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This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.

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The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily

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the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.

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They were called the people of the sun and believed that they were elected by their tribal

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god to carry out the destiny of the world.

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Guided by this religious imperative, the Aztecs fought their way to domination of the Western

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Hemisphere.

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They exacted tribute from over 30 other city-states.

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In 1519, ruled by the priest king Montezuma, they were at the zenith of their power.

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But on April 22nd of that year, a small army of 508 soldiers led by conquistador Hernán

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Cortés landed on the shore of Mexico.

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Why did Montezuma refuse to fight this enemy that would ultimately imprison him and change

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the face of the new world?

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Montezuma, king of the Aztecs, is about to meet his destiny.

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It is the 8th of November, 1519, and it is one of the most unusual confrontations in

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all of history.

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He believes he is meeting a god.

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But this god is in the form of conquistador Hernán Cortés, who had reached Tenochtitlan,

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the capital of the Aztec Empire, by a combination of shrewd strategy and a mystical confidence

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that his time in history has arrived.

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At his side is the Indian woman known as La Malinche, who is his translator and a key

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to his understanding of the Indian people.

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Today, in the center of Mexico, workers are uncovering the great temple of the Aztecs.

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The site was discovered by chance in 1978, and both as a structure and as a symbol is

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the most important single site in the Aztec world.

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Dr. David Carrasco is a professor at the University of Colorado.

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The Aztecs lived in the north, in a place called Chico Móstoc, or the place of seven

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caves, and there their god, Huychilo Pocely, appeared to the Shaman priest in a dream,

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telling the priest that he should move the people to another location, and that location

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would be marked by an omen in the landscape.

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And there they were told that if they built their city in this place, their city would

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be the queen of all of the cities in Mexico, to whom people would come as one supreme among

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all the others.

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It was at this very spot that the temple mayor was built.

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The remains of the temple and the few other artifacts that survived the conquest tell

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us of the awesome power of the Aztecs.

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Since religion was at the core of their society, their pyramids were built on a scale more

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fitting of gods than men.

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The Aztec calendar was invented by priests who were well versed in astronomy, and it

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was remarkably accurate.

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More accurate, in fact, than the Roman calendar we use today.

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The nobles and priests were schooled in history, religion, and prophecy.

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They were not only learning from their past, but believed they could predict their future.

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Their conquest had enabled them to create a world of luxury, and their lush gardens fed

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their growing armies and put flowers on the tables of their nobility.

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The primary sources that we have depict Moctezuma II as a highly sensitive, very spiritual,

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and deeply concerned Klatwani, or king, who had a very close relationship to the major

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deity of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli.

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He carried the influence and the power of Huitzilopochtli in his own heart.

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He was the spokesman for this great deity.

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The Aztecs had a cyclical concept of time.

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Every 52 years, a new cycle began, and the gods had to be appeased at these crucial periods

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to assure the continued prosperity of their civilization.

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The year 1519 was the beginning of a new cycle, and there were ominous signs that their world

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was in danger.

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The Aztecs tell their story of the conquest in a very unusual way.

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They begin their story of how their world came to an end by telling not how the Spanish

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first came to their land, but by telling that there were omens in the sky, signs in their

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own heavens, which indicated that their world or their cosmos was coming to an abrupt and

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violent end.

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The first omen that appears is a rip in the sky, which bleeds drop by drop onto the Aztec

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world celestial influences.

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The second omen is a thunderbolt, which hits, burns down the temple of the great god Huitzilopochtli.

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A number of omens follow, which indicate that the Aztecs understood their own collapse as

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originating with celestial influences, not the presence of Spaniards.

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The final omen was the most frightening.

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One night throughout Tenerstitlan, a woman's cry was heard.

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My children, my children, we are lost.

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It came from everywhere and from nowhere, and the people were afraid.

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It is an eerie fact that the arrival of Cortes was foretold by the Aztec prophecies.

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Irony and coincidence played instrumental parts in the collision of these two great

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cultures.

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It was as though some guiding force had arranged the elements of this great drama, which the

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characters then acted out.

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We have records of this historic event, in a personal account written by Bernal Diaz,

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a soldier in Cortes' army, and in the colorful picture writings of the Aztecs themselves.

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Both cultures seem to confirm the warning of the omens.

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But Professor James Lockhart has a different interpretation.

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The omens tell us mainly what the Aztecs or the Indians of that area were thinking many

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years after the conquest.

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Most of the ones we have, or generation or generation and a half, they're their attempt

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to explain what happened.

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And the kinds of things that we have, astronomical phenomena, strange animals and the like, are

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part of a standard repertoire that these people often use to explain bad things that happened

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to them after the fact.

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Cortes was totally unaware of the Aztec situation when he approached the shores of Mexico.

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His main concern was keeping his expedition together, and to prevent desertion, he burned

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his ships after he was ashore.

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The great god Quetzalcoatl was prophesied to return on the very day that Cortes lands,

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and Montezuma has his people watching the coast in anticipation of this momentous event.

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A messenger brings him drawings of these beings, and the light-skinned bearded figures are

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frighteningly similar to the traditional description of their god.

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Montezuma is overwhelmed and afraid to receive this mythical being, but also afraid to arouse

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his anger by keeping him away.

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What hand was guiding the Cortes expedition to land on that exact day?

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The mission was nearly aborted many times.

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Even as it got underway, conflict and uncertainty made it doubtful whether it would ever reach

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its destination.

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Yet Cortes' sense of destiny pushed him on, ironically fulfilling the Aztec promise.

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Who knows where or how the Quetzalcoatl legend originated.

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His image was on every temple in the empire.

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The more fantastic theories see in Quetzalcoatl and Irishmen, Norsemen, or even Atlantean,

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who had landed on Mexico's shore in some ancient time.

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Quetzalcoatl was important because he ruled a magnificent kingdom, a magnificent city

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state in which there was abundance, harmony between the gods and human beings, agricultural

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stability.

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But at a certain point in the golden day of Quetzalcoatl's kingdom, he had to leave,

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but he promised to return one day and restore the abundance and stability of this marvelous

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situation.

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It appears from the primary sources that we have that when the Spaniards began to march

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inland in 1519, led by Cortes, that the Aztecs and especially the Aztec king Montesuma interpreted

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the presence of the Spaniards as the return of this king Quetzalcoatl.

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And he investigated this identity in a number of ways.

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First of all, he sent out some representatives to paint pictures of Cortes and the Spaniards

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so that these pictures could be brought back and compared with the pictures that they had

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of their own Toltaque ancestors.

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Secondly, Montesuma sent out food to see if the Spaniards would eat the Indian food

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and recognize it.

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Were they indeed human beings or were they other kinds of beings or were they some sort

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of combination of beings, human beings and supernatural beings?

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Many of the Indians near the coast do not share Montesuma's reference for these intruders

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and want to drive them out.

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But their fighting methods are no match for the Spaniards.

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The battles between the Spaniards and the Indians usually ended in Spanish victory.

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The Spaniards had the great advantage of steel, which both offensive and defensive gave them

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an advantage that the Indians simply could not equal.

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The steel sword could cut through anything the Indians had.

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The steel helmet could not be penetrated by anything the Indians had.

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The other great advantage that the Spaniards had was the horse, which fulfilled the function

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essentially of a tank in modern warfare.

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And these two then were used in conjunction.

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A fairly large body of Spanish footmen with their swords would hack away at huge numbers

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of Indians killing, killing, killing until they got tired.

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Whereupon the horsemen would burst out and push the Indians back, which they could do.

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And then they would return to inside the Spanish group and the Spaniards would begin doing it all over again.

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After being defeated on the battlefield, several tribal emissaries beg for peace and bring gifts

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as a sign of friendship.

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Cortez uses the occasion to further impress upon them his invulnerability.

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He has a horse brought to him, knowing that to them this is a beast of the most fearsome proportion.

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He is quick to take advantage of the moment.

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He takes the helmet of one of his soldiers and calls back the frightened emboids.

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He then commands them to take the helmet to Montezuma and have it filled with gold.

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Even this helmet seems to be an object of wonder to them.

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It appeared to them that this helmet was very similar, if not the same kind of helmet,

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which the great Aztec deity Huizula Pochli wore.

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We're told that the helmet was taken to Montezuma and when he saw it he marveled at this possibility

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and in fact compared it to the helmet which was associated with Huizula Pochli

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and was very impressed by the similarity and in fact afraid.

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Montezuma does as commanded, but still he sends the message for Cortez to come no further.

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At the heart of the Aztec belief system was fear.

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Fear of the apocalypse which would inevitably come and annihilate the tribe.

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The function of the Aztec priests was to postpone this apocalypse as long as possible

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and this could only be accomplished by pleasing the many gods with the hearts of human sacrificial victims.

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There are Aztec myths, Aztec stories which tell that the Aztec city itself,

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the great temple of the Aztecs was created as a result of the sacrifice of deities.

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These stories of sacrifice of gods became the models for the ritual system

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and the ritual processes of the Aztecs themselves.

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That is as the gods had sacrificed themselves to give life to human beings,

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human beings were asked to sacrifice other human beings which was understood to feed the deities and regenerate the world.

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The Aztecs were asked to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Aztecs.

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Cortez receives his helmet along with the warning not to come.

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One of the other tribes is more emphatic.

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We are going to kill these who are called gods and offer them up for sacrifice.

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Cortez gathers his men to pray for good fortune and strength

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against an enemy that outnumbers them more than a thousand to one.

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Against such overwhelming odds it seems foolhardy for Cortez to continue his advance

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but his ambition propels him forward and the lure of wealth and power keeps his troops behind him.

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One of the most repulsive dimensions which the Aztecs felt about the Spanish invasion of their country

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was the Spanish greed for gold.

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The Aztecs said of the Spaniards, they are like dogs seeking gold. Gold is their sickness.

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The lure he holds out to the Indians of Mexico is freedom from Aztec domination.

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He will use every tactic at his disposal, every weapon in his arsenal and every person in his path

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in his determination to become master of the new world.

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People have been saying for a long time that Cortez didn't tell it right.

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He overpraises Mexico as to its great extent and population and wealth.

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Not that it wasn't impressive but he doesn't really care about that so much as he wants to impress

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the emperor back home that he, what a service he has done in giving him such a huge principality.

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He also over-evaluates the religious component and the patriotic component in what he's doing.

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They may have been very real too but that wasn't really the reason that he did what he did

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but in his letters back home it appears that his whole motivation is Christianity and service to the emperor.

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What actually his motivation is that he be confirmed as governor.

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Even after consulting with his gods, Montezuma can think of nothing to avoid the impending disaster.

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Cortez is invulnerable in battle and immune to magic spells. He certainly must be a god.

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It was ages ago that Quetzalcoatl was driven out of the land by a rival deity

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and now with his return there will be a clash between the two powers that will do incalculable damage.

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As the Spaniards were approaching the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, they expected to see something magnificent and great

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because they had heard about Montezuma's great city, the great temple of Tenochtitlan

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and the mighty power of the Aztec nobility.

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When they entered the city what they saw was even much more magnificent.

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Bernal Diaz describes the Spaniards approach to the capital city.

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When we saw the town with buildings rising from the water all made of stone, it seemed like an enchanted vision.

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Some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream.

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Montezuma himself greets them as they enter the city center with these words.

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Oh Lord, with what trouble have you journeyed to reach us?

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Have arrived in this land, your own city of Mexico, to sit on your throne which I have been guarding for you this while.

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I have been watching for you, for my ancestors told that you would return.

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Welcome to this land, rest of wild, rest in your palace.

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I believe that Cortez in fact was taking an enormous risk in going into Tenochtitlan.

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But I am not sure that the Spaniards realized that they were.

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They had a long history behind them of entering into the presence of the Cacique or chieftain or king,

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seizing him in the course of some friendly parlay and getting away with it.

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They also had an equally long history of winning battles.

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So I am not sure that they fully realized the risk to themselves that they were taking.

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Montezuma has actually moved out of his palace to make room for Cortez.

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It is a time of great anxiety and Montezuma feels it is more necessary than ever to continue the sacrifices.

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The Lord of the dead needs victims.

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From their quarters Cortez and his men can see the grisly spectacle of the sacrificial victims being thrown down the steps of the pyramids.

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Finally Cortez can endure it no more.

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When Cortez and his troops first arrived in the city, Montezuma took them to the great temple.

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And standing on top of the great temple Cortez is, according to Granadiesa del Castillo,

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turns to his own priest and says to the priest,

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perhaps this is a good time to ask Montezuma to remove his own sacred idol so we can put a cross here.

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Montezuma like many of the other priests and chieftains and leaders in Mexico

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were repulsed by this possibility.

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The presence of the Spaniards is causing conflict among the Aztec leaders.

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Rumors of uprising are heard throughout Tenochtitlan.

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In a desperate attempt to avert disaster Cortez takes Montezuma prisoner.

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This is a bold maneuver while in the heart of the Aztec Empire.

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And to further assert his power he displays the bound king to his people.

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The Spaniards now feel free to put up their crosses and altars

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and demand that the sacrifices stop immediately.

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There were many uprisings of the same kind as that that led to Montezuma's death all over the Spanish Indies.

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It was a quite predictable process.

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The first you seized the casique or chieftain and through him you ran his kingdom.

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But the people began not to like it and so invariably you get secondary rebellions after the initial conquest.

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As the uprising spreads Cortez sends Montezuma out to persuade his people to stop the fighting.

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But the situation is out of control.

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Suddenly stones rain down on Montezuma.

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He is mortally wounded and will die three days later.

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Though the fighting goes on for some time, the death of Montezuma marks the end of the Aztec Empire.

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The most powerful nation in the Western Hemisphere has come to an abrupt and tragic end

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defeated by a force smaller than Montezuma's palace guard.

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The legend of Quetzalcoatl is curiously fulfilled

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and who is to say that the same omnipotent hand that created the legend

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did not also push Cortez to the shores of Mexico on that April day in 1519.

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So many questions remain about the conquest.

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What if there had been a different king at the time?

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One not so superstitious as Montezuma.

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What if Cortez had not landed in 1519?

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Would history have been different?

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Perhaps not.

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Perhaps it was as Cortez believed and no matter what the odds,

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it was his destiny to be conqueror of Mexico.

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The End