Original subtitles

- [Announcer] October 12th 1992,

Tenochtitlan region Mexico,

the president of the Meso-Amercian Federation

has personally traveled to the heart of the Templo Mayor.

This is the day when the entire Aztec nation

celebrates a symbolic return of their great God Quetzalcoatl

the feathered serpent.

Having emerged victorious from the dreadful period

of the great Spanish invasions of the 16th century.

The Aztec empire has preserved it's independence

by developing it's economy with European trading companies

it was able to unite it's peoples

and create a powerful federation.

(sweeping music)

Today united cities govern the whole

of the South American continent

and now Coatl is the official language.

But none of this ever happened,

in 1520 a tiny grain of sand will decide the fate

of the empire and bring about the death

of the Aztec culture.

Our history is no more than a series of incredible events.

Every one of us can influence it's course.

(intense music)

The most infinitesimal of our decisions can influence

the future of humanity, to know the past

is to foresee the future.

November 18th, 1518, Hernan Cortez, Spanish conquistador,

sets out totally illegally for the coast of the Yucatan.

June 30th, 1520, during a dark and rainy night,

Cortez is snatched from the jaws of death by two of his men.

August 13th, 1521, Quo-ti-mok, the last Aztec emperor

is captured and tortured, the Aztec empire collapses.

These three intimately connected events

are the key moments in the conquest of Mexico

by Hernan Cortez and his conquistadors.

1504, at the end of an interminable two month crossing,

raiding the Atlantic ocean, the Spanish crowns convoy

finally comes within sight of it's destination.

Hispaniola, the modern island of Haiti

and the Dominican Republic.

Aboard one of the ships a young Castilian nobleman,

Hernan Cortes is coming to try his luck on this colony.

Lost some 6,500 kilometers from his native Spain.

Because although Christopher Columbus had claimed

the Caribbean in the name of the kings of Spain in 1492,

the american continent remains, for the Europeans,

a land of adventure where everything is possible.

This is the new world.

Since the beginning of the 15th century,

Portugal has been out to discover the world,

braving the unknown, these intrepid explorers

have sailed the coast aboard their ships,

gone up rivers, mapping every shore and every island.

In 1492, sailing to establish a new trade route to the east,

the explorer Christopher Columbus found his way blocked

by a considerable obstacle,

America.

Spain immediately set upon the colonization of Hispaniola

and then Cuba.

In these new territories everything had to be created,

they needed men who were daring and fearless.

For them such a voyage is a promise of glory and wealth.

Like Cortes, they set sail in their hundreds

on an adventure that was both exotic and perilous.

Though these territories were not virgin,

they are peopled by native tribes.

(shouts) (guns fire)

Appointed secretary to the Spanish governor of Cuba,

Cortes takes part in the conquest of the island.

Starting from very little, he is soon rich

but this comfortable situation is not enough for him.

He is fascinated by the fabulous accounts

of the great navigators who set out to explore

the limits of the world.

When the governor suggests he lead an exploratory expedition

of the Mexican coast, he jumps at the chance.

The sale of his lands and loans enable him

to recruit hardened seamen

but most importantly, to purchase a a maximum on armaments.

Because Cortes secretly envisages every possibility,

in particular that of conquering new territories

in the name of the Spanish crown.

Suspicious, the governor immediately order

that Cortes is stripped of his command.

Too late.

Cortes has already weighed anchor.

His course set for Mexico, totally illegally.

- [Woman] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here we can control time, analyze and compare billions

of events and alter them to rewrite history endlessly.

All the events in our history, however minute they might be,

are memorized and interconnected.

It only requires one to be changed for all the others

to be shaken to the core.

From his very first step man has the thirst for discovery.

A fascination for the unknown has often driven him

to go further, beyond the horizon.

To cover distance, he was long limited by his own legs.

Then he domesticated horses, built ships,

invented the wheel.

Ever since antiquity, sailing the high seas

has been dangerous but in the 15th century

they developed ships that were stronger, more maneuverable

and able to face the fury of the oceans.

The caravel, a Portuguese invention,

was perfect for exploration.

It was this that enables Christopher Columbus

to achieve his exploit.

Today, increasingly advance techniques bring fresh frontiers

within our reach.

From the oceans of business,

to the planets of the solar system,

we have the technological resources to enter into

a new age of exploration.

Our only limit

is our daring.

- [Announcer] 11 ships, 518 fighting men,

14 cannons, 16 horses, and a few dogs

set out to conquer the unknown.

Cortez, impromptu and illegal warlord,

knows that he can no longer turn back.

But if he returns laden with wealth

the king will pardon his insubordination.

He has turned into a conqueror, a conquistador.

He is condemned to succeed or to die.

1519 off the coast of Yucatan,

for the explorers the coast means virgin forest,

poisonous snakes and disease.

Cortes knows that he will soon need assistance

in particular for his supply of provisions.

He is hoping to find hospitality with one

of the many native tribes along the coast.

(shouts) (arrow flies)

(gun fires)

The Spanish cavalry and their steel weapons wreak havoc

among the enemy warriors.

For the Amer Indians these men with the white skin

seem to have surged up from the ocean.

In return for a promise of peace,

the Amer Indians offer tribute, food, gold and slaves.

Among them is Malensin.

Whom the Spanish name, La Malinche.

The slave is beautiful, intelligent and cultivated.

She speaks several languages, notably

that of the great civilization that the conquistadors

will soon discover,

the Aztec empire.

The Aztecs are one of the many Indian peoples

of Central America.

Over the last century they have carved out an empire

of eight million souls with the blades

of their obsidian swords.

From their capital Snochtitan, they rule

over the greater part of Mexico.

Legend has it that when pursued by their enemies,

the Aztec sought refuge on a swampy island

in a middle of a great lake.

An eagle, grasping a fruit in it's talons

was taken as a sign from the gods,

one day a great Aztec city will arise here, Snochtitlan.

Since then they have imposed their will

and their religion on almost all of the neighboring tribes.

Every city newly conquered must adopt the worship

of Huitzilopochtli, the great Aztec god of war and the sun.

To enable the gods to be able to exist,

their thirst must be slaked with human blood.

Devastating raids are conducted on the villages.

The objective. Bring back the greatest number of prisoners

and then offer them as sacrifices.

Dragged to the summit of a pyramid,

the victim is held down on a stone slab

and his chest is brutally opened,

his still beating heart is torn out by hand

and offered to the sun.

- [Woman] The fortress city,

Snochitlan is an architectural audacity.

Because when they built their capital in the middle

of the great lake Tex-coco, the Aztecs were faced

with a host of challenges.

In the heart on the rocky island stand the temples,

the imperial palaces and the pyramids.

A major part of the city was built on the waters

by creating terraces of reeds, fixed with stakes

and covered with earth.

There in particular, we find fertile plantations of corn

and tomatoes.

Two aqueducts bring in fresh water,

drains carry away the waste water and garbage is recycled.

Huge jetty's interspersed with bridges,

provide access to the dry land.

A complex system of canals and dykes controls

the water level and prevents flooding.

When the Spanish arrive the city extends to 900 hectares

and has up to 200,000 residents

which makes it one of the biggest cities in the world.

Today, on the same side as that city

sits Mexico city.

- [Announcer] A few hundred conquistadors against millions

of natives.

Cortes makes a rapid assessment of the situation.

However the Aztec empire is a giant with feet of clay.

Founded on submission it demands total obedience

from the other Amer Indian peoples.

And will not forgive a single fault.

There are many tribes who can no longer stand this.

Cortes knows it and will play a clever hand.

He presents himself as an alternative to the Aztecs.

Meanwhile, what the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma II,

doesn't know what attitude to adopt towards his newcomers.

Enemies? Allies? Gods?

Cautious, he allows the Spaniards to live

for the moment.

As translator and advisor, La Malinche enables Cortes

to forge precious alliances

with the peoples under Aztec domination.

Gradually the Spanish army swells.

After two months of travel and negotiations,

Cortes finally arrives within view of the capitol,

Snochtitlan.

Montezuma finally decides to invite them to meet him.

Watched by Aztec warriors

the conquistadors cautiously advance.

On guard they are awed by the magnificence of the city.

The meeting of the two chiefs is one of two worlds.

Everything sets them apart,

nevertheless Montezuma offers hospitality.

The Spaniards find themselves in a strange situation.

Having come to seize new territories

they are invited in peacefully.

Cortes in the heart of an alien city

surrounded by natives who practice human sacrifice

does not know what to do.

He has several options.

But he decides to play his most insane card.

He awaits the right moment and suddenly takes

Emperor Montezuma the second hostage.

His calculation is simple, by striking off the head

of the empire, he believes that the Aztecs will surrender.

This shows ignorance of Aztec society

because nobody can understand what Cortes wants.

The situation is a stalemate.

Meanwhile, a Spanish counter expedition has landed

on the Mexican coast with orders for the immediate arrest

of the outlaw conquistador.

Cortes leaves a small troop in place and sets out

to face his compatriots.

In Snochtitlan, fearing an uprising, the Spanish garrison

cut off, massacres several thousand Aztec nobles.

When Cortes, having obtained a miraculous victory,

returns to the capital, the situation has changed.

The city is out of control,

with the surviving conquistadors besieged

in the imperial palace.

During the course of events, Montezuma is killed.

The conquistadors have no choice, they have to flee

and flee fast.

June 30th, 1520,

on a rainy night, the conquistadors abandon the city.

Laden with gold, they must reach the gates of the city

and then in darkness, cross the vast causeway

across the lake.

Overwhelmingly outnumbered,

stealth and speed are their best cards.

But the Aztec army quickly throws itself upon them.

Looming out of the mist, thousands of Indians attack

the fleeing column.

The Spaniards have walked into hell.

Their only chance of survival is to hack away

through to the dry land.

Some of them, weighed down with gold,

die by drowning in the depths of the swamps.

Others are captured and will be offered as sacrifices

to the gods.

Cortes himself is unhorsed.

Two of his men save him in the nick of time.

Breathless, decimated, the survivors finally set foot

on dry land.

Cortes has just lost half his army.

- [Woman] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event, a cross roads in our history

where the world swings one way or the other.

What would have happened if Cortes had been killed

during the noche triste?

The chief was incontestably the moral pillar

of the conquistadors.

Without him panic and distress would have overwhelmed

the survivors.

The troop in disarray would never have been able

to face up to the Aztec army.

Those who escaped would have ended their journey

on a stone table at the top of a pyramid.

The failure would have turned Cortes's audacity

into madness.

His successors would have shown much more caution.

There would have been no more conquest.

The Aztec empire could quite possibly have survived

to our day.

In the 20th century, it would be a powerful federation

of Meso-American cities.

South America would be speaking Amer Indian language.

- [Announcer] Surrounded by enemies,

thousands of miles from home,

decimated and wounded, the conquistadors know

they are facing their own annihilation.

All hope of flight is vain.

Upon arrival in the new world.

Cortes had dismantled his ships in preparation for this day.

Cortes is now caught in his own trap.

Their Amer Indian allies are in a similar situation.

Slaughtered in the thousands during the Snochtitlan debacle

they know they will never obtain pardon from the Aztecs.

On July 7th, 1520, the survivors are overtaken

and encircled by the Aztec army.

On the brink of the abyss about to be submerged

beneath the wave of the new warriors

13 riders risk all and charge directly

at the Aztec commander.

Miraculously emerging alive from the battle,

Cortes uses the respite to regroup his forces

and retake the initiative.

On December 30th, 1520 he is back before the Aztec capital.

With him are tens of thousands of Amer Indian allies.

But this time ruse would not be enough.

The conquistador adapts a strategy and prepares

for a long siege.

He builds ships fitted with firearms to carry out raids

on the capital.

But the Aztecs have learned from their mistakes.

Attacks at night, traps to foil the cavalry,

protection against the musket balls,

the two worlds adapt to one another.

The better to destroy each other.

Faced with maniacal Aztec defense, Cortes decides

to adopt a scorched earth tactic.

Move from house to house, burning everything in his path.

Soon the last Aztec forces are trapped

in the northern quarters of the city.

August 13th, 1521, Quotamuch the new emperor

is captured, the city is almost entirely destroyed

with it dies Aztec resistance.

Cortes has just brought down the empire.

- [Woman] Steel against stone.

The Aztec warriors were redoubtable.

Hardened to combat by almost permanent wars

they were combative and had no fear of death.

But their weaknesses stemmed from their equipment

and their fighting tactics.

The Ameri Indians had no knowledge of iron or of bronze.

Their arrowheads and their swords were of obsidian,

a sort of flint carved and sharpened but fragile on impact.

They did not go to war to kill their opponents

but to capture them as sacrifices.

Opposite them the conquistadors were bristling

with iron and the steel blades of their rapiers

were both sharp and resilient.

Crossbows, muskets, cannons and cavalry,

terrified and decimated the Aztec ranks.

While their arrows could not pierce the steel breast plates.

The conquistadors were almost invincible.

Especially as they fought in a coordinated fashion.

Each covering the other.

They fought to kill and to conquer.

Two visions of war for two different worlds.

- [Announcer] Cortes and his conquistadors were only

the first wave.

Christian missionaries rapidly arrive.

Their mission is to convert millions of Amer Indian pagans

to Christianity.

Willingly or by force.

Mexico is organized and transformed into a Spanish province.

Gradually ships laden with cocoa, maize, peanuts,

vanilla, avocados and tomatoes arrive from Central America.

Everybody, both Aztecs and the conquistador's allies

are placed onto huge work farms.

But the Amer Indians are no longer so numerous.

A successions of epidemics has ravaged the population.

European diseases, such as cholera and small pox,

have joined those already there.

Coco-lits-lee, the equivalent of the European plague,

was already decimating villages before the arrival

of the Spanish.

The crowded conditions of the farm exploitations

did the rest.

In one century the total population of Mexico fell

from 20 million to a mere one million 600,000.

(rock music)

The Amer Indians were the major losers

of the Spanish conquest.

But not the only ones.

The conquistadors were seeking adventure, glory and wealth,

although adventure was awaiting,

return of the investment of their sacrifices

was sharply below their expectations.

Replaced by merchants,

they become the veterans of another age,

old soldiers who had sometimes committed atrocities

in the name of war.

Many of them will end in poverty,

reminiscing nostalgically about their hour of glory

to whoever will listen over a table in a tavern.

Cortes himself is trapped between his image

of a conqueror and that of a blood thirsty warrior.

Today we still don't know whether we should admire him

or condemn him.

Fallen into disgrace, he dies of dysentery

on the second of December 1547.

Spain, a colonial empire, becomes the world's major power.

Trade is becoming global.

But that is another story.

- [Woman] When Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola

there were 300,000 inhabitants.

50 years later there were only a thousand.

92% of the Indian population of Central America dies

in the whirlwind of wars, and epidemics.

And yet, this tragic episode for humanity

is still not recognized as a genocide.

A genocide is the systematic elimination

of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

An Ethnocide is the forceful elimination of a culture.

They are collective crimes that are planned

and perfectly intentional.

The disappearance of the Aztecs was never the objective

of the Spanish authorities

but the consequence of the conquest, ill treatment

and above all of epidemics.

Technically the virtual disappearance

of the indigenous population of Central America

is neither a genocide nor an ethnocide.

Which does nothing to alleviate it's horror.

Today we only officially recognize four genocides.

They all belong to the 20th century.

But fortunately the Aztec culture

has not completely disappeared.

Cortes admired their civilization and many fundamental works

have been preserved by both Aztec and Spanish intellectuals.

In 1978 in the heart of Mexico city,

archeologists uncovered the ruins of the great Aztec temple

of Tenochtitlan.

The Mexican people, profoundly Hispanic and Catholic

were then reminded that the blood of the Aztecs

runs in their veins.

(epic music)