"The Stolen Treasure of Montezuma" Topic

"In 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes arrived on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the mighty Aztec Empire. It has been said that to the Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, Cortes and his men were regarded not as mortals, but gods. Cortes himself was said to be the returning Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl. Thus, the Spanish conquistadors were welcomed by Montezuma with pomp and circumstance. Yet, eventually these so-called ‘gods' would betray Montezuma and his people, demonstrating to the Aztecs that there was nothing godlike about Cortes and his crew.

Montezuma's offering of gold to Cortés and his men was done in the hope that the ‘gods' would go away. This bribe, however, failed to get rid of the Spanish conquistadors. Instead, it fuelled the Spanish greed for gold even further. As a result, Cortés decided to place Montezuma under house arrest. Subsequently, with the help of their Tlaxcalan allies, the conquistadors set up their base in one of the city's temples, and began ransacking Tenochtitlan for its treasures. In the following months, many of Tenochtitlan's inhabitants were tortured and killed by Cortés' men in their attempt to obtain even more Aztec treasure.

Whilst the Aztecs were almost certainly not pleased at all with the behaviour of these ‘gods', they took no action against them. The last straw came in late May 1520, when the conquistadors massacred many of the Aztec nobility during a religious festival at Tenchtitlan's main temple. This prompted a fierce reaction from the Aztec population, who rose against the conquistadors. The besiege Spaniards, in an attempt to save themselves, decided to use their hostage, Montezuma, to pacify his subjects. This failed, however, and Montezuma was killed, either mortally wounded by the conquistadors themselves, or by rocks thrown by the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan…"

Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

And yet noone makes Aztecs in 10mm.

My sympathy for Montezuma and the Aztecs is completely diluted by the blood that ran down their temples' steps. link

Oh, and the Spaniards were such a nice peaceful bunch of guys!

Didn't say I was a fan of the Spaniards either.

God, you lot are like ammonium iodide! Play nicely, children.

Read "Aztec" by Gary Jennings. It's a novel but very well grounded in history.

Read 'The Conquest of New Spain' by Bernal Diaz in Penguin Classic. He was there.