00:00:13
[dramatic theme music plays]
00:00:20
They appeared out of thin air
00:00:21
and within a few generations,
they became masters
00:00:23
of a great empire.
00:00:25
[narrator]
In the center of the Aztec Empire:
00:00:28
a floating fairytale city
in the middle of a lake.
00:00:31
At that time,
00:00:32
one of the largest cities in the world.
00:00:36
[man's voice]
A city which eclipsed anything
00:00:37
the Spanish had ever seen
in size and glory.
00:00:42
[narrator] The Aztec rulers
are skillful statesmen.
00:00:45
Everything in their empire
00:00:47
is perfectly regulated.
00:00:49
Their empire is much more modern
than European societies of the time.
00:00:53
The school system of the Aztecs
was particularly impressive,
00:00:56
because it was compulsory
for both boys and girls.
00:01:00
[narrator] But this advanced civilization
also has a dark side:
00:01:04
cruel rituals in honor of the gods.
00:01:13
For a hundred years,
the Aztecs rule over Central Mexico.
00:01:17
But at the peak of their power,
00:01:18
they make a crucial mistake.
00:01:20
[battle cries]
00:01:22
[narrator] Their fall is unstoppable.
00:01:55
[male voice] It was the year 1519.
00:01:57
We called it the Year of the Reed.
00:02:02
A messenger
00:02:03
brought news of strangers
who had come to our country.
00:02:13
I can still picture them
to this very day.
00:02:16
They were carried by strange animals
00:02:19
and had terrible weapons.
00:02:21
They were so pale.
00:02:23
Some of us believed
they were messengers of the gods.
00:02:29
Our enemies had become their allies.
00:02:32
But we did not yet know what misfortune
00:02:36
their arrival signified.
00:02:40
[narrator] With eleven ships,
500 Spanish conquistadors
00:02:44
land on the coast
of the Aztec Empire in April 1519.
00:02:49
Their leader: Hernán Cortés.
00:02:52
They are attracted
by the legendary wealth
00:02:54
of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
00:02:58
The news of the arrival
of the Spanish spreads fast.
00:03:05
Relay runners carry the message
00:03:07
over paved roads into the capital.
00:03:12
They can cover 500 kilometers a day.
00:03:14
That makes them faster than the mounted
00:03:16
messengers of Europe of that era.
00:03:35
[male voice]
Our wise leader, Moctezuma, received
00:03:39
daily reports of the approaching aliens.
00:03:42
I was a young scribe at the time
00:03:44
and had the honor
of taking notes of their news.
00:03:51
You can't say the Aztecs
were unsuspecting.
00:03:54
We know that the Aztec ruler
had his spies.
00:03:56
He knew they were there as soon as
the Spanish set foot on the Gulf Coast.
00:04:00
He had very precise descriptions of them.
00:04:08
[narrator] Moctezuma
wants to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
00:04:12
So at first, he warmly receives
these mysterious strangers.
00:04:17
He had such a great empire.
00:04:20
He had such large military units,
which were immediately ready for action.
00:04:24
But in my opinion, he didn't see
the Spaniards as a threat.
00:04:29
Which was a mistake.
00:04:36
[narrator] His guilelessness
suits the conquistador Hernán Cortés
00:04:39
and his men very well.
00:04:44
In November 1519,
00:04:46
the Spanish reach
the mountain villages above Tenochtitlan.
00:04:53
So far, nobody has stood in their way.
00:04:56
The legendary riches of the Aztec capital
now seem within reach.
00:05:07
The sight of this huge metropolis
exceeds all their expectations.
00:05:16
The sources tell us that when the
Spaniards descended from the mountains,
00:05:21
they saw the whitewashed buildings
reflected in front of them,
00:05:24
and they could not even grasp
the size of this city in a lake.
00:05:31
None of them
had ever seen anything like it,
00:05:35
and some of the people
accompanying Cortés had traveled far,
00:05:38
had seen Rome and other cities in Europe.
00:05:41
But this eclipsed anything
they had ever seen before.
00:05:48
[narrator] Tenochtitlan looks like
a floating city to the Spanish,
00:05:51
in the middle of this large lake.
00:05:57
Over 250,000 people live here.
00:06:04
At the center of the city:
00:06:06
the holy district with temples,
pyramids and the ruler's palace.
00:06:16
Where once the city of the Aztecs was,
00:06:18
the metropolis of Mexico City
rises 500 years later.
00:06:26
The lake is long since drained.
00:06:30
Today, 21 million people live
00:06:33
in the densely populated basin.
00:06:38
For a long time, it seemed as if
the Spanish had erased all traces
00:06:42
of the "floating" city of Tenochtitlan
after the conquest.
00:06:49
But there is still
much of Tenochtitlan to be found
00:06:52
beneath the modern Mexico City.
00:06:58
The current center of Mexico City
was once
00:07:00
the sacred district of the Aztecs.
00:07:03
The Spaniards simply built over it.
00:07:05
The ruins of Templo Mayor,
00:07:08
the most important sanctuary
of the Aztecs.
00:07:12
In 1978,
00:07:14
the temple pyramid is rediscovered
during construction work.
00:07:18
Since then, researchers
have been searching the entire city
00:07:21
for traces of the built-over past.
00:07:23
Raúl Barrera coordinates the excavations.
00:07:28
Mexico City possesses
immense archaeological wealth.
00:07:33
And the Templo Mayor is probably the most
important archaeological site in the city.
00:07:42
[narrator] This temple pyramid resembles
the success story of the Aztecs.
00:07:47
With the expansion of their power,
their central sanctuary also grew.
00:07:52
They are still clearly visible today:
00:07:55
the foundation walls
of the various stages of expansion.
00:07:59
Again and again, older versions
of the pyramid were simply built over.
00:08:03
Archaeologists
can now accurately reconstruct
00:08:06
the dimensions and appearance
of this impressive structure.
00:08:11
The pyramid was about 60 meters high.
00:08:14
On the top platform
there were two shrines
00:08:17
dedicated to the god of war
and the god of rain.
00:08:22
Like all other buildings in the city,
00:08:25
this pyramid rested on piles
that were laboriously
00:08:28
driven into the muddy subsoil
of the lake.
00:08:32
Remains of this construction
can still be seen today.
00:08:39
Archaeologists are on site
at every major construction project
00:08:43
to make sure no valuable relics
00:08:45
are lost forever.
00:08:48
We must protect these traces,
preserve them.
00:08:52
For they are our past.
00:08:55
They give us our identity.
00:08:57
That's why the finds we make here
in Mexico City are so important for us.
00:09:05
[narrator] Each find tells a story,
00:09:07
gives the scientists a deeper insight
00:09:10
into a world
as the Spanish experienced it
00:09:12
500 years ago.
00:09:19
Hernán Cortés meets the Aztec ruler
00:09:22
for the first time
00:09:23
on November 18th, 1519.
00:09:27
Moctezuma presents the Spaniard
00:09:30
with a valuable necklace
and precious fabrics.
00:09:35
Cortés thanks with beads
of cheap green glass.
00:09:39
For Moctezuma, an exotic gift.
00:09:41
The Aztecs weren't familiar with glass.
00:09:44
Moctezuma invites
the Spanish into his palace.
00:09:47
[man's voice 2] There's a lot of stories
that he was treated like a godlike figure,
00:09:51
that nobody can look directly at him.
00:09:53
Those are stories that were created
during the colonial period and later
00:09:57
in creating this image of an
oriental despot. Which was not the case.
00:10:04
[narrator] Cortés himself later reports
about the legendary wealth
00:10:08
of the Aztec prince
to justify his actions.
00:10:11
The reality must have been
somewhat different.
00:10:15
[Fargher] These sorts of stories
probably emerged to glorify him in a sense
00:10:19
and make him to be
something that he wasn't.
00:10:21
And actually, the amount
of portable wealth in gold and so on
00:10:25
really disappointed the Spaniards.
00:10:28
[narrator] So far the archeologists
00:10:30
haven't found much gold
during their excavations.
00:10:36
[Fargher] There was a find
a few years ago,
00:10:37
but apart from that, you could only fill
00:10:40
a little table with gold.
It's not like the Inca.
00:10:43
The Inca were famous
for their amount of gold.
00:10:47
[narrator] But at the beginning,
the Spaniards still hope
00:10:49
for great riches.
00:10:55
Cunningly, Cortés tells Moctezuma
about the "Spanish disease."
00:10:59
Only gold could cure it.
00:11:02
But the ruler and his advisors
00:11:04
probably quickly recognize the danger
that threatens their empire.
00:11:08
They wanted to convince him
that they're really...
00:11:11
"Okay, so yeah, I live pretty nice,
but I don't have a lot of stuff and so on.
00:11:15
So you guys
don't really want to conquer us.
00:11:18
You know, we can be friends.
00:11:20
You know if you want us
to make some sort of alliance
00:11:22
with your ruler, we're willing
to do that and so on, and then go home."
00:11:26
That was, sort of,
let's manage this on a political level.
00:11:28
[speaks indistinct Spanish]
00:11:31
[narrator] The Spanish should see
with their own eyes that an alliance
00:11:34
with the Aztec Empire
00:11:35
would be worth more
than chasing after treasures of gold.
00:11:41
[male voice] Our wise Tlatoani allowed
the Spaniards to explore our city.
00:11:46
I was allowed to accompany them.
00:11:50
[narrator] The tour through the city
does not miss its effect.
00:11:55
Cortés will later give
an impressive description to his king.
00:11:59
When the Spanish reach
the central market,
00:12:02
they are overwhelmed by the sight.
00:12:07
So many people in one place...
00:12:10
They had never seen anything like it.
00:12:13
20,000 to 40,000 people
flock to this market every day.
00:12:19
Farmers from the surrounding area
00:12:21
come here to offer their goods
for sale under the shade of the arcades,
00:12:26
as do long-distance merchants
from the entire Aztec Empire.
00:12:31
Whether everyday goods, food, animals,
00:12:34
luxury articles or even slaves
and military equipment,
00:12:38
at this market,
00:12:39
you can simply buy everything.
00:12:43
[male voice] The Spanish
saw many new things.
00:12:46
They especially admired our fine fabrics,
00:12:49
which we dyed red
with the juice of pressed lice.
00:12:57
It was quite clear that this marketplace
eclipsed anything they had ever seen.
00:13:02
And the goods,
most of which were foreign to them,
00:13:05
fascinated them even more.
00:13:08
Especially if they contained gold,
00:13:10
which was of course
what these conquerors wanted most.
00:13:13
But they were also fascinated
by the smaller things:
00:13:16
the order that prevailed at the market,
00:13:18
the fact that market supervisors
carefully made sure
00:13:21
that everything was in its proper place.
00:13:25
All of this
made a huge impression on the Spanish.
00:13:31
[narrator]
State inspectors inspect the goods
00:13:33
offered here, and traders must register.
00:13:37
There is a separate area
for each type of goods on offer.
00:13:46
If the goods are particularly valuable,
payment is made with grains of gold.
00:13:54
Cocoa beans are a popular currency
for all other products.
00:13:58
A hare costs about 100 beans,
00:14:01
a tomato only one.
00:14:03
It often happened that the cocoa beans
as a means of payment were forged.
00:14:07
There were people that attempted
to fake the cacao beans.
00:14:11
They'd take wood...
00:14:12
Cut wood out,
00:14:14
polish it and shape it
so it looked like a cacao bean.
00:14:16
And so that was one of the major reasons
00:14:19
that they wanted people
to trade in the markets.
00:14:21
Not only
could they tax them in the markets,
00:14:23
but they could provide market security.
00:14:28
[narrator] Thieves and fraudsters
00:14:30
are handed over
to the market judges on the spot.
00:14:36
On pain of death, the accused must swear
to tell the truth to the judges.
00:14:42
The sentence is carried out on the spot.
00:14:45
For the maintenance of public order
is the first priority.
00:14:55
Those who have stolen must pay off
their debts through slave labor.
00:15:01
In medieval Europe at the time,
00:15:03
there was very little judicial structure.
00:15:06
In contrast, the Aztecs
were very concerned with that.
00:15:09
They were very concerned
with public order and protecting citizens.
00:15:13
[narrator] Unlike in European cities,
00:15:15
the Aztec state
also pays attention to cleanliness.
00:15:23
Cleaning staff sweep paths
and public places daily.
00:15:30
The cleanliness in the city itself
00:15:32
couldn't be compared
with the grubby cities in Europe
00:15:35
in the 15th and 16th centuries,
if I may say so.
00:15:39
We know there was hardly any functioning
sewage system.
00:15:41
There was hardly
any functioning drinking water supply.
00:15:44
And Tenochtitlan had achieved all this.
00:15:51
[narrator] To prevent the city's canals
from becoming cesspools,
00:15:54
the Aztecs even had
an ingenious toilet system.
00:16:01
They probably had public toilets
for very urgent business.
00:16:07
Excrement and urine
are collected separately in clay jugs.
00:16:16
A good deal for the city's
fecal matter merchants.
00:16:19
They sell the composted excrement
as fertilizer for the fields.
00:16:23
The urine is used for dyeing fabrics
and for tanning leather.
00:16:36
In some ways, the urban life of the Aztecs
00:16:38
was reminiscent of what we would
today call a "zero waste" society.
00:16:43
For example, the collection of feces
and recycling as fertilizer,
00:16:47
recycling of waste in general.
00:16:51
All this was done systematically here.
00:16:58
[narrator] A world
as if carved out artificially.
00:17:01
A state created out of thin air.
00:17:08
Because 200 years before
the arrival of the Spanish,
00:17:11
the Aztecs were still
simple nomadic warriors.
00:17:17
It all starts with a myth.
00:17:21
[male voice]
Our people were without a home.
00:17:24
But our tribal god showed us the way.
00:17:31
[narrator]
According to legend, the Aztec people
00:17:33
wandered aimlessly for many generations.
00:17:38
Finally, on a small island
in Lake Texcoco,
00:17:41
their mythical leader Tenoch
00:17:43
sees the divine sign
promised to them by their tribal god:
00:17:47
[intense atmospheric music plays]
00:17:51
[male voice] An eagle on a cactus,
devouring a snake.
00:17:59
This is where we should settle down
00:18:02
and build a temple
to honor our god Huitzilopochtli.
00:18:08
[narrator] And so their chief
lays the foundation stone
00:18:10
for the city of Tenochtitlan...
the city of Tenoch.
00:18:15
But what are the facts behind the legend?
00:18:19
Today, we assume the Aztecs
created this founding myth themselves.
00:18:23
They could thus present themselves
as colonizers of a new country,
00:18:27
as the first arrivals.
00:18:28
Although, as we know today,
00:18:30
they were not the first,
but in fact the last
00:18:33
to arrive in the basin of Mexico.
00:18:36
[narrator] Scientists suspect that the
Aztecs immigrated around the year 1215
00:18:41
from northern Mexico
or the southwestern parts of today's USA
00:18:45
to the already
densely populated Mexican highlands.
00:18:52
There, the nomadic warriors
encounter the descendants
00:18:55
of the once powerful Toltecs
00:18:58
and the pyramids
of the mysterious megacity Teotihuacan.
00:19:09
At the time of the Aztecs,
it's already in ruins.
00:19:15
Only giants or gods,
so the newcomers believe,
00:19:19
could have built
these enormous buildings.
00:19:24
According to their belief,
this is where the world came into being.
00:19:33
The American archaeologist David Carballo
00:19:36
has been researching this unique place
for many years.
00:19:40
He and his colleagues
have ascertained by now
00:19:43
that the Aztecs took these ruins
as a model for their own city.
00:19:47
This is what they wanted it to look like.
00:19:50
They wanted to imitate the gods.
00:19:53
The Aztecs were very inspired
by Teotihuacan,
00:19:56
the first great city of Central Mexico.
00:20:00
They saw it as a place of creation,
00:20:02
as a place where the gods
sacrificed themselves for humanity
00:20:05
and to get time started.
00:20:08
[narrator] The floor plans
of the residential buildings and palaces
00:20:12
that once dominated the cityscape
are still clearly visible.
00:20:16
They give the researchers
an impression of what Tenochtitlan,
00:20:19
the city of the Aztecs,
00:20:21
must have looked like later on.
00:20:27
But the Aztecs
not only copy the architecture.
00:20:31
[Carballo] They looked to Teotihuacan
as the civilized precursor
00:20:35
who had arts and calendar systems
and writing systems
00:20:39
that they drew on very consciously
in creating their own empire.
00:20:47
[narrator]
In the beginning, the warrior nomads
00:20:49
hire themselves out as paid mercenaries.
00:20:57
They go to war
for the local lords of small city states.
00:21:05
But they are unwelcome.
00:21:09
And the only place left for them to go,
00:21:11
because they had angered just about
everybody in the Southern Basin,
00:21:14
was this little tiny island
in the middle of the brackish swamp.
00:21:18
There was only about
two square kilometers an area,
00:21:21
and that's where
they were almost forced to settle.
00:21:25
[narrator] At that time,
the island is considered uninhabitable.
00:21:36
What they need to survive,
00:21:38
the Aztecs have to bring
from the mainland in their canoes.
00:21:44
On the island itself,
there is neither timber for huts
00:21:48
nor drinking water.
00:21:50
The lake is very salty,
and its water is brackish.
00:21:55
It's a meager life
00:21:57
that the first settlers are living.
00:21:59
The future splendor of Tenochtitlan
00:22:01
is still a long way off.
00:22:07
Systematically,
the inhabitants of the small island
00:22:11
also engage in land reclamation
00:22:13
behind an artificial dam
00:22:15
that separates salt water
from fresh water.
00:22:19
On a subsoil of water lilies and reeds,
00:22:21
they pile up ever new layers of mud
00:22:24
in the shallow water of the lake,
which later solidifies.
00:22:28
In this way, the Aztecs
created "floating" gardens
00:22:31
to practice agriculture.
00:22:34
The Chinampas.
00:22:39
On the outskirts of Mexico City,
they still exist today.
00:22:43
Farmers still cultivate
00:22:44
these "floating" gardens
and grow the same plants
00:22:47
as their Aztec ancestors did
00:22:49
500 years ago:
00:22:51
corn, beans, pumpkins.
00:22:54
But also tomatoes, avocados,
00:22:57
chilies and sweet potatoes.
00:23:05
These are plants that were first
domesticated in Mesoamerica,
00:23:09
and are now grown all over the world.
00:23:16
The Chinampas create more space
00:23:18
and make the Aztecs independent
of food from the mainland.
00:23:21
This will become the basis
for their incredible ascent.
00:23:30
So the Aztec system of Chinampa fields
00:23:32
was a highly productive
form of agriculture.
00:23:35
It could allow between
three to eight crops grown per year,
00:23:39
depending on what the plant was.
00:23:40
So the population boomed
as a result of it.
00:23:43
And so at the height
of the Aztec empire, there was at least
00:23:45
a million people
living in the basin of Mexico.
00:23:50
[narrator] In just 200 years,
00:23:52
the small island settlement has
developed into a flourishing metropolis
00:23:56
covering 13 square kilometers,
00:23:59
the center of the largest
state power in Mesoamerica.
00:24:09
[male voice] I am one of the last to make
the past glory of our people known.
00:24:14
All is destroyed, and most of those
who could remember
00:24:19
are dead.
00:24:25
[narrator] Decades after the fall
of their empire, Aztec scribes
00:24:29
under the supervision of Spanish monks
00:24:31
wrote reports about their lost culture.
00:24:38
Today, these records
00:24:40
are the only authentic
written legacy of the Aztecs,
00:24:43
in their own pictographic writing.
00:24:47
We know the Aztecs had a lot of books.
00:24:50
They had veritable libraries.
00:24:52
Unfortunately,
these were burned, destroyed.
00:24:55
And even after the fall of Tenochtitlan,
systematically eliminated to drive out
00:25:00
"the belief in the devil,"
as the Christians put it.
00:25:05
And the codes that have survived
00:25:07
are all the more important
for us historians,
00:25:09
because they give us
an insight into history,
00:25:12
into the life of the Aztecs
from their own point of view.
00:25:17
[narrator] One of the few
remaining manuscripts
00:25:20
is the Codex Mendoza.
00:25:22
For a long time, the pictographic
writing of the Aztecs
00:25:26
was barely deciphered.
00:25:28
Text annotations by Spanish monks
00:25:30
help scientists
to understand the records.
00:25:35
The Codex Mendoza contains a large book
about the everyday life of the Aztecs.
00:25:41
And this is particularly unique.
00:25:46
[narrator] A life in which everything
is regulated,
00:25:49
from the cradle to the grave.
00:25:56
The Aztecs consider the birth of a child
00:25:59
as a life-threatening and bloody battle.
00:26:02
[dramatic music plays]
00:26:06
[narrator] The "battle of the mother"
equates her to a warrior.
00:26:13
To die in childbirth
00:26:14
is as honorable
as death on the battlefield.
00:26:20
[groaning]
00:26:23
[baby cries]
00:26:26
[traditional ululations]
00:26:30
[narrator]
A shrill battle cry of the midwife
00:26:32
is therefore the first thing
an Aztec baby hears.
00:26:39
[male voice] I was born
in the year of the 10th rabbit.
00:26:42
My mother was a slave. But I was free.
00:26:48
[narrator] In the Aztec world,
the children of slaves are born free.
00:26:54
After birth, the umbilical cord of girls
00:26:57
is buried
under the fireplace of the house,
00:27:00
that of boys is given to a warrior.
00:27:03
He must later bury it on the battlefield,
00:27:06
so that one day,
the child will become a great fighter.
00:27:13
The Aztecs also had godparents.
00:27:16
They give presents to the newborns
00:27:18
symbolizing
what the future holds for them.
00:27:23
For boys these are miniature weapons,
00:27:26
as a reminder and warning
that they were born to be warriors.
00:27:36
On several pages,
00:27:38
the code gives precise instructions
for the education of children.
00:27:44
Yes, we can see that the children
were assigned specific tasks
00:27:47
according to their age.
00:27:50
The younger children
had to help in the household,
00:27:53
and the boys were mostly given
smaller auxiliary tasks outside the house.
00:27:57
Increasing with age.
00:28:01
[narrator]
Boys fetch firewood,
00:28:03
go to the market,
00:28:04
work in the fields or help with fishing.
00:28:09
Girls learn to prepare corn dough,
weave and sweep the house.
00:28:15
If they do not obey,
children are punished severely.
00:28:24
Some of these punishments seem
particularly harsh and torturous to us.
00:28:30
For example,
this scene of an Aztec teacher
00:28:33
holding a boy over smoking chili peppers,
00:28:37
clearly bringing tears to his eyes.
00:28:42
[narrator] Boys who don't want to obey
are beaten or even pricked with thorns.
00:28:47
Intractable girls get their hands tied,
and they are threatened with beatings.
00:28:55
The Aztecs certainly loved their children.
00:28:58
However, they had a different
understanding of life and the world.
00:29:03
They were firmly convinced
that each person,
00:29:06
according to his or her status and age,
00:29:09
took his or her place in society
00:29:11
and had to uphold the established rules.
00:29:17
The state takes care of young people's
education,
00:29:20
maintaining schools, paying for teachers.
00:29:25
For us today, the Aztec school system
00:29:28
seems modern because it was obligatory
for both boys and girls.
00:29:32
A general school system.
00:29:33
If we compare it to Europe at the time,
they only had schools for the chosen few,
00:29:38
but not for the general public,
and it was not compulsory to go to school.
00:29:47
[narrator]
Between the ages of eight and ten,
00:29:50
girls and boys are introduced
to the gods and religious ceremonies
00:29:53
and learn to dance and sing.
00:30:01
[male voice]
I was allowed to go to school and study.
00:30:04
That's how I could become a writer.
00:30:07
[narrator] Even for the children of
slaves, compulsory schooling applies.
00:30:13
Schooling for girls
usually ends after five years.
00:30:17
For boys, education continues.
00:30:22
Aztec history,
agriculture and military drill
00:30:25
are on the curriculum for them.
00:30:31
In the schools, general knowledge was
imparted about the history of the Aztecs.
00:30:35
It can also be said that a certain
ideology was imparted here.
00:30:39
Of course this strengthened the identity
and the affiliation of the children
00:30:43
to the Aztec society.
00:30:45
More so than if they had been educated
by their own families.
00:30:51
[male voice] I, too,
wanted to become a great warrior,
00:30:54
but the gods had a different plan for me.
00:30:57
I proved to be particularly adept
00:30:59
at interpreting our characters.
00:31:02
So my teachers decided
that I should become a scribe.
00:31:07
That was one way to work
your way up: through education.
00:31:11
If you're a brilliant individual,
they didn't really care
00:31:14
what social strata you came from.
00:31:16
They wanted to get you into
the administrative structures.
00:31:20
[narrator] Especially gifted boys,
even from the lower classes,
00:31:23
have access to secondary schools,
00:31:26
which are normally reserved
for the nobility.
00:31:29
They attend a Calmecac.
00:31:31
Here, the future state elite is trained.
00:31:38
The daughters of the nobility
also have access, as priest's pupils.
00:31:46
[male voice] This is where
I first saw her.
00:31:49
She was called Ahuic,
00:31:50
like the goddess of the rivers.
00:31:54
[narrator]
Those who are admitted to the Calmecac
00:31:57
have painful rituals waiting for them.
00:32:07
[dramatic music plays]
00:32:15
[narrator] Self-mortification
and blood sacrifice to appease the gods
00:32:19
are part of everyday school life.
00:32:24
[male voice] Ahuic gave me strength,
00:32:27
but the priests were not supposed
to know of our love.
00:32:35
[narrator] Contact
with the temple disciples is forbidden
00:32:38
to the young men on pain of death.
00:32:42
The punishments of the Aztecs
were draconian.
00:32:45
In our opinion, very, very severe.
00:32:49
But they ensured
that the social system was preserved,
00:32:53
that everyone took his place
in this order and did not leave it.
00:33:00
[narrator] State-trained and paid judges
monitor compliance with these laws.
00:33:05
Trials are public.
00:33:06
Judgments are made jointly by the judges,
00:33:09
and repeat offenders
are punished particularly severely.
00:33:14
Anyone caught stealing twice
is liable to be stoned to death.
00:33:19
If you are drunk in public,
00:33:20
your head will be shorn,
and you may even lose your house.
00:33:25
Adultery is punishable by death,
00:33:27
not only for the adulterers,
but also for their confidants.
00:33:32
There was also a concept
of judicial equality,
00:33:35
so when people came into the court,
whether they were
00:33:37
commoners or the nobility,
00:33:39
they were treated essentially as equals.
00:33:42
There is a strong focus on having laws
00:33:45
and enforcing them
and treating people justly.
00:33:49
[narrator]
And those who confess their offence
00:33:51
before it is discovered
can even count on forgiveness.
00:33:57
[male voice] For Ahuic and me,
everything came to a good end.
00:34:01
We both escaped
punishment by the priests.
00:34:08
The priests gave us their blessing.
00:34:11
In 1518, Ahuic became my wife.
00:34:18
[narrator]
Only if the highest priests agree,
00:34:21
their disciples may give up
their service to the gods
00:34:24
and marry a man who seems suitable.
00:34:32
Four days of celebration.
00:34:34
The family and neighbors give
the couple advice for a long marriage.
00:34:43
The couple's garments
are knotted together
00:34:46
as a sign of the marriage bond.
00:34:51
But even in the world of the Aztecs,
not every marriage endures.
00:34:57
There was a regulation
that spouses could get divorced,
00:35:00
and this right applied
to both men and women.
00:35:04
We don't know, of course, what the social
consequences were for both spouses.
00:35:10
But we do know that there were rules
on how property was divided
00:35:13
and who was allowed to raise the children.
00:35:15
The girls stayed with the mother
and the boys stayed with the father.
00:35:21
[narrator] But marriage
is still intended as a bond for life.
00:35:25
Because marriage and family are of
particular importance to the Aztecs.
00:35:30
They ensure the continuity
of their community.
00:35:34
[male voice] It was a good time.
00:35:36
The gods were good to our people.
00:35:41
[narrator]
It's a seemingly perfect world,
00:35:44
but at a high price for the individual.
00:35:51
The Aztec manuscripts also document
00:35:53
human sacrifice through cruel rituals.
00:36:00
On the altars, men's and women's hearts
are cut out while still alive.
00:36:16
Every year, tens of thousands
00:36:18
are supposed to have found
their terrible fate in this way.
00:36:23
[Fargher] It may seem very barbaric
and very violent to us today,
00:36:26
but for them it wasn't that way.
00:36:28
It's a different cultural context
that they were living in.
00:36:31
The relationship
between humans and the supernatural
00:36:35
is through blood,
so human blood nourishes the deities,
00:36:39
and if you nourish the deities,
then they can give you life back,
00:36:42
so death and life are reciprocal.
00:36:44
It's not one ends the other.
00:36:46
Each one is necessary
for the other to exist.
00:36:52
[narrator] The manuscripts describe
00:36:54
how the skulls of the victims
were literally pierced by the priests
00:36:58
and hung on a wooden scaffolding
00:37:00
in front of the great pyramid
in the center of the city.
00:37:06
For a long time,
scientists were of the opinion
00:37:09
that these were
exaggerated representations
00:37:12
that the Aztec scribes
had to make at the behest
00:37:15
of the Spanish conquerors
00:37:16
as justification for their own atrocities
against the Aztecs.
00:37:22
But then, in 2015,
00:37:25
archaeologists
make an incredible discovery
00:37:28
during excavations around Templo Mayor.
00:37:31
A wall of human skulls
00:37:34
almost two meters high.
00:37:42
And they also come across the traces
of the wooden scaffolding
00:37:46
described by the Aztec chroniclers.
00:37:51
The stakes themselves
are long since weathered,
00:37:53
but scattered everywhere:
the pierced skulls.
00:38:01
According to the Aztec view of the world,
paradoxically,
00:38:06
it was a place that gave life.
00:38:09
For the Aztecs' great concern
00:38:11
was that the gods might die.
00:38:13
Therefore, one had to provide
food for the sun.
00:38:18
And how could one do that?
00:38:21
Through human sacrifices,
which feed the sun with their energy.
00:38:29
[narrator] In the meantime,
00:38:30
the archaeologists
can reconstruct the site precisely
00:38:33
on the basis of the gruesome finds.
00:38:39
The size of the frame
and the two towers suggest
00:38:42
that there were indeed
thousands of skulls
00:38:45
displayed in front of the great temple.
00:38:52
Testimony of a human sacrifice industry
that is without equal.
00:39:00
Even for the skeptics,
00:39:01
those who believed that human sacrifice
was a pure invention of Europeans,
00:39:06
this find is the final proof that
human sacrifice actually took place.
00:39:14
[narrator]
Laboratory tests of the skulls prove:
00:39:17
75 percent of the victims were men,
00:39:20
most of them
between 20 and 30 years of age.
00:39:25
DNA analyses
and chemical tests of teeth and bones
00:39:29
also confirm that almost all victims
came from far-flung places.
00:39:36
They were prisoners of war
00:39:38
and slaves from conquered provinces.
00:39:44
The human sacrifice,
apart from its religious significance,
00:39:48
was also a demonstration of power.
00:39:54
Especially at big feasts,
00:39:56
the princes of the many
subjugated cities were invited,
00:39:59
and they were obliged to participate.
00:40:06
The Aztecs offered
several thousand human sacrifices
00:40:10
to demonstrate their power
00:40:12
and the power of their gods.
00:40:25
[narrator] It is a nation
in a permanent state of war.
00:40:29
Shortly before the arrival
of the Spanish,
00:40:32
the Aztec dominion
reaches its greatest expansion.
00:40:37
It stretches from the Atlantic coast
00:40:39
over the plateau of Mexico
to the Pacific Ocean.
00:40:43
The Aztecs control
about six million people.
00:40:53
From their campaigns,
the Aztec fighters bring
00:40:55
loot, tribute,
and prisoners of war to Tenochtitlan,
00:40:59
destined for slavery and human sacrifice.
00:41:06
The system of the Aztec Empire
was based on the tribute system.
00:41:10
Tributes were paid, and without them,
00:41:13
this huge city
would hardly have been able to survive.
00:41:17
So this applied from raw materials
to the finest luxury goods.
00:41:21
All this had to be brought in
from far away,
00:41:24
and of course, due to the tribute,
00:41:26
the Aztec Empire
was able to gain further wealth,
00:41:29
and it created the possibilities
to expand further and further.
00:41:35
[narrator] The tributary city-states
00:41:37
have precise requirements
as to what they have to produce
00:41:40
and how much they have to pay.
00:41:42
It's systematic exploitation.
00:41:49
This sheet of the Codex Mendoza
shows us a very nice tribute list.
00:41:54
It was specified exactly what
the tributary city-states had to deliver.
00:42:00
Here we find these ornate armors,
00:42:02
but then also food, like beans,
or jewelry.
00:42:08
This was all regulated in detail,
00:42:11
because the Aztecs
attached great importance
00:42:13
to the punctual arrival of the tributes.
00:42:18
If this was not the case,
harsh consequences were the result.
00:42:26
[narrator] The greed
of the Aztec metropolis
00:42:29
for goods, slaves and human sacrifices
increases from year to year.
00:42:35
[Gunsenheimer] The far-reaching expansions
and the tribute demands
00:42:38
associated with them, naturally meant
00:42:40
that many provinces had to put a
heavy burden on the local population.
00:42:46
And it brought them much closer
to the limits of their economic capacity.
00:42:50
And that of course makes
such a structure very fragile, very frail.
00:42:56
It is vulnerable.
00:42:57
As soon as someone
puts a match to it, it burns.
00:43:06
[narrator] When Hernán Cortés and his men
00:43:08
travel through the Aztec Empire in 1519,
00:43:12
this moment has come.
00:43:15
[male voice] I still remember
the first time I saw them.
00:43:22
I never thought it possible
that they would betray the hospitality
00:43:26
of our great Moctezuma so shamefully.
00:43:35
He had given them gifts,
00:43:37
but the white men lured
our revered Moctezuma into a trap.
00:43:46
First, they captured him.
00:43:50
Then, they killed our Tlatoani
and threw his body into the lake.
00:43:58
[narrator] How Moctezuma
actually died is still disputed.
00:44:04
Some say that he was accidentally injured
00:44:07
or even deliberately hurt
by his own people,
00:44:10
while indigenous sources claim
00:44:12
that the Spaniards got rid
of the useless hostage by murder.
00:44:19
[narrator] The fact is,
after the death of Moctezuma,
00:44:22
the Spaniards have to flee at first.
00:44:26
They try to escape
00:44:27
over the floating gardens
00:44:28
and embankment streets of the city.
00:44:33
In the Noche Triste, the Sad Night,
00:44:36
450 Spaniards die,
and only about 100 survive.
00:44:43
It was the first great defeat of
the Spanish in a battle in the New World.
00:44:49
[narrator] But their victory
does not save the Aztecs.
00:44:56
[male voice]
The gods had no mercy on our people.
00:44:59
Many of us fell ill
with a mysterious ailment.
00:45:02
Even my poor wife.
00:45:09
The Spaniards had brought us the fever.
00:45:14
[narrator] Diseases
introduced by the Spaniards,
00:45:17
such as typhoid and smallpox,
rage among the inhabitants of the city.
00:45:35
The locals have no immune defense
00:45:38
against the foreign pathogens.
00:45:44
Within one year,
00:45:46
almost half of the population
of Tenochtitlan dies.
00:45:52
[male voice] Ahuic couldn't
watch our daughter grow up.
00:45:59
Our end was near.
00:46:14
[narrator] Hernán Cortés
and his men were to return to the lake
00:46:17
and plan the storming of the city
with their local allies.
00:46:22
The leaders of the tribes
that were enemies of the Aztecs
00:46:26
had excellent knowledge of the place.
00:46:31
They besiege Tenochtitlan
for three months,
00:46:33
and starve out the people.
00:46:35
[Fargher] After having seen the city,
they developed this plan
00:46:38
of assaulting it
from the water instead of across land.
00:46:43
They were gonna build a series of boats
essentially in pieces,
00:46:47
and then they were going to carry it
across the mountains to the area.
00:46:51
And that's how they did it.
00:46:55
[narrator] Then the attack begins.
00:46:58
In August 1521,
00:47:00
the Spaniards storm
00:47:01
the surrounded city
00:47:02
together with more
than 20,000 allied warriors.
00:47:06
[screaming]
00:47:11
It was not the small handful
of Spaniards alone
00:47:14
who were responsible
for the downfall of the Aztec Empire,
00:47:17
which brought down a huge empire here,
00:47:21
but above all the fact that the Spaniards
00:47:24
had very, very many
powerful indigenous allies
00:47:27
who fought the Aztec Empire
and who tried to free themselves
00:47:31
from the domination of the Aztec Empire.
00:47:35
[screaming]
00:47:39
[narrator]
They fight street after street.
00:47:44
The last Aztec contingent
00:47:47
offers fierce resistance.
00:47:51
Even women and children
00:47:53
stand in the way of the attackers.
00:48:00
On August 13, 1521,
the slaughter is over.
00:48:08
At the end of this conquest,
240,000 Aztecs are dead.
00:48:14
Only a few manage to escape.
00:48:19
[male voice] I got away,
but our town was lost.
00:48:24
Nothing remains but songs of pain.
00:48:33
[narrator] The conquistadors
and their allies
00:48:35
plunder and pillage the city.
00:48:41
Then they raze the once powerful
00:48:44
Tenochtitlan to the ground.
00:48:49
With the destruction of the Aztec Empire,
00:48:52
the Spaniards lay the foundations
of their colonial empire
00:48:55
in Mexico and Central America.
00:48:58
Their allies, however, will soon meet
a new, more merciless oppressor.
00:49:05
We don't know how long the Aztec Empire
could have lasted.
00:49:09
We know that it lasted
almost a hundred years
00:49:11
in the form in which we know it today,
and that is of course a short time.
00:49:16
And it's a tragic end,
because they failed because of enemies
00:49:20
they didn't know
and had no idea how to deal with.
00:49:25
[narrator] For the indigenous peoples,
it is the end of their world.
00:49:31
There could have been much more to come
and much more to develop.
00:49:35
But that was lost
in this clash of civilizations.
00:49:43
[narrator] The heritage of the Aztecs
has been preserved for posterity
00:49:46
in the records of their scribes.
00:49:56
The scribes were,
if you like, the memory of the Aztecs.
00:50:00
They recorded what the Aztecs had achieved
in their past.
00:50:05
They depicted the history
that this people referred to.
00:50:10
They illustrated their strength,
00:50:12
on which the power
of this people was based.
00:50:17
[male voice]
When we die, we're not really dead.
00:50:21
We will live. We will ascend and revive.
00:50:26
For we are the children of the sun.
00:50:43
[narrator] The Spanish
built Mexico City on the ruins
00:50:45
of the former Aztec metropolis.
00:50:50
[rousing music plays]
00:50:53
[narrator]
Only with the country's independence
00:50:55
three centuries
after the arrival of the Spaniards,
00:50:58
the awareness
of the Aztec legacy is revived.
00:51:04
Today, many Mexicans see themselves
again as the descendants of the Aztecs.
00:51:11
Their heritage is celebrated.
00:51:14
It lives on in everyday life.
00:51:16
In the Día de los Muertos,
the festival of the dead,
00:51:20
Aztec and Christian culture mix.
00:51:24
The national flag connects modern Mexico
00:51:27
with the country's Aztec roots:
00:51:30
The eagle on the cactus
with a snake in its beak.
00:51:34
This is the founding myth
of the perished Aztec empire.
