Aztecs as liberals see them:
Aztecs as they really were:
Aztecs as liberals see them:
Aztecs as they really were:
Aztecs were relatively recent arrivals in central Mexico. They did not conquer the Olmecs from Millenia earlier. A senior minister proposed to the ruler to make the surounding tribes be their “bread.” THey had no large meat animals, only fish, turkeys, and smaller animals. Cortez came and found that a lot of these tribes were tired of being Aztec bread. In fact Cortez’s best allies were the Tlaxcallans. Guess what, “tlaxcalli” is the Aztec word for “tortillas.” At any rate, many thousands of Tlaxcallans helped Cortez conquer Tenochtitlan.
Around ten years ago, a group connected with Walton/Walmart commissioned a study showing that several dozen DC schools were underutilized and therefore should be sold and used for private schools or other purposes. The person who wrote this study had produced a PhD thesis or similar serious report as part of their college studies on the ways the Spanish in old Mexico had cheated their Tlaxcallan allies of their land and wealth. I doubt that anyone in DC was aware of the connection between cheating Indian allies and cheating poor black people in DC as was proposed by this writer on behalf of Walmart.
Many millions of Indians in Mexico and Central America were killed by major plagues in the 1500s. Also, when the Pilgrams arrived in Massachusetts in 1620, large numbers of Indians had been killed off by smallbox. One estimate I heard recently suggested that 90% of the North American population had been killed off by European diseases. On the other hand Indians probably gave them syphilis.