How the Aztec Empire was Built by Spies
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- Check out A People's History of Native America here: • The Inconvenient Truth...
In ancient Mesoamerica, an elite class of merchants helped build the Aztec Empire. How? By mastering the arts of spycraft, disguise, and self-sacrifice. These Pochteca acquired plenty of wealth and status and they traveled between cities to collect tribute, trade for valuables, and most importantly work undercover to gather information. But this wealth and power sometimes came at a deadly cost.
Where exactly is Aztlán located? Is it a physical place or an ideological construction? Here is what we are listening and reading.
Creating Aztlán : Chicano art, indigenous sovereignty, and lowriding across Turtle Island, by Dylan A. T. Miner
Smith, Michael E.. The Aztecs, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011
Tales from Aztlantis (podcast)
A note from the producer: The visual representation of Indigenous peoples in this episode relies heavily on the imagery contained in The Florentine Codex which was created by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1499--1590), a Franciscan missionary who arrived in Mexico in 1529, as part of the Spanish colonial project. Sahagún purported that he worked with Indigenous community members to ensure the accuracy of the imagery and that some of it was actually created by those community members. Sahagún’s claims are accepted by some scholars and disputed by others. It cannot be independently verified.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:22 Who were the Mexica
01:41 Pochteca, Merchant Ppies
03:17 Imperial Martyrs
04:22 Nose Lord
06:18 Warrior's Death
I love these PBS shows. Thank you for growing with us outside of our childhood. 😊
Growing up amongst Chicano Activist and seeing how the makeup of my community has become more indigenous over the past two decades (migrants who are Mixtec, Zapotec, Purepecha) its really interesting to learn this native history. I think Im really gonna dig this series!
From the Colonial Virgin Islands. Thank you for continual focus on more than Eurocentric history💚💛❤️
It's truly a gift to be able to learn the great histories of all people on every continent and their history and achievements
Never heard of it. The virgin isles are just north of grimsby? Ohhh. Islands. I know. It’s sweet the French named a channel island after New Jersey.
Amen !
Say hi to Wilo Smith for us. He feels exactly the same way!
So are you British or American?
Really interesting. I had heard of the Pochteca before but now I actually understand what they were about. Thanks for covering them:)
Same! I knew Pochteca were a merchant-class but I never knew why they were as revered as nobility and warriors until now. Thank you for shedding more light and context to this aspect of Mexica society. Can you do the same for more over ooked aspects of Mexica life and society like Pipiltin (nobles), artisans, farmers or hunters?
I feel like I need to slow down the playback speed and watch this at least eight more times to even begin to wrap my head around all this information. Wow! Thank you for preparing and sharing it!
Their descendants are still around, except now they call them chismosos.
Jajaja.. 😆🤣
I'm screaming 😂😂😂😂
Thank you, thank you.
At a time where the U.S. has managed to equate the word "Mexican" with the word "dirt", it's good to be reminded that that idea is not actually true.
These are the kind of mini documentaries that are necessary especially for those individuals wanting to know more about their roots.
Thank you for mentioning The Florentine Codex as your source for some of your illustrations for this piece in your description. The art in that book is amazing.
Excellent work guys, keep these vids coming. I love Rogue History.
Ah, the Pochteca were among the wealthy and distinguished individuals which carried shields painted with feather mosaics. Many of the shields depicted in the codex shown in your video are thought to be the same kind, and the illustration shown at 5:25 is from one of the pages explaining the process. Feather painting was an extreme luxury, making use of the most prized plumage such as that from the Quetzals, worth more than gold. There are very few examples remaining today, the most famous being the coyote shield with flaming water (the symbol for war, as you mentioned) which is often mistaken as being a depiction of a dragon. The feather painting mosaics of that period continued to be practiced during the early colonial period (many conquistadors commissioned religious illustrations to send back to Europe) and is now only practiced by a handful of artisans. Around the 1500's it's thought that, due to overhunting of the birds causing scarcity of materials, the artisans were inspired to instead use an endemic grass, dyed in the zapotec method, to make their mosaics. The modern method, Popotillo, is theorized to have been inspired by Chinese traders that introduced a similar craft more like grass parquetry. Though, all of the history of the transition frrom feathers to the sporobolis wrightii grass is on shaky footing, as records from the period are very sparse, so take this with a grain of salt. At any rate, the art of that time was extremely unique and is critically endangered to this day. There hasn't even been a single book written on the subject of Popotillo, whereas there is one for the feather mosaics which is long since out of print but thankfully documents the construction, techniques, and materials.
Can we get an epic movie about this?! This is so interesting! Whoa... ❤❤❤ It's like a Roman historical epic with killer ninjas all rolled up in one!
Never knew about these people before! Fascinating
need more movies from their pov
Fascinating parallels between pochteca and the Mongolian empires use of merchant spies
Your pronunciation is so impeccable.
These folks are fascinating. I feel like there should be at least a couple movies about them
Fascinating. I've always found the culture of the ancient people of the Americas interesting. Love these PBS channel's! More please! 🖖😁🤘🇨🇦🕊️
The lore of the Pochteca is MY Roman Empire, and they have been my favorite plot line/device in my alt history saga
Very interesting, I've never heard of them before.
Oh interesting
A class of spies
spy-merchant-warriors. They also brought the luxuries for the rest of the elite.
Thank you for making a video on this, it really puts it into perspective how the Mexica used their resources at their disposal to gather intel and display power in the region.
I liked this video. I think spies are cool, no matter from which culture. I would love to see an origin video on the Hashashim, aka assassins. They seem as mystical as Ninjas or the Knights Templar. Keep up the good work. 😊
We need a full on movie about this!
This was very interesting. Things I had never heard before. Thank you for posting.
Question, because this is endlessly fascinating to me - what are the sources for this account? Was all of this information gathered through native record keeping or oral tradition, or imperial observation from european colonists?
I absolutely feel like because of the society and structure I was educated in, I have massive knowledge gaps when it comes to the native cultures of the americas and how we can trace their histories.
The Aztec language is so fascinating to me, I'd kove to know if all this info was gathered through the study and eventual translation of their texts or otherwise.
Record keeping and conquistador chronicles. Mainly, friars made natives draw codices of their knowledge.
This is very interesting! Love learning pre-Columbian indigenous history
*takes notes for world building*
I love this series! Elite spies indeed.
That's just wonderfully insightful and at that even respectful! And potentially just as beautifully spoken as the first videos of "Journey Into The Microcosmos!" 😙 Lots of love from a new sub!
Great Work!
Wow, such a great and informative video on a niche topic. Would love to see more videos like this.
I loved this episode!
Thank you
Very great video
This was excellent.
@Joel Cook, you're an awesome narrator.
Thank you.
I would like some more please.
Love this
Outstanding!!!
More about the Aztecs please!?? Or mesoamerica
so cool
Good job with the names.
1:27 According to Statista site, there are ~450,000 active duty in the US Army, not including other services. That means the Aztec army was as big as the US Army today. And this is far, far larger than ANYTHING in Ancient Greece or European history in general (1100 AD). Yet, the Euro-centric history narratives focus Greek and Roman armies that pale in comparison. And Europeans call us (Turtle Islanders) primitive... 🙄 We won't be erased.
the mexica didnt have a standing army. most wars were fought in the winter when working men could mobilize and not worry about risking famine and mass starvation. also, a society does not need a highly organized standing army to not be primitive. our ancestors were cool and we dont need to compare them to europeans
Joel Cook is the man!
Mr. Joel, you sure do a good job pronouncing those screwy looking words that would take me a while to puzzle my way through them.
I was incredibly impressed at how well he managed ! 👏
¡Pialli! ¿Amo titlatoa Nahuatl?
¡Viva Azteca! ¡Viva Nahual!
the link to the people's history of native america just links back to this video
Sorry about that. Fixed that, and here is the link: ua-cam.com/video/dXJ4Ldy-hLQ/v-deo.html
Thanks, really interesting. Im wondering, the part of the Aztec origins is historical or legendary ?
Both.. Based on fact..
Wish there were more and better quality graphics for this channel
Whoa... Immortal presenting history he probably lived through.
The more you learn about history, the more you learn that everyone was an oppressor and everyone took their turn.
What happened to danielle?
One of the city-states that they tried to live under kicked them out because they flayed and sacrificed the daughter of their king when he tried to put her in charge of them lol kind of answers the question of why they didn't tend to be welcome for very long until they finally reached Atslan
The Tepanecs were one of the groups that made vassals out of the Mexica and forced them to fight as mercenaries for their empire. I’d say they got their revenge before being driven into Lake Texcoco. Even then, the Tepanecs assassinated Chimalpopoca, leading to war with the Mexica and the Tepanecs’ ultimate downfall.
no, that was done entirely as a show of force against the tepanecs who relegated the mexica to living in an inhospitable portion of land, and for using them as mercenaries in a highly unbalanced way
Totally stealing this for d&d
this would make a great assassin's creed game
Atlachinolli is more than war, those who know, know.
4:27 Usopp is real
My Roman Empire is going to be the Aztec Empire
I can’t believe private commercial entities would sell their customers’ data to the state like that
How often do you think about the aztec empire ?
I think about mesoamerica as a whole SEVERAL times a day
The first image looks more like Machu Pichu… inca empire…
so Pochteca were basically Mexica Ninjas
🇲🇽
Whoah Joel over here just pronouncing these indigenous mesoamerican words like it's the easiest thing he's ever done. At least some of them, I've never heard Tenochtitlan pronounced rhat way, but maybe I've just always mispronounced it.
Amazing info, but the graphics used resemble more the Andes region than Mesoamerica.
Adapting local dialects, or adopting local dialects? Adapting them to what?
im seeing some paralells with jewish communities being cast as greedy because religious laws meant they where the only ones around allowed to lend money
They did go to southamerica
the closest they ever got was nicaragua, and that only happened because the spanish used natives to fight in their wars of conquest
Basically Aztec shinobi
Ah yes the Pochteca, merchant Ppies😂 not including the intro it's the name of the second chapter.
The Jew is universal.
This gives off narco vibes
Aztecs came to aztlan, once they settled they became mexica. You got it backwards. 😅
No you do
Adopting local dialects
This is fascinating, unfortunately the Europeans burned all these civilisations down
the pronunciations…😕
poch-TE-ca on god can any american get it right for ONCE? Seriously, it's not that hard, don't pretend to be correct by saying something even more wrong.
Poc-Te-ca In English the H isn't Silent
It's a shame how much global cultural diversity and heritage got lost to colonialism, and cultural hegemony 😢
I agree, just look at how much USA destroyed in Iraq 🇮🇶 n Syria 🇸🇾.. 😢
skill issue
Central and South America? Shouldn’t it be North and Central America?
Not one word about sources. Not showing much respect for you listeners' curiosity.
They didn't build the empire
More from this presenter, please.
Using an Obama phone. This is djvicmando13. Great looking out. I'm Chicano and didn't know much of this. Thnx!
Finally history that is not centered in European myth and narcissism
Excellent content… if not a bit “SEP Secundaria” but nvm… 😅 dale gas ⛽️ mi Charolastras! 🦾😎🤌