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What
happened to

the Aztecs?
William Johnston
The Aztec Empire lasted from the 13th
to the 16th century and its capital,
Tenochtitlan, was the largest city in Pre-
Columbian America. However, in 1521,
the city was besieged by the Spanish
conquistador Hernán Cortés. The Aztecs
vastly outnumbered the Spanish, but they
didn’thavecannonsorcavalry.Aztec
civilisation was also heavily focused on
ritual human sacrifices – several thousand
eachyear.Althoughmanyofthevictims
were willing Aztec volunteers, others were
prisoners from neighbouring city-states.
Human sacrifice both depleted the Aztec
population and created huge resentment
from other kingdoms. This allowed Cortés
to ally with the neighbouring kingdom of
Tlaxcala and recruit thousands of warriors
for his assault on Tenochtitlan. The final
UnliketheotherAncientWondersoftheWorld,wedonot straw for the Aztecs was an outbreak of
know the precise location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon smallpox, which killed as many as 25 per
cent of the natives, including their emperor,
Where were the Cuitláhuac. On 13 August 1521, Tenochtitlan
surrendered to Cortés and the Aztec Empire
was defeated.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

Erin Weber mention the gardens. The Roman historian Josephus
The ancient city of Babylon was in present-day Iraq, describes it, but he never visited it and instead cites the
about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad. The Hanging workoftheBabylonianpriestBerossusfrom350years
Gardensweresupposedlyaseriesofterracesconstructed earlier. In 2013, a historian from the University of Oxford,
ofmudbricksthatformedasemi-circularamphitheatre. Dr Stephanie Dalley, claimed that the Hanging Gardens
It was about 25 metres high and 120 metres across. Each may actually have been in Assyria, 550 kilometres to the
terracewasplantedwithtreesandflowerssothatthey north of Babylon. The Assyrians sacked Babylon in 689
cascaded over the sides. The garden would have needed BCE and may have subsequently referred to their capital,
35,000litresofwaterperday,whichwasdeliveredviaa Nineveh, as ‘the new Babylon’. A bas-relief carving
canal and aqueduct. from King Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh shows trees
Theonlyproblemisthatnoarchaeologicalevidence growing on roofs supported by columns. The conflict in TheSiegeofTenochtitlan,thecapitalof
for the Hanging Gardens has been found in the ruins Iraqhassofarpreventedarchaeologistsfromconfirming the Aztec Empire, was besieged by the
Spanishin1521
ofBabylonandnodocumentsfromtheperiodeven this theory, though.
Thisdayinhistory 2February

506 1461 1653 1709

O Breviary Of Alaric O Battle of Mortimer’s Cross O New Amsterdam O Selkirk rescued
Alaric II, king of the Visigoths During the Wars of the Roses, incorporated Scottish privateer Alexander
publishes a collection of books Edward of York sees three The Dutch town on the southern Selkirk is rescued after
of Roman Law. It applies to the Suns rising in the sky at dawn tip of Manhattan Island receives four years and four months
common people and Catholic (probably a meteorological municipal rights and therefore stranded on the tropical island
priests living in Spain and illusion called a parhelion) and officially becomes a city. It will of Juan Fernández. His story
south-west France, but not the convinces his troops that the later absorb the city of New inspires Daniel Defoe to write
Visigothic nobles. Holy Trinity is with them. Haarlem and become New York. Robinson Crusoe.

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