John Pilger - Noam Chomsky - Julio Godoy - Mankind: The Story of All of Us TV - Carl Sagan TV - E F Schumacher - Who Killed the Aztecs? TV - The Aztec Massacre TV - Matthew Restall - Robert Winston TV - Conquistadors TV - Cortes: Warriors TV - Aztec Eye-Witness - In Search of Ancient Astronauts TV - Dan Snow TV - Michael Wood - J Jorge Klor de Alva - Jacques Soustelle - Laurette Sejourne - Joseph Needham - D H Lawrence - John Collier - Sophie & Michael Coe - General Major Smedley Butler - Simon Reeve TV - Zbigniew Brzezinski - Secret History: Lost Cities of the Maya: Revealed TV - Secret Wars Uncovered TV -
1898 President McKinley orders US troops to invade Cuba; 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt orders the invasion of Honduras; 1912 President Taft orders the invasion of Nicaragua; 1914-1918 President Wilson invades Haiti, Cuba and Panama; 1924-26 President Coolidge invades Nicaragua and Honduras; 1954 Eisenhower approves the overthrow of the elected government of Guatemala; 1961 Kennedy approves the CIA invasion of Cuba; 1965 Johnson invades the Dominican Republic; 1973 Nixon approves the overthrow of the elected government of Chile; 1981 President Reagan approves the CIA secret war against Nicaragua; 1983 President Reagan orders the invasion of Granada. John Pilger, Nicaragua – A Nation’s Right to Survive, ITV 1983
During the 1980s, the years of Ronald Reagan in the White House, a trail of carnage and grief was blazed across Central America. John Pilger, The War on Democracy, 2007
The historical norm is illustrated by the dramatic contrasting case of Central America, where any popular effort to overthrow the brutal tyrannies of the oligarchy and the military is met with murderous force, supported or directly organized by the ruler of the hemisphere. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
Roosevelt was a shocking racist … With regard to the conquest of half of Mexico Roosevelt explained that it was inevitable and in the highest degree desirable. Noam Chomsky, lecture MIT December 2009, ‘History of US Rule in Latin America’
Stealing Panama from Colombia was also in the highest degree desirable … Teddy Roosevelt whose statue graces Mount Rushmore. ibid.
Henry Kissinger: There are more than enough tortured and mutilated corpses, more than enough widows and orphans, and more than enough misery and starvation to testify to his contribution … Kissinger explained – if we cannot manage Central America it will be impossible to convince threatened nations in the Persian Gulf and other places that we know how to manage the global equilibrium. ibid.
The [US] terrorist wars of the 1980s in Central America that left hundreds of thousands dead, millions of refugees and orphans, and four countries ruined. Noam Chomsky, lecture Northeastern University April 2002, ‘The Emerging Framework of World Power’, Youtube 1.29.03
One is tempted to believe that some people in the White House worship Aztec gods – with the offering of Central American blood. Julio Godoy, journalist
The Aztecs believe they owe a debt of blood to their gods. Mankind: The Story of All of Us VII: New World, History 2012
The Aztecs have created one of the most sophisticated civilisations on the planet. ibid.
Aztec priests sacrifice thousands of men, women and children a year. Up to 20,000 in one of their most important ceremonies. ibid.
The people of the Americas have no immunity to a deadly threat – disease. ibid.
Montezuma’s treasuries are filled with gold. ibid.
Six months later half the city is dead from Smallpox. ibid.
The Conquistadors sought not knowledge but gold. They used their superior weapons to loot and murder. In their madness they obliterated a civilisation. Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: Who Speaks for Earth? PBS 1980
It was not the power of the Spaniards that destroyed the Aztec Empire but the disbelief of the Aztecs themselves. E F Schumacher, Roots of Economic Growth 1962
When the Spanish first set foot on Mexican soil they faced some fifteen million native Americans. And yet within half a century up to 80% of this population is wiped out. Who Killed the Aztecs? 2008
Conventional wisdom suggested that the collapse of the Aztec population resulted from an historic one-off: the first contact with peoples of different infections and immunities. New evidence points to an epidemic caused by a local virus that suddenly wipes out the native population in devastating numbers. ibid.
But the number of deaths and the speed at which the casualties spread across the Aztec Empire suggests that in Mexico a second mutation took place. This mutation allowed the virus to pass directly from human to human. Once this happened the scene was set for an Aztec apocalypse. ibid.
Historical records show that human sacrifice played a central role in Aztec culture. It is thought that they practised it on an unprecedented scale. Could the bodies at Zultepec have met the same fate? Or is there something even darker behind their demise? The Aztec Massacre, 2008
The Spanish were the first Europeans in Mexico. They landed their ships on the Gold Coast in 1519 in search of new wealth. ibid.
The collapse of the Inca empire in the hands of the Spanish Conquistadors was a bloody affair. ibid.
They’re not really professional soldiers. Some of them are but most of them are regular Spaniards ... armed entrepreneurs. Professor Matthew Restall, colonial Latin American historian
The Aztecs practised human sacrifice on an almost industrial scale. Spanish Conquistadors reported that they could smell the abattoir stench of the temples long before they could see them. The Aztec’s insatiable thirst for human blood is both unique and terrifying. Professor Robert Winston, The Story of God, BBC 2005
On April 21st 1519 an ominous sight appears off the coast of Mexico. A fleet of Spanish caravels. Unlike earlier expeditions that came here to explore, Hernan Cortes and his men have come to conquer. Conquistadors, BBC 2000
On August 8th 1519, four months after landing on the coast, Cortes leaves a garrison of one hundred and fifty men and sets off to confront an empire of millions. He has just three hundred soldiers and eight hundred native allies. Although the Aztecs have an army of over four hundred thousand warriors, Cortes vows to conquer or die. ibid.
The Spanish were awe-struck at a metropolis whose population of two hundred and fifty thousand surpassed even the cities of Europe. ibid.
Over one hundred tons of gold were looted as well as countless gems and precious stone. ibid.
Within years it would kill almost 90% of the Aztec population. With no immunity to European diseases the Aztecs were decimated by what they called the great rash. ibid.
In August 1519 the Spanish adventurer Hernan Cortes prepared to lead his men into the unexplored territories of central America, modern-day Mexico. Lured on by rumours of immense treasure he and his small band of a few hundred Conquistadors had come to conquer an entire continent for king, for country and for the Holy Catholic Church. Cortes: Warriors, Amazon Prime 2007
The emperor’s name was Montezuma. He ate his prisoners and offered their hearts to the sun ... He presided over an advanced civilisation that had writing, education and organised religion. He ruled over millions of people. ibid.
Dona Marina had a son by Cortes but later married another Spaniard. Most of the Spaniards remained in the new world bitter at how little they’d made from the conquest. ibid.
The blood flowed like water. The stench of it and entrails filled the air. The Spaniards invaded every room hunting and killing. Aztec eye-witness
The Temple of Quetzalcoatl: legend tells us that he was a light-skinned bearded man who came from the stars. Supposedly, he taught men law, the arts, and the cultivation of corn. The head of a great feathered serpent represents the god Quetzalcoatl. When Quetzalcoatl finished his mission on earth he departed to his native star promising to come back some day. In Search of Ancient Astronauts, 1973
Cholula, Mexico, is home to the largest pyramid in the world. More than 3,000 years old it is estimated it took approximately 1,400 years to complete. ibid.
They are universally known as the Aztecs. The Aztecs were one of America’s great civilisation, and in 1502 their last and best known emperor was crowned ... Best known in the west as Montezuma. Dan Snow, Montezuma, BBC 2009
How Montezuma – sophisticated, semi-divine emperor – came to fight a courageous psychological duel with a formidable opponent from another world. It’s also the story how in less than two years the Aztec civilisation he governed would be virtually wiped out by a handful of European adventurers. ibid.
Montezuma’s Aztec empire stretched from the Gulf of Mexico in the east to the Pacific ocean in the west. ibid.
No-one knows exactly how many human sacrifices in any given year. ibid.
Cortes’s motivation ... Gold, God, Glory and Greed. He wanted to win new lands and wealth for his sovereign King Charles of Spain. ibid.