US-trained Mexican commandos pose threat to authorities

"But we shouldn't ignore the achievements of an empire that managed to feed 22 million people on 15th-century maize farming technology (in some ways less advanced than elsewhere, and almost without domesticated animals)."

Why not? There is NOTHING to emulate there. If we needed their farming technology (we don't), sure, we could copy that, but the real lesson of the Spanish and the Aztecs is that thank God, good triumphed over evil and the world was made a better place. Somehow, that lesson has been revised into a lie, that acquisitive Europeans and domineering and oppressive Christianity conquered an admirable people, stole their land, and destroyed their civilization. That is untrue. The fall of the Aztec civilization liberated the good people in that society and vanquished their oppressors. It was a GOOD THING.

Much earlier, in the times Punic Wars between the Roman Empire and the Phoenicians, there was a similar situation. The Phoenicians had a sophisticated trading empire, a navy, and many technological advantages, but the Romans stomped them into the ground, killed everyone, and salted the earth. You see, they worshipped Moloch, an evil god, and their primary religious ritual was tossing live human babies into furnaces as sacrifices to their god. (Hmmmm, this is really making me wonder about that theory that all religious are really equal and really worshipping the one God.) Carthago Delenda Est (Carthage must be destroyed.) It was. Good Riddance.

There is never a good reason for whitewashing history.

Recent research shows that the Aztec civilization ultimately collapsed from cocolitzli, an indigenous (not an introduced) disease. Cortez might not have conquered the Aztecs (and certainly not so easily) if he hadn't spread smallpox first (although we don't exactly find him culpable for that) and if the Aztecs didn't revere him as a god. The Spanish only partially colonized their empire; therefore, many Mexicans have some Aztec, Mayan, or other Amerindian ancestry.

If Cortez hadn't come, the Aztec Empire might well have fallen victim to cocolitzli.

The Spanish invested their best medical resources to attempt in an attempt to save the natives from their disease. Because we really don't understand the disease (like we don't understand the Black Death strain of bubonic plague), we don't know how effective medieval Spanish medicine might have been (suffice it to say, it wasn't much more effective than the current campaign against Marburg in Angola, but given the state of European medicine in those days, the thought doesn't count for nothing). Perhaps the uninterpreted and undiscovered Aztec literature contains some clues as to the history and identity of this disease.

In your example, the Phoenician empire taught the Romans the importance of naval power. But yes, the sin of human sacrifice is evil, and the Spanish Christian missionaries definitely improved the place. But ignoring the existence and accomplishments of the Aztecs and Phoenicians because of their suicidal offerings to false gods would constitute historical revisionism. The Spanish likely did copy the Aztec farming technology and their slate of crops.

I don't think we should ignore any part of history, but notice what I objected to in your original post-- your failure to mention that the civilization down south that used to exist and no longer does, the Aztecs, practiced HUMAN SACRIFICE. We should never ignore or gloss over such evil. Never.

We are certainly lucky to live in this country, for all the complaining we tend to do.

Let me guess. You probably don't reside in the southwestern US. In the southwest it is their country.

We in California aren't lucky because we live in the third world. Our lieutenant governor, the speaker of our state assembly, our most influential state senator and the mayor of our largest city would be considered illegal aliens if they lived in California prior to FDR. Today we simply call them anchor babies. Even our governor is the citizen of a foreign country.

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