Conquistadors - The fall of the Aztecs 5/5 (CC)

Conquistadors - The fall of the Aztecs Part 5 (Spanish CC)

In the decade before the Spanish arrived in Mexico, Aztec Emperor Montezuma II and his people were filled with a sense of foreboding. A series of evil omens had foretold of calamities to come. A fiery comet crossed the sky. The temple of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, burst into flames. The Lake of Mexico boiled and rose, flooding into houses. A weeping woman passed by in the middle of the night, crying "My children, we must flee far away from this city!" Fishermen discovered a bird that wore a strange mirror in the crown of its head. Montezuma looked into the mirror and saw a distant plain, with people making war against each other and riding on the backs of animals resembling deer.

An agitated Montezuma demanded that his soothsayers explain the meaning of these dire signs and was told that they prophesied the destruction of his kingdom. In fact, Montezuma had reason to be fearful - the Spanish had settled in Hispaniola and Cuba and were making their way toward his empire.

The Spanish had made several expeditions to the nearby Yucatan in 1517 and had returned with wonderous tales of a high-cultured Mayan civilization and gold riches. The news of these discoveries made an electrifying impression on the Spanish colonists in Cuba. Among these was Hernán Cortés, Chief Magistrate of Santiago. The Spanish governor of Cuba, Diego de Velásquez, told Cortés that he would provide two or three ships if Cortés would find the rest of the money, and lead the army. Cortés agreed and on October 23, 1518, Velásquez appointed him "captain-general" of a new expedition to the Yucatan.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Conquistadors
• Fall
• Aztecs
• Mexico
• Documentary

[sainters7]

I love at 1:27 how the narrator's nerding out and all excited talking about the brigantines Cortes built, and then when they show the Mexican forestry manager, he looks anything but impressed. A pretty clear example of very differing opinions on the same event (for obvious reasons).

[Cerl84]

The Spanish were nothing more than greedy, cruel, criminal killers,- and land thieves. Other than that I'm sure they were wonderful people.

[hdp26]

wow just 20 mosqueteers, that is quite a shitty firepower to turn an empire of millions of people on it's back, that requires big cohones.

[MrShrimples]

@xxxEmmureOwnxxx You retard, read once more my comment before you start attacking...... I wrote ''conquistadors and its allies were brutal to them..." and if there was no 500 spanairds who started the initiative natives that hated the aztecs would not attack (and won) at that moment.......

[xxxEmmureOwnxxx]

@MrShrimples You retard cortez wasnt powerful, they only won the aztecs because the natives that hated the aztecs help cortez beat them. all the guns n armor they had was shit to the aztec civilization because they only had about 500 spanairds against hundreds of thousands of aztecs. The spanish had about 200,000 natives defeat them. You should take a mexican history course.

[xxxEmmureOwnxxx]

@dab0331 Your right, the Aztecs should of treated the other people around nice, otherise the spanish wouldn't have defeated the Aztecs with the help of other native tripes.

[YumaTownx3LS]

NIMEXICATL

[dab0331]

@dharma6662000 the spanish didn't wipe them out. it was thier native american allies who did.

the aztecs wiped out and enslaved other nations to. thats why they were hated. it's just a vicious cycle. every nation in history has commited atrocities. GET OVER IT!.

and no not ever other native clan in mexico conducted or approved of sacrifice. some did. not all.