Few civilisations in history embody violence and cruelty as did the Aztecs.
Although many interpret terms like ‘Aztec’ to indicate all indigenous peoples of Central America, it ignores the fact that the Aztec Empire was run by animalistic bullies, who used their opulent wealth and power to enslave, massacre and abuse other indigenous peoples.
The Tlaxcaltecs and other native groups eagerly assisted Hernán Cortés and his Spanish forces in the Battle of Tenochtitlan, wishing for an end to the wicked Aztec Empire.
The idea that all natives were opposed to the Spanish is one misconception, but another one is that which seems to think that the treatment of natives in the Americas was worse than if they had been left alone. The same people who argue that, invariably do so on the assumption of the truth of allegations of ‘mass murders’ by the church against natives, even as recently as the early 20th Century. Ironically, the church did no such thing, but the pagan Aztecs did.
Atop Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan, innocent people would be sacrificed to the gods in gruesome fashion. Cortes’s men witnessed this upon their arrivals, they saw the priests slicing open the chests of sacrificial victims and offering their hearts to their gods. They would then dispose of the body down the steps of the Templo Mayor.
Recently discovered towers of skulls in Mexico
One of the conquistadors, Andres de Tapia, described how he had seen large constructions with thousands of skulls embedded. Recent excavations have shown that this was indeed true. It is remarkable that we still have to listen to exaggerations surrounding the Spanish Inquisition, when the numbers of deaths were minimal, while these genocides in the name of indigenous gods are overlooked, even denied or dismissed.
Why did the Aztecs do this? The practical reason was to rule by fear. The cosmological reason was that they believed in Huitzilopochtli, the god who opposed the darkness and who needed to be supplanted and satisfied with constant sacrifices of humans.
The human sacrifice element is obviously the one that still captures much of people’s imagination, but slavery and war on behalf of the Aztecs was equally as much a part of their corrosive influence on the region.
In November 2020, the Mexican government sought an apology from the Catholic Church for its role in helping to end the evil Aztec Empire. They should be given no such thing.
On August 13th 1521, Cortes and his men took victory against the Aztecs and finally conquered Tenochtitlan.
Less than 20 years later, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in a land plagued by human sacrifice and enslavement to demons masquerading as gods. Within a decade, Mexico was Catholic.
Always pray and hope, with the expectation and realisation that it can move mountains and that the Holy Spirit works in the world.
Writing on the United States and its abortion culture, Dr. Peter Kreeft has written the following, which must give us pause for thought in our own times.
About 500 years ago, a strikingly similar culture of death reigned in Aztec Mexico. Some historians estimate that one out of every three children . . . were ritually sacrificed to their bloodthirsty and demanding god . . . exactly the same proportion of children conceived in America who are aborted today...
