Perspective Games

The Aztec did do sacrifices, but they also had many impressive artistic, engineering, intellectual and social achievements too, which were praised by Europeans of the time, even by Christian friars, see quotes here: x.com/Majora__Z/stat… Here's 10 examples: 1. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco (pic 1) was huge: It covered 13.5 sqkm, the same area that Rome's walls encircled, and had 200,000 denizens by most estimates, almost as much as Paris and Constantinople, the largest cities in Europe at the time. The city was made of both natural and artificial islands which formed a grid, with Venice-like canals running between them, with many of the artificial islands also acting as hydroponic farms. The city had hundreds of temple pyramids and palaces, as well as botanical gardens, zoos, aquariums, and aviaries. 2. Mesoamerican palaces in general had dozens to hundreds of rooms organized around open courtyards, with painted frescoes, gardens, and often waterworks for fresh drinking/cleaning water and drainage systems, sometimes with toilets and steam bathes. Moctezuma II's palace in Tenochtitlan covered ~200 by 200 meters, with one Conquistador noting that he entered the palace more then four times "without any other purpose than to see things, and I walked till I was tired, and never saw the whole of it." 3. Speaking of botanical gardens in cities and palaces, these could be quite elaborate: The gardens at the royal estate/retreat of Huaxtepec covered over 10 sqkm and had over 2000 kinds of plants, with Cortes describing it "[The] Finest, pleasantest, and largest [garden] that ever was seen". Another estate, Texcotzinco, was built onto a mountain/hill, was fed water via a 5+ mile long aqueduct that rose over 150 feet above ground at some points, had a system of pools and channels to control its flow rate, with the water circuiting around the peak and into shrines, pools, and fountains, before forming waterfalls which watered the terraced gardens at the hill's base. At both Huaxtepec and Texcotzinco, plants were intentionally brought in from different far-off ecosystems and biomes, with the latter at least having different sections to emulate those different locales. 4. As evidenced by Texcotzinco and Tenochtitlan's canals, the Aztec (and other Mesoamericans like the Maya) were accomplished hydraulic engineers. To name two of many other examples, Tenochtitlan's main aqueduct which sourced water from the gardens/springs at Chapultepec was also many miles long and had twin channels or pipes with a switching mechanism so one side could be cleaned as the other side ran (see pic 2); and the 16 kilometer long, 8 meter high levee wall of Nezahualcoyotl, built of wood, stone, and other materials, was used to split the lake Tenochtitlan was built in the center of into fresh and brackish water 5. The Aztec also had impressive medical sciences and practices for the time, especially with herbs: The aforementioned botanical gardens were used to stock medical herbs and plants, and to experiment with and categorize plants. Francisco Hernandez, the personal royal physician and naturalist to Philip II, who traveled to Mexico and studied at Huaxtepec seeking Aztec botanical and medical records, wrote: "I marveled, in this and in innumerable other herbs, which are nameless among us, how in the Indies... there are so many...with known uses and some without, but there is almost none, which is not known to them and given a particular name", while the Franciscan missionary Motolina wrote "They have...skilled doctors who know how to use many herbs and medicines...Some...have so much experience that they were able to heal Spaniards, who had long suffered from chronic and serious diseases". The Aztec have the first documented use of intramedullary rods to set broken bones, were some of the few premodern people to practice preventative dentistry, and we even have recorded eye surgeries. 6. Also tied to their medicine and botany was their sanitation and hygiene practices, which were quite strict: Even commoners were expected to bath daily (to the point where some Spainards thought smallpox was from the Mesoamericans bathing too much), to wash one's hands, teeth, and face multiple times a day, and to be clean shaven. Not taking care of one's home/land could result in it being seized, and damaging or dirtying other's or state property could see you executed, at least in theory. There were fleets of civil servants to wash roads and buildings on a daily basis, who also collected waste from public toilets to be reused for fertilizers and dyes. The various plants, flowers, and herbs they collected and grew were also used to produce a large industry of sanitary products, from soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, breath fresheners, body washes, colognes and perfumes,, and aromatic flowers and trees were planted in urban spaces or used in construction to mask smells. 7. Tenochtitlan had (depending on your definition and source), the first universal public schooling system in history, with both boys and girls, commoners and nobles, attending, though lessons differed by gender and class. These schools taught basic history and math, morals, military training and labor for boys and domestic skills for girls, songs and religion, and elite educations included advanced history and mathematics, reading and writing, poetry, rhetorical public speaking, botany, biology and medicine, theology, astronomy etc For example, Jose de Acosta states "It is known that the Mexicans were very diligent in making boys commit those speeches and compositions to memory, and for this purpose they had schools...where the old men taught the youth these and many other things...In particular they obliged the youths whom they had chosen to be rhetoricians...to learn famous orations..." and "Nothing has amazed me more...than the care and good order that the Mexicans had in bringing up their children...To this end there were...schools...They had tutors and teachers who taught and trained them in praiseworthy activities..." 8. As just mentioned, the Aztec had a pretty rich tradition of poetry and rhetorical public speeches. Poems were timed to music and are therefore technically songs, but their subject matter included moral lessons, existential themes etc in a way which evokes what we'd call poetry: See pic 3 from 1491 by Mann for some examples, and even a more critical reading of the poems/songs such as reddit.com/r/nahuatl/comm… still has it giving the audience important abstract lessons about morality. Public speaking was done by kings and other officials when engaging with the public, as well as being a part of presentations and debate in the senate of Tlaxcala, and in judicial court cases with defendants and claimants making their cases. Nahuatl, the Aztec language, even had increasingly lyrical and symbolism ladden class and context based dialects when spoken by nobles, diplomats, and rulers in associated contexts. 9. To segue again from my last point, Aztec city-states had formal legal and political institutions such as courts of law, senates, etc In Tenochtitlan, each city district has it's own "municipal" court, with there being a series of higher state appellate courts for appeals and more serious cases or with higher status claimants/defendants, the highest of these courts had the the king/emperor as judge, though lower courts had professional judges, constables, and police forces associated with them. The penalty for judicial corruption was death. As mentioned, the city of Tlaxcala was ruled primarily via a senate as it's most powerful institution (though it may also have had kings, and other cities had various councils which may be analogous to the Tlaxcalteca senate without as much power). Both commoners and nobles could become senators, though one had to undergo public insults and beatings to prove their commitment to civil service, and then undergo strict legal and ethical training prior to taking office. 10. Finally, the Aztec has some world-class art, jewelry, clothing, and other goods. Albrecht Durer, perhaps the most famous German artist, of the time, saw Aztec art on display at Brussels and stated "I saw the things...brought...from [Mexico]...all manner of wonderous [weapons and armor]...clothing, beds, and all kinds of wonderful objects...better...than...[things in fairy tales]...I have seen nothing that [rejoiced] my heart as much as these...", while the Conquistador Bernal Diaz stated "there are three Indians [in Tenochtitlan/Mexico City]...who are such magnificent painters and carvers that, had they lived in the age of the famous Apelles...or of Michelangelo or Berrugeute in our own day, they would be counted in the same rank" My favorite example of their artwork are their feather mosaics, where tens or hundreds of thousands of iridesecent feathers were used to coat the surface of textiles, clothes, armor, helmets, and shields, and other objects, the arrangement of differently colored feathers forming images and patterns. The Spanish were astounded by this and commissioned tons of pieces depicting Christian saints and biblical scenes, as seen in pic 4 --------- For more info, see: - This post: x.com/Majora__Z/stat… and this post x.com/Majora__Z/stat… for more examples of impressive Mesoamerican engineering, math, and other achievements - This post: x.com/Majora__Z/stat… for more on Aztec waterworks (see also the post above it in the chain from me) - This writeup: docs.google.com/document/d/16i… for more on Aztec sanitation, botany, and medicine - This post: x.com/Majora__Z/stat… and especially images for more on their intellectual achievements and schools - And finally, this post: x.com/Majora__Z/stat… has links to many more posts of mine on Mesoamerican history and archeology

Tlatoani Version 1 is now out of access and ON SALE! Featuring 21 historical campaign missions, half-a-dozen monument projects, random map generation, 6 freestyle scenarios, a map editor and modding tools. (Also, now in German.) Enjoy! store.steampowered.com/app/3161270/Tl…

Tlatoani Version 1 is now out of access and ON SALE! Featuring 21 historical campaign missions, half-a-dozen monument projects, random map generation, 6 freestyle scenarios, a map editor and modding tools. (Also, now in German.) Enjoy! store.steampowered.com/app/3161270/Tl…

Tlatoani Version 1 is now out of access and ON SALE! Featuring 21 historical campaign missions, half-a-dozen monument projects, random map generation, 6 freestyle scenarios, a map editor and modding tools. (Also, now in German.) Enjoy! store.steampowered.com/app/3161270/Tl…

Tlatoani Version 1 is now out of access and ON SALE! Featuring 21 historical campaign missions, half-a-dozen monument projects, random map generation, 6 freestyle scenarios, a map editor and modding tools. (Also, now in German.) Enjoy! store.steampowered.com/app/3161270/Tl…

Tlatoani Version 1 is now out of access and ON SALE! Featuring 21 historical campaign missions, half-a-dozen monument projects, random map generation, 6 freestyle scenarios, a map editor and modding tools. (Also, now in German.) Enjoy! store.steampowered.com/app/3161270/Tl…

Tlatoani Version 1 is now out of access and ON SALE! Featuring 21 historical campaign missions, half-a-dozen monument projects, random map generation, 6 freestyle scenarios, a map editor and modding tools. (Also, now in German.) Enjoy! store.steampowered.com/app/3161270/Tl…