Aztec Tossers

With the opening of Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler, the last in the series of British Museum exhibitions on power and empire, comes a Guardian editorial - in praise of the Aztecs:

The Aztecs remind us that there is nothing uniquely European about the forward march of technical progress. As for European claims of moral advancement, never forget that gunpowder settled the clash of civilisations. Had things played out differently, Aztec museums might now allow us to marvel at scary savages who slaughtered their enemies by blasting fire out of the end of a tube.

Could the Guardian ever, conceivably, drop the moral relativism? The Aztec empire required constant warfare and conquests in order to meet the demand for more and more victims to march up to the top of their pyramids and have their hearts cut out. Admittedly the Spanish weren't quite the Sisters of Mercy, but, frankly, this was not a civilisation heading for liberal democracy, quantum physics, and Strictly Come Dancing.

And this is baffling:

The Aztecs are said to have chosen the spot for their capital by tossing a heart in the air...

How far can you throw a heart in the air? Even the biggest tosser could only make a difference of 20 yards or so one way or the other. I don't think they've quite thought this one through.

Comments

[Dom]

Your second link is wrong.

[Mick H]

Thanks. Fixed it.

[Ross]

I thought they chose their capital because of the presence of a bird on a cactus that fulfilled some kind of prophecy.

[Mick H]

Sounds more likely than a tossed heart.

[tolkein]

Did you see the BBC programme fronted by - no nepotism at the BBC, no sirree!- Dan Snow on the same subject. Urging viewers not to get grossed out by the whole slaughtering 20,000 people by cutting them open, ripping out the heart while they were still alive, then tossing the bodies down to waiting nobles who would proceed to eat them. Missed the bit about torturing children because their tears would encourage the rains, but hey, look at the Spaniards. Finished with how people might not have been so keen on replacement of Aztec rule with Spanish rule because of the introduction of smallpox. No thought that once Europeans arrived in the Americas they would bring their diseases with them, whether or not the Aztecs were overthrown. Montezuma was portrayed as a hero. Are there any tyrants the BBC won't suck up for?

It was disgusting.

[Martin Adamson]

Cortes's guns had little to do with it, other than a dubious psychological effect. Once fired, they would have taken minutes to reload, plenty of time for your flint sword wielding jaguar warriors to chop the Spaniards into messes. As many others have pointed out, it was Cortes' allies amongst the Aztec's victims that turned the battles.

[Londongrad]

Yes - they chose the site by the eagle on a cactus eating a snake. Isn't that the whole point of the Mexican flag?

[John Meredith]

"there is nothing uniquely European about the forward march of technical progress"

That bit is annoying too. It is undoubtedly true, but the Aztecs are not proof of it, technologically, they were living in the stone age, depending on slavery and pillage to meet their needs.

[TDK]

The reason the Conquistadors won was because many tribes of Americans who had previously been on the receiving end of Aztec civilisation, fought alongside them.

I suspect that many Beeboids will have learned about Montezuma via Neil Young

"And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.

Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.

They carried them to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up with their bare hands
What we still cant do today."

I'm guessing the last verse refers to the then popular (Chariots of the Gods) idea that we are technologically challenged compared to our ancestors.

[Marge]

"there is nothing uniquely European about the forward march of technical progress"

The Chinese are the only people who remotely rivalled the technical progress brought about by the European scientific revolution, and Chinese technological development came to a dead halt between the 13th century (at the latest) and the 21st.