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Victor Davis Hanson has a chapter on Cortes and the conquest of Mexico in his book Carnage and Culture. It's the best analysis I've seen yet of why the Spanish were so successful: Cortes could lose half his men, most of his horses, and all his cannon escaping the city on La Noche Triste, but he regarded that as only a minor setback. He came back with more men and guns, built small boats with cannon to attack the city via the lake, manufactured more gunpowder and crossbow bolts with materials in the local area.

If possible, the Aztecs were even more disgusting than we've been led to believe. Their priests had cloaks of human skin, blood-smeared rooms, sprinkled blood on food like sauce, captured Spanish (after they were sacrificed) would have their faces flayed off to make masks (leaving the beards intact); they also chopped the heads off any horses that they killed or captured for display. Displaying the severed heads of captured Spanish also disheartened many of the Indian allies who were with Cortes.

It's not PC to say so nowadays, but even the brutality and enslavement of the Spanish conquistadors was a definite improvement over the bloody rule by sacrificial terror of the Aztecs.

Cheers to Hernan, bloody bastard that he was, he started the cultural trend that lead to the influx of hot Latina women into my life....uh, stopping of course with my marriage to my beloved "Amelia"...

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity ... " - Anne Coulter - 2001.

"Then send their women to South Florida" - Yakboy (Err...when I was single.)

For many years Cortez governed Mexico, then called New Spain, but in 1540 he fell out of favor with the king of Spain. He returned to Spain to plead his case in vain.

Didn't they all? Columbus also feel out of favor and ended up in prison.

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