Monday, August 13, 2007
This Day in the History of Liberations of the Oppressed
On this day in 1521, Hernando Cortez took the Aztec capitol, Tenochtitlan, after a three month seige and ended what may have been the most evil empire ever to exist--an empire devoted to organized cannibalism. School children have been taught for decades that the Spanish were the bad guys who murdered and then exploited the innocent and peace loving Indians. The truth is nearly exactly opposite that.
Labels: Aztec History
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:53 AM 
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They conquered the evil Aztecs, and carried in some unfortunate diseases, but they also brought salvation, laws, roads, cattle, pigs, grain, sheep, horses, goats, western scientific methods and medicine. Except for that, I guess they did nothing for the native Indians.
No, silly [poor) user of sarcastic reduction ad absurdum, the Spanish came to Mexico, because they could, having ocean going ships and all. Oh, the other gifts from the Spanish, wheel and arch.
I do not subscribe to the "white man's burden," I am only noting historical fact. You can do the ethnographic value judgments.
I do not subscribe to the "white man's burden," I am only noting historical fact. You can do the ethnographic value judgments.
Well you said it was almost exactly the opposite, so what exactly did you mean by that.
Yeah, I could kill my downstairs neighbor who is a vile excuse for a human being.
That doesn't make it a good thing to do.
Yeah, I could kill my downstairs neighbor who is a vile excuse for a human being.
That doesn't make it a good thing to do.
You gotta take the rough with the smooth, but for a hundred reasons, life was better after the Spanish came. If the Aztec 'culture' disappeared, I say good riddance, just as I'm glad the Nazi 'culture' is gone, etc. Evil is evil. And to answer you first question, I deny that the Spanish murdered the Indians wholesale. Fighting a war of liberation or conquest, depending on the popular view of the beaten, is not murder. I'm hedging on enslavement. Certainly they did not enslave them like Arabs enslaved captured Christians and some West Africans enslaved other West Africans.
R,
There were a lot of other indiugenous cultures in N. and C. America oather than the Aztecs.
They wound up on th ewrong side of history but that doesn't make the Spanish necesssarily "good."
T
There were a lot of other indiugenous cultures in N. and C. America oather than the Aztecs.
They wound up on th ewrong side of history but that doesn't make the Spanish necesssarily "good."
T
# posted by 
: 5:14 PM
: 5:14 PM
Tony, there's still a Mayan language and culture and a distinct culture in the Andes (not the Inca any more, who were bad to fair socialists).
Mike, I'd have to know more to say yeah or nay but the lawyer in me advises you not to murder anyone.
Mike, I'd have to know more to say yeah or nay but the lawyer in me advises you not to murder anyone.
Don't forget that the Aztecs enslaved, killed and captured many surrounding tribes in their conquest of central Mexico, and it was these disaffected tributaries who assisted the rather small Spanish contingency. That the Spanish were disease vectors for smallpox was entirely out of their control.
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