pyramids and temples stood as a tribute to their gods and a testament to the power of humankind the Aztecs crowning achievement was a gleaming capital city that astonished European explorers called the Venice of the new world the city spread out glittering against its canals and its lake bedecked with fine trees and
• 01:00 - 01:30 beautiful mansions their thirst for power and blood set them on a course for destruction when it finally came barren I elation would be swifter and more complete than the world had ever known [Music]
• 01:30 - 02:00 [Music] 13:25 ad central Mexico near modern-day Mexico City a young girl just a teenager is celebrating her impending wedding she is the daughter of a tribal king and she is about to join a new tribe that has been a guest of her kingdom that tribe is now known as the Aztecs
• 02:00 - 02:30 as part of the ritual 5 Aztec noblemen lead her to an ancient temple for the ceremony but as she reaches the top the noblemen suddenly veer her away from the altar and onto a slab of stone in front of the temple one used for sacrifice each man holds a limb while a fifth lifts an obsidian knife high in the air with one searing move he slashes it through her chest and extracts her still
• 02:30 - 03:00 beating heart that evening the king is invited to a ceremony to celebrate the marriage instead he finds a priest performing a dance wearing the still glistening skin of his daughter as part of the ritual the Aztecs had flayed her to honor the god of fertility he saw this and it was absolutely horrified at what he saw his
• 03:00 - 03:30 dear daughter and so he and his forces immediately chased the Aztecs into the lake and onto this island where they sought refuge the marshy island was an unwelcoming place yet it was from here that the Aztecs would beat the odds against them and forge the most powerful empire of the Americas
• 03:30 - 04:00 hi I'm Peter Weller when I think of the Aztecs I think of an elegant people with beautiful skin and flamboyant headdresses of many colors and I think of floating cities in a terrific song by Neil Young about Montezuma and Cortez but I also think of knives of obsidian glass ripping into chest cavities and hands pulling up bleeding hearts and holding them high
• 04:00 - 04:30 most of the astok sacrifices were performed in a temple atop a stone pyramid like this one the Aztecs felt that without these offerings the Sun would literally cease to rise and the universe would die now Aztec history is a fusion of fact and myth but what we do know is that this murder as horrific as it was not only marked the beginning of the Aztec empire it also marked the location from where it would rise [Music]
• 04:30 - 05:00 the island the Aztecs were banished to after their disastrous sacrifice of the princess was in Lake Texcoco the largest of five interconnected lakes covering a valley about 40 by 70 miles today this once vast and open Valley is teeming with what is modern-day Mexico City one of the largest cities in the world but 700 years ago the island was so
• 05:00 - 05:30 swampy no one had laid claim to it now as they gazed on the lake the Aztec leader tonneaus announced to his followers that he had seen an eagle perched on a cactus in the middle of the lake a sign from the gods that they had found their new home they would name their city to notate lon life is tough for the Aztecs in the early days of Tenochtitlan but they have
• 05:30 - 06:00 a vision a vision of a powerful city modeled on an ancient and legendary city just 25 miles away they called this city Teotihuacan or city of the gods we know very little about to you to back on because all we have is the archaeological remains we don't have any writing we don't have any documentation that that really fleshes out what went on at this big city it was in ruins even in Aztec times but they believed it to
• 06:00 - 06:30 be the stomping grounds of the gods and the literal birthplace of the Sun itself the place the Aztecs most revered in Teotihuacan was a pyramid that rose above the treeline it was called the Pyramid of the Sun the massive Sun pyramid contains a million cubic yards of Earth and stone with a base roughly the same as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt
• 06:30 - 07:00 the Aztecs believe Teotihuacan was laid out in the image of the cosmos created by their gods now it was this image they would attempt to replicate in the construction of their new city Tenochtitlan taking on the challenge would be an Aztec leader named a comma peach Bellini in 1376 he embarked on an ambitious plan to engineer an advanced City at Tenochtitlan but there was a
• 07:00 - 07:30 problem the swampy islands that they took over needed a lot of work when they started to build anything that would begin to subside there was simply no foundation on which to build the Aztecs solution would revolutionize the architecture of the Americas they began by anchoring their buildings deep in the ground using a system of pilings made from wood workers cut stakes into 30
• 07:30 - 08:00 foot lengths three to four inches wide these were driven into the soft ground to make a foundation the pilings were often surrounded with volcanic stone to add strength Mason's and bricklayers could then build walls on top of this base with confidence they have found wooden pilings to hold the foundations of the of the pyramids the fact that they didn't sink or the fact that he didn't just topple I think
• 08:00 - 08:30 that's a major feat of engineering Tenochtitlan was an island city but the lakes surrounding it were very shallow sometimes only seven feet deep the whole thing looked like a giant Metroplex floating on a pond originally the only way to get from this floating city to the mainland was by boat but the Aztecs eventually devised a series of causeways sometimes 45 feet wide that would connect their floating city to the mainland provinces the causeway was
• 08:30 - 09:00 supported by strong wooden pilings the same pilings that supported their temples and other buildings thousands of these pilings had to be driven deep into the lake bed and this presented a logistical challenge that could only be met by a strong skilled labor force and the best of Mesoamerican engineers to build a causeway two lines of stakes were laid out then the space between them was filled with stones and earth until it reached several feet above the water level this allowed the road to support
• 09:00 - 09:30 enormous weight these cosway's were built very straight they were very wide with bridges that would open up that connected the city to the north to the west and to the south the roads enabled the Aztecs to transport larger heavier materials for building but this presented a new challenge there were no beasts of burden in Mesoamerica so everything had to be done with humans no carts no wheel small loads would be carried on the back
• 09:30 - 10:00 with a rope hung from the forehead large items like stone blocks or sculptures for a temple would be dragged by huge numbers of men pulling ropes possibly using logs as rollers legend has it one stone bound for a temple required a force of 50,000 men to drag it from the mountains on the mainland across the causeway and into the city the cosway's would also present
• 10:00 - 10:30 the Aztecs with a new way to get fresh water to Tenochtitlan in the past the Aztecs had transported water in canoes from the shore but a huge boom in the city's population meant they needed a higher tech solution to keep up with demand they wanted to use water from the springs on the mainland and so they wanted to build an aqueduct but the springs were under control of
• 10:30 - 11:00 the dominant tribe in the region the ruthless technics the techniques were the controllers or the dominators of all the valley they had a very very strong empire so they were the Lords of the valley so the Aztecs were tributary subjects to them as the Aztec population grew tensions with the teppan acts began to simmer now the Aztecs decided to issue an ultimatum that could change the balance of power
• 11:00 - 11:30 in the region the people of Tenochtitlan not only demanded that the technics give them the water but also demanded that they help construct the aqueduct the tap an axe answer was swift and brutal the tappan a king maxed Allah sent assassins who murdered the reigning Aztec leader in cold blood this was the final straw after decades
• 11:30 - 12:00 of domination the Aztecs would finally make their move and wage war against their ruthless overlords and they would launch a series of wildly ambitious building projects around their growing island city that would earn them a reputation as the greatest engineers of the Americas the founding tribe of the Aztecs called themselves the Nashik
• 12:00 - 12:30 ax the country of Mexico gets its name from this tribe it is 1428 and the Aztecs have declared war on their overlords a tribe called the technics but to defeat the technics they would need a little help from their neighbors the Aztecs approached the nearby city-state of Texaco they're a decisive leader was on the rise his name
• 12:30 - 13:00 was Nets wall coyotl and his domineering leadership were instrumental in forging the Aztec empire with nets while Kyoto at their side the Aztec underdogs would go for the jugular they launched an all-out attack on the tapanade capital after a siege of more than 100 days they broke through tepa neck defenses and slaughtered their oppressors after
• 13:00 - 13:30 capturing the teppan at King Max Toa King Nets while coyotl personally cut out his heart and sprinkled his blood into the waters of Lake Texcoco suddenly the tables had turned that is the exact moment of the beginning of the empire and the Aztecs became the leaders of the valley of Mexico after conquering the valley of Mexico the Aztecs could now turn their attention to bringing clean water to
• 13:30 - 14:00 their growing city remarkably the Aztecs would independently design and build something that only a few world empires would master the aqueduct the aqueduct actually had two channels each about five feet high and three feet wide one would be cleaned and maintained while the other was being used so the water flow was never interrupted the twin-tube aqueduct ran for three miles from the mainland to the center of the
• 14:00 - 14:30 island city in town water streamed into public fountains and reservoirs and was distributed to the public in large clay jars or by canoe in comparison to the Europeans the astok were a very clean people we know that the Aztec emperor bathe twice a day so in terms of hygiene the Aztec people was much more advanced
• 14:30 - 15:00 than the Europeans while they as tech Nobles were bathing in luxury at this time in Europe plague caused by unsanitary conditions was killing millions King Nets while coyotl zone bath was one of the most unique in the Americas it was fed by a sophisticated aqueduct system that also brought running water to his palace grounds behind me is the hill of Ted Scott Cinco and on this hill
• 15:00 - 15:30 Naza walk alto built a fantastic pleasure palace and around this palace of virtual botanical garden filled with all of the exotic flowers of Mesoamerica naswa Kyoto brought water from the Sierra Nevada mountains all the way down to here into this hill to his palace just to water his plants to install an aqueduct their nets while coyotl had to fill a huge Gorge between Ted Coe Cinco and the next hill as the water arrived at the first hill it gathered in small
• 15:30 - 16:00 pools built to control the speed of the flow before it reached the aqueduct after crossing the aqueduct the water ran in a circuit around Tetsuo Cinco Hill spilling off over the sides in rock-cut waterfalls to water the gardens it ended up in a nearly perfectly round rock cut pool called the Kings bath and from here he could look upon his domain a texcoco and he could look down at the Botanical Gardens that he was watering
• 16:00 - 16:30 with his fantastic aqueducts it is indeed a bath fit for a king by the mid 15th century with their empire on the rise it was time for the Aztecs to choose a sovereign leader he was called Moctezuma and he would be the first of two emperors with this now famous name moctezuma's first order of business was to extend the Empire's borders the
• 16:30 - 17:00 Aztecs captured city-states southward to the Valley of Oaxaca westward to the Pacific and east toward the Gulf of Mexico by 1449 the Empire contained as many as 15 million people in the short span of 100 years the Aztecs accomplished the impossible they had toppled the Mesoamerican World Order but while the Aztecs dominated
• 17:00 - 17:30 militarily their island city was vulnerable to a different kind of enemy like New Orleans denotes tete LAN was constantly doing battle with water and one of Montezuma's first projects was to protect his City from the deluge of water surrounding it this is what is left of Lake Xochimilco in the southern part of Mexico City in Aztec times the
• 17:30 - 18:00 city of Tenochtitlan this Lake like the other four lakes that surrounded the city were spring fed thus there were no rivers or streams into which it could drain and if it rained hard enough the water would rise up and sweep over the land and into the city itself and this is exactly what happened in the mid 1400s when a flood of catastrophic proportions swept into Tenochtitlan the city and the empire commanded were almost completely destroyed and the Aztec civilization had to once again rely upon the genius of its engineers
• 18:00 - 18:30 and one engineer in particular Moctezuma enlisted the help of his old ally nets while coyotl to protect the city he was rebuilding from the lake nets while Kyoto would design a solution that would make him the greatest engineer on the continent his plan was to create a safe zone around the city with a huge dike that would protect Tenochtitlan and its inhabitants it was
• 18:30 - 19:00 designed to be larger than any earth work anywhere in the Americas at the time running for 10 miles just east of the city from the southern edge of the lake across to the north the walls were a wickerwork construction made of sticks Reed stone and earth since the lake was shallow the dike was only about 12 feet in height but some 27 feet wide Nets while coyotl fitted the Dyke with sluice
• 19:00 - 19:30 gates most likely wooden doors that would be raised or lowered to control the water level behind it the Dyke also served another purpose it protected their water supply it was important to build some sort of protective mechanism to keep saltwater out of the fresh water western part of the lake an army marches on its stomach so said Napoleon now an ample food
• 19:30 - 20:00 supply for civilians is a no-brainer in the critical development of any civilization but the Aztecs perfected a unique method not only to provide a substantial food supply for its civilian populace but to fuel the military expansion of its empire this revolutionary engineering was called chinampas a system that allowed them to literally create new land to farm and to live on if you're going to
• 20:00 - 20:30 have a city of any size you have to provide room for them and so what they did was build up these chinampas in the lake bed basically gene AMPA is an artificial island built in the lake they look like narrow football fields about 300 feet long by about 30 feet wide a chinampas was built by weaving a web of sticks floating in the water and piling reeds on top of them mud was then scraped from
• 20:30 - 21:00 the lake bottom and piled atop the reeds to form the chinampas it took four to six men eight days to build the average janaba they were connected to the city by massive navigational canals that would take thousands of men months to build a chinami like this one could produce up to seven crops a year whereas a farm on the mainland could yield one maybe two maybe three at the most as a crop was ready to harvest on Achin Appa seedlings
• 21:00 - 21:30 from another would be sprouting out of mud that would be spread on a boat adjacent to the chinami then when the seedlings were ready they'd be transported that janaba and this cycle would be repeated over and over and over again on hundreds and then thousands of chinampas now it was this technology that transformed pennilyn from just another tribal town in the 14th century to a dominant and thriving city state with their city's infrastructure in place and vast lands under their control the Aztecs would push the boundaries of
• 21:30 - 22:00 their empire further than ever before they'd create a far-flung network of roads Aztec super highways but as the Empire grew so too did their practice of human sacrifice soon rivers of blood would be flowing through the streets of Tenochtitlan the average life expectancy of an Aztek citizen was 37 years
• 22:00 - 22:30 today Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztec empire is gone buried under modern-day Mexico City but 700 years ago it was a shining Capitol on the rise built by advanced engineers and led by larger-than-life emperors by the late 15th century the Aztec population had
• 22:30 - 23:00 exploded their next great emperor would launch a series of conquests that would rival anything in world history his name was our weed so told and he would prove to be an even greater warrior than his grandfather Montezuma by 1502 our weed so dual had conquered territory from Mexico's Pacific coast and pushed the Empire as far south as
• 23:00 - 23:30 Guatemala his reign was kind of like a golden age he was a king that opened up transport routes to the coastal areas and to lowland areas where the Aztecs got the greatest luxuries these shimmering tropical feathers the gold precious stones that the the nobles and rulers war is symbols of their station in life [Music] to transport riches to the heart of the Empire the Aztecs constructed a network of super highways throughout central Mexico
• 23:30 - 24:00 [Music] relay runners were stationed every few miles to create a sort of ancient Federal Express messages or Goods could be sent 200 miles from the Gulf Coast to Tenochtitlan in just 24 hours faster than the postal service today [Music] with the Empire at its height the Aztecs under our weed soto embarked on their
• 24:00 - 24:30 greatest construction project a massive pyramid at the very center of Tenochtitlan the symbol of their absolute power it was called the templo mayor or great temple the base of the pyramid was 240 feet deep by 300 feet wide and rose to a height of 15 stories there were at least 117 steps in two staircases climbing 200 feet leading to twin temples to honor the gods of rain
• 24:30 - 25:00 and war the temple was rebuilt on the same location seven times beginning in 1325 with the city's founding as the Empire grew so did the pyramid each stage was simply built right on top of the stage before the temple Mayor was built mainly with a stone called decently that is volcanic stone is a
• 25:00 - 25:30 very light weight stone that would prevent the sinking of the other temple for floors and walls the Aztecs applied a lime plaster which was a form of concrete some examples found today remain as hard as modern concrete even after 500 years [Music] Aztec workers labored for decades to complete their monument to the gods the temple remained buried until 1978 when
• 25:30 - 26:00 power company workers digging a trench accidentally uncovered a huge carved stone and discovered the temple ruins next to it the disk eleven feet in diameter weighs eight tonnes and depicts the dismembered body of the goddess KO Yaqui coils shout Glee was the moon goddess but her brother murdered her because she became pregnant in a very shameful way now the Aztecs weren't prudes by any means
• 26:00 - 26:30 matter of fact Nobles had many wives and concubines but amongst the commoners particularly women adultery was a no-no and severely punished often by death so according to legend the moon goddesses brother cut her head off and after he decapitated her he shoved her body down a hill the Aztecs re-enacted this killing literally and frequently in festivals throughout their calendar year they would decapitate their victims at the top of a pyramid like this and then push the carcasses down the steps to the
• 26:30 - 27:00 great stone at the bottom for the Romans their most precious treasure was gold for the Egyptians it was the afterlife for the Aztecs it was human blood they felt a sense of reciprocity with the gods so they needed to give a Thanksgiving to the gods giving the most precious thing they had that was human blood the Aztecs called it precious water and
• 27:00 - 27:30 they believed that if the gods didn't receive it in massive quantities the world would end in apocalypse it was common practice to adorn the walls of the insides of the temples with fresh human blood and the smell must have been appalling to dedicate his expansion of the Great Temple Emperor our weed sotell held a mass sacrifice the heads of
• 27:30 - 28:00 victims were displayed prominently on skull racks around the temple according to some chronicles they say that there were sacrificed 20,000 people from a practical point of view and from a scientific point of view it sounds impossible so I think that The Chronicle that is written by Spanish sources is basically telling us that to their eyes they were many as our weed sodas rain continued the
• 28:00 - 28:30 bloodletting skyrocketed life in Tenochtitlan soon became an orgy of death friends and enemies alike would be brought in to witness the the sacrifices it's always ritual sacrifice was always a ritual event but it was also a political statement and it was a kind of form of intimidation by the time of our weed Soto's death the Aztecs had institutionalized sacrificial killing and turned killing on the battlefield
• 28:30 - 29:00 into an art form they were the America's fiercest fighters an elite cadre of whom would have a spectacular new mountainside temple dedicated to them but even they were not prepared for the war of the worlds' that was about to descend upon them the Aztecs used obsidian to craft their blades a volcanic stone so sharp it's utilized in modern day eye surgery
• 29:00 - 29:30 [Music] 15:02 are weeds Odle emperor of the aztecs is dead Moctezuma ii a 34 year old former priest comes to power a world away in Spain an 18 year old notary named Hernan Cortes is preparing to cross the Atlantic to join in his country's conquest of the new world
• 29:30 - 30:00 this is the zenith of the Aztec empire it now covers at least 80,000 square miles reaching out from Tenochtitlan to both coasts and as far south as Guatemala some 25 million people are subject to Aztec rule 38 provinces containing enumerable city-states are paying them heavy tribute making the Emperor and
• 30:00 - 30:30 Nobles fabulously rich the city spread out glittering against its canals and it's Lake bedecked with fine trees and beautiful mansions and Moctezuma ii presided over it all he was known for his statesmanship and military skills a tough leader he slaughtered the population of towns that wouldn't bend to his rule but privately he was troubled
• 30:30 - 31:00 it seems that Moctezuma was a passive individual perhaps even a depressive individual legend says that when he witnessed a comet streaking across the skies over to Noach tit lon he spent the rest of the night in tears as the week's went by he became increasingly paranoid
• 31:00 - 31:30 but at the height of his obsession with the supernatural a very real threat approached from across the sea spies posted along the Gulf Coast reported strange sightings offshore that they were at a loss to describe they never have seen a boat suddenly and even coming where the tool to describe that so the Indians refer to those bones as mountains that move in the water in 1519 after sailing from Cuba Cortez
• 31:30 - 32:00 landed with eleven of these floating mountains and five hundred men on the Gulf of Mexico two hundred miles southeast of Tenochtitlan the tribes were astonished by these men with metal armor and animals they had never seen as he moved inland tribes who resisted were brutally slaughtered but many others were happy to provide him with provisions and Men
• 32:00 - 32:30 one of the ways in which one local Lord down on the Gulf Coast curried favor was to give Cortes and his company a group of women who were to not only provide for them in housekeepers sort of manner but were also clearly meant to be courtesans as well and provide sexual services to them but among the concubines one in particular caught the eye of Cortes himself she was the
• 32:30 - 33:00 daughter of a chieftain who had been sold into slavery and was called La Malinche they developed an intimate relationship and in time she bore a son to him and he would have been one of the first people of mixed blood in the new world but she was much more than a mistress she became an interpreter for Cortes and her role expanded to advisor
• 33:00 - 33:30 and intermediary between him and the Aztecs not only was she his translator but she could also tell him about things that were being said that he was not intended to hear or understand moctezuma's network of relay runners kept him apprised of the spaniards movements it was clear they were headed for his city as he advanced toward Tenochtitlan
• 33:30 - 34:00 through the summer of 1519 Cortes amassed an army of thousands moctezuma's army of warriors numbered in the hundreds of thousands they wore animal costumes on the battlefield to intimidate their opponents part of it was spectacle you had just incredible costumes that different warriors would wear the most important warriors were Knights dressed as Jaguars
• 34:00 - 34:30 and eagles the Aztec Knights were initiated into their orders at sacred ceremonies of special temples like this one this is the cave temple at Mullen Alko one of six temples on this remote mountainside few hours south of Mexico City it was finished by Moctezuma ii around 1502 shortly after his coronation now over in Europe McKell Angelou was pounding out the David for the Republic of Florence but while Nicol Angelo was carving the David the Aztecs were here carving this
• 34:30 - 35:00 temple right out of the side of this mountain and it is the only temple in the entire western hemisphere built in this manner [Applause] at the bottom of the stairs of cou al-khali are the sculptures of two jaguars on each side of the door there are the remnants of two warriors now the door itself represents the open mouth of a giant serpent you can literally see its tongue coming out of the room the Aztecs
• 35:00 - 35:30 believed that this was the entrance to the womb of the earth now the privileged warriors would come here go into the room with sculptures of eagles have their noses pierced and offer blood and sacrifice do we still approach Lee a God of War but this would be by no means the last time these Aztec warriors would spill their blood the first meeting between Cortez and Moctezuma would be peaceful but the conquistador knew a huge and
• 35:30 - 36:00 bloody clash between the old world and the new would soon take place and the annihilation that ensued would become one of the most frightening events in the history of the Americans [Music] cocoa beans were so valuable a commodity to the Aztecs they were even used as currency
• 36:00 - 36:30 it is the fall of 1519 Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez has finally reached the gleaming Aztec capital he has heard so much about Tenochtitlan when the Spaniards first saw Tenochtitlan they thought they were in some kind of an enchanted vision they thought they'd entered some kind of a dream a massive force of native warriors allied against the Aztecs accompanies him as he advances on the main causeway
• 36:30 - 37:00 into the city the meeting of Cortez and Montezuma and a cause wave approaching Tenochtitlan had to be one of the most remarkable events in world history it's really a meeting of two different worlds Cortez offered his hand but the minute he started to do that to actually touch Montezuma the noble attendants around Montezuma pushed Cortez away and said no no no that's this a total indignity nobody touches Montezuma the great Lord
• 37:00 - 37:30 of the land the meeting of the two worlds was peaceful but fraught with tension Moctezuma by this time had become increasingly impulsive and prone to bouts of hysteria so the encounter was a an encounter of sensing the the forces now in each side but the Aztecs had a diplomacy and a warfare
• 37:30 - 38:00 system that was somewhat naive in comparison to the very tricky and sly system of the Europeans Moctezuma invited the Spaniards to stay in one of his palaces it would prove to be a catastrophic mistake as the spaniards entered the city they were so awed they thought they were dreaming at the heart of the cities to the Emperor's colossal palace
• 38:00 - 38:30 the palace of Montezuma ii was a massive complex spread across six acres near the Great Temple one of the Spaniards noted that every day at moctezuma's Palace 600 Nobles gathered and they would hear the word of their Emperor Moctezuma received the spaniards in a large reception chamber just beyond the main entrance designed to make the
• 38:30 - 39:00 emperor appear omnipotent but moctezuma's palace would be the last ever built by the Aztecs not a week into their visit the Spaniards went for the jugular kidnapping Moctezuma it was an audacious move but it paid off the Empire appeared to be theirs even though Moctezuma was still the official leader of the city it was he was really for some time nothing
• 39:00 - 39:30 more than a mouthpiece for Cortes for six months tensions within the walls of Tenochtitlan slowly simmered then in the spring of 1520 it all came to a head one morning Spanish soldiers interrupted a sacred sacrifice and slaughtered those taking part the move sparked an uprising for the Aztecs the Spaniards had committed an unspeakable sacrilege the city became
• 39:30 - 40:00 engulfed in chaos as the Aztecs marched on moctezuma's palace Zuma gets up on the top of the palace and tries to talk to the people and calm them down and by now they're just not having any of it Moctezuma had become nothing more than a Spaniards puppet a betrayal so great in the eyes of his people they pummeled him with rocks and arrows shortly after moctezuma's lifeless body was tossed from the palace walls whether
• 40:00 - 40:30 he died at Spanish hands or from injuries inflicted by his own people may never be known and the Spaniards at that point decide this would be a probably a good time to leave the city on the night of June 30th 1520 the Spaniards attempted to escape under cover of darkness but they can't separate themselves from the plunder that they've gotten so far so they're weighted down with all of the things
• 40:30 - 41:00 that they want to take with them they were easy targets for the Aztec warriors who caught them on the causeway bodies quickly piled up in the water 400 Spaniards were killed along with several thousand of their Indian allies that Escape has has come to be called the noche triste this sad night Cortez and a few others managed to escape with their lives the spaniards
• 41:00 - 41:30 would now destroy the shining city of Tenochtitlan for good he would begin by severing the lifeblood of the city the aqueduct has hundreds of thousands of people within the city's walls were without water Cortez created a blockade around two not--it lon to cut off all outside supplies of food so the idea of this blockade was to try to to make surrender the city by hunger
• 41:30 - 42:00 and the Aztecs had a tremendous resistance so they couldn't be defeated easily and what they decided to do is to mount an attack both by land and by sea for centuries the lake around Tenochtitlan was a barrier against invaders but Cortes would find a way around that he had thousands of his Indian allies carry ships in pieces of thousands of feet over the mountains to
• 42:00 - 42:30 be assembled and launched into the lake may 15 2014 7 e in a final decisive attack on Tenochtitlan 600 Spaniards including 100 cavalry men and upwards of 50,000 of their Indian allies clash with the Aztec defenders of the city on its grand cosway's
• 42:30 - 43:00 brutal fighting continued for months day by day portes raised the city block by block he and his Indian allies were merciless in their systematic slaughter of the population it was an extremely hard-fought battle especially in the city precincts the Aztecs made a last stand at the Great Temple in Tula two local warriors lined the steep steps to rain down arrows and rocks on their
• 43:00 - 43:30 enemy but it was hopeless on August 13th the final Aztec leader Cuauhtemoc was captured and surrendered to Cortese and that was just the beginning 20 million would die of disease brought by the Spaniards by the end of the sixteenth century we estimate that the native population had been reduced by about 90% [Music]
• 43:30 - 44:00 modern-day Mexico City has been built atop the rubble of the once majestic city of Tenochtitlan the Spaniards leveled it during the construction of their own colonial capital even using stones from the great temple to build their cathedrals still standing next to the temple ruins the Aztec empire had vanished and with it a legacy of astonishing
• 44:00 - 44:30 engineering achievements it has become clear from their sophisticated systems of urban planning agriculture and Water Works that the Aztecs stood among the most advanced of the world's great empires the cave temple here at Milan Alko is one of the few truly impressive Aztec achievements that the Spanish did not destroy and stunning sites such as this begged the tantalizing question if the Spanish had not come what would Mexico look like today I
• 44:30 - 45:00 peter weller for the History Channel you you