Darn right. That's why Cortez was able to enlist thousands of Indian tribesmen to help him and his 500 men and 150 horses in taking down Montezuma and the Aztecs.
I think I read that the Aztecs had only been in Mexico City about 75 years when Cortez landed, so memories of the Aztecs' unlovely acquisition and management procedures were quite vivid.
There is this snippet about the final version of their main religious shrine Templo Mayor, which took place a mere 35 years before the arrival of Cortez:
The sixth temple was built during the reign of Ahuizotl. He finished some of the updates made by Tizoc and made his own; as it's shown on the carvings of the "commemoration stone of the huei teocalli", showing the two tlatoqueh celebrating the opening of the temple during the last day of the month Panquetzaliztli dedicated to Huitzilopochtli; day 7 acatl of the year 8 acatl (Dec 19th, 1487). The Sacred Precinct was walled off and this wall was decorated with serpent heads. He built three shrines and the House of the Eagle Warriors. At the inauguration of this Great Temple, Ahuizotl ordered the sacrifice of many prisoners of war; some 4,000 victims were reportedly sacrificed over a four-day period. Each day blood ran like a river onto the pavement of the Great Plaza, and the stairs of the great pyramid were literally bathed in blood.
Source: Vazquez-Gomez, Juana (1997). Dictionary of Mexican Rulers 1325-1997. Westport CT USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 8.
Nice people, those Aztecs, eh?
False that The Aztecs and Maya were exterminated and assimilated in 50 years. In spite of the death of many caused by the smallpox, 100 years after the Spanish conquest there were more Indians in territories under the Spanish Crown than before the arrival of the Spaniards according to the German historian Alexander Humboldt.
Queen Isabella the Catholic had such an interest in the well being of the Indians that in “the codicil or appendix to her last will and testament, drawn shortly before her death, she earnestly asked her husband King Ferdinand, her daughter Juana and her son- in- law not to consent in, nor to permit that the Indians, residents of said Indies, whether already conquered or still to be conquered, be aggrieved at all, whether in their persons or their property, but rather that they be well and fairly treated and that, if wronged, you set right any such wrongs...”