Civilization #44: The Spanish Conquest of the New World

Okay, good morning. So today we are doing um the European conquest of the new world, meaning North and South America. Um and um so these people who start to conquer the new world are called the conquestadors, which is Spanish for conquerors. These are mercenaries. They're bandits.

They're lower lowerass people who have to leave Spain and Portugal and look for new opportunities in South and Central America. Okay. So, um some basic history. remember that um when we discussed this Islamic golden age um the Islamic Empire is sort of to connect the world in globalized trade and the networks run all the way from central um Asia over to China into Europe and even into parts of Africa. There's the um maritime silk road that they create uh because they want the porcelain from China.

They also have an overland silk road. Okay. And at this point in history, Spain, which is called A Andusa, it's part of the um Islamic world and it it is integrated heavily into Islamic world. Um it's become very wealthy, very cosmopolitan. Um because of this this globalized trade becomes much more concentrated becomes much more rapid during the Mongolian conquest.

Okay. And um because of the Mongolian Empire, the Pax Mongolica um a lot of knowledge, a lot of trade is being transferred from the east to the west including paper which is made in um which was first invented in China but also gunpowder. Next class we talk about the gunpowder revolution which marks a radical change in how the world uh works. Um so um historically we have considered the Vikings to be the first to explore the new world. Remember that when we discussed the Vikings they made it all the way to present day newfound land um and found a col called vine land.

Um but the colony didn't last very long and that was the first encounter between the Europeans and the native people of North America. Um the thing that you learn in this class that's very important to understand is the world has always been in interconnected in some capacity. It's always been globalized. So we can assume that even before the Vikings there were some encounters between the old world and the new world. It could have been the Egyptians.

It could have been the Harapens of the Indis Valley civilization. It could al also been the Chinese. Okay. Just because we don't have written records or archeological evidence does not mean that there was no contact. We have to assume that there was some limited contact between these worlds.

Okay. But it's only until the 16th century when uh the old world and the new worlds begin to collide with each other violently. And the reason why is that um Spain was eventually reconquered by the Europeans and it became Christian and because of that Spain lost its trade roots in the Islamic world. Also at this particular time in history the Ottoman Empire is rising in power and what's really important is that in 1453 they conquer Conanapole which is which was the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire. And so now for the Europeans to trade with India, China and the rest of East Asia they have to pay a heavy tax to the Ottomans and the Italians as well.

They don't want to do that. So their response is to discover their own roots to East Asia, to China, to the East Indas and they do um they hire a lot of these u very experienced Italian um um seammen. So Christoph Columbus is from Ginoa. He is Italian and he was hired to go discover a route to China. uh and he ended up in discovering um North America basically.

Um so all the major powers France, England, Portugal, Spain, they are engaging in maritime exploration. Okay. And um start starting about the in the 16th century what happen is that the Spanish will start to conquer Central America and South America. and they do so in less than 30 years. Okay, it's a very quick conquest.

And um so you can you can see that during the 16th century uh there's a lot of exploration going on. There's a lot of contacts being made. Um the Portuguese are really the first to establish the maritime empire. And so the question then is why is it that the Portuguese end up establishing colonies in Africa, in India, in China, uh throughout the East Indies. And the reason why is that the fear was that Portugal and Spain would come into conflict with each other.

So the Pope divided the world into two. So the Portuguese got um this part of the world and the Spanish got the new world basically and the Spanish obviously got the very the better end of this deal but that was the arrangement. Okay. So the Spanish got all of um present day Mexico, Central America and most of South America. And there's a lot of gold, a lot of silver within these uh regions.

And as a result, Spain became very wealthy. Okay. Um eventually the British and the French will get involved as well. But because South America and Central America were already taken by the Spanish and the Portuguese, they ended up in North America, which was cold and poor and inhabited by lots of very aggressive and violent uh natives. And it turned out that um in the long run this would would be prove this would be this would prove to be more beneficial for the British.

Okay, in the long run uh but currently the Spanish have accumulate all the wealth in the new world. Okay. So um the main thing I want you to remember is that because the old world and the new world collided, this marked a revolution in European agriculture because now the Europeans could import these extremely nutritious and easy to produce vegetables back into Europe. So the corn was invented by the native people of Central America. Corn is not naturally produced.

You have to uh basically um scientifically invented by crossbreeding different crops. Okay. It's a very long process and corn allowed for the man civilization to flourish. So corn is an extremely important nutrient that's easy to produce, cheap and very nutritious. So is the potato.

Okay, the potato over time will become the staple food of Europeans. Um, so are peanuts, so are squash, so is the tomato. Okay, so all these foods that we take for granted were actually first domesticated in the old world which was then transported to new world. And because of these very nutritious foods and they're far more nutritious than wheat, you have an population explosion in Europe. Okay, so this is very important.

I want you I want you guys to remember this. The potato, the corn led to a population explosion in Europe. And what the what did the natives get? Well, they got a lot of diseases, right? They got a lot of measles and small small pox.

So, um, the question we're looking at this morning is how did a few thousand conquisitors, Spanish mercenaries basically, how were they able to conquer millions and millions of indig indigenous people in South America. There were three main civilizations in South America at this time. The Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incas. And the Spanish were able to conquer all three major civilizations in less than uh 30 years. So how were they able to do so?

Okay, that's a question we're looking at this morning. Okay. Now the center explanation is three-fold. When you talk to scholars, there are three explanations for how this happened. It was a perfect storm of three factors.

Okay. The first is the native people were not in contact with the Europeans. So the Europeans brought with them these diseases that the native people had no immunity against. Okay? And the four major ones are smallox, measles, typhus, and chlora.

And this wiped out about 80% of the population in North and South America. It was basically a genocide. Okay, 80% is a lot of people. We're talking about millions and millions of people. Second major factor is that um there were these eternal internal conflicts, tribal warfare among the native people and the Europeans, the Spanners exploited this.

They they were basically used a divide and conquer strategy against the natives, right? You first um unite with a tribe that hated the Aztecs. You you conquer the Aztecs together and then you enslave the uh the tribes. Okay, so that's a divine conquer strategy. And the third uh factor is uh the Europeans had superior weapons and technology.

Okay, they had armor, they had cannons, they had horses. The natives didn't have access to any of this technology. So um um that's the three-l explanations. But um if you ask the Spanish at that time, how did you do it? How are you able to with a few thousand soldiers conquer this vast territory?

And the Spanish would would just say because one, God willed it. Our God made us conquerors. It was a divine mission from God. Okay? And the second is we were so powerful that the natives bowed before us.

They saw us as gods. Okay? That was a center explanation um of the Spanish at that time. And because this is clearly a very racist attitude, right? We're superior.

We are white. We're here to civilize you. Scholars have rejected this explanation. Okay? But what I want to show you today, uh, and I know this is going to be controversial, and so please feel feel free to debate or ask questions or point out inconsistencies in my argument.

Okay? But I want to argue today that this the original Spanish argument actually has much more evidence. It makes much more logical and coherent sense than the current scholarly interpretation. Okay, does that make sense? All right, so this is my thesis.

This is my argument. The religious beliefs and practice of the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans made them vulnerable to Spanish conquest. So the ultimate weakness of these people was their religion. Okay, you're not allowed to say this today in university because um it's absolutely correct. But I want you to make that argument because I think this is what makes the most academic, logical, and coherent sense.

Okay, that's my thesis to you today. Okay, so um um a quick picture to contrast the collision of civilizations. Okay, so the ASC people uh they're ferocious warriors. They love war but they have wooden spears and they have no armor. Okay.

Whereas the Europeans they have swords, they have shields, they have armor. Okay. So this is a class of civilizations. All right. Okay.

So um let's go back to beginning of time and one thing that you learn we talked about before is how civilizations arise because of three factors, right? geography um is the main factor. Okay. So, you want to be in a temperate climate. You need rivers in order to have civilizations and you need natural boundaries like mountains in order to protect yourself from invaders.

Okay? And that's why the five earliest civilizations are all in this latitude right here. Okay? Right here. And they are China, India, the Inis Valley civilization, the Rapids, Mesopotamia, which is here, Egypt, which is here, sorry, and the Mayan civilization.

All right? And what's amazing is that when you start to analyze all five civilizations, you will discover there's actually a lot of similarities, a lot of common characteristics among these five civilizations. Okay. Um, so yeah. So this part of the world right here.

Okay. The chopper cancer. This is where all five civilizations first developed around this area. Okay. So the main civilization was one was just an astounding civilization.

Uh they had millions and millions of people. They spread all across Central America. They had science, they had astronomy, they had mathematics, they had a written language. Okay. Um they built pyramids.

Uh so these are all these temples to worship their uh their gods. They had something called the main calendar. And it's an astonishing achievement because back then they used 365 days. So it was Egyptian was actually the first to use a solar calendar. The Mayans independently also created their own calendar.

And um if you actually study the calendar um it's actually a very sophisticated, very nuanced, extremely scientific um instrument that they use for agriculture. Um the most astonishing achievement of the Mayans was agriculture. And this is no different from science. Okay, they not only were the first to invent corn. Okay, again what's really important for us to remember is that corn is not produced naturally.

Nature did not produce corn. The Mayans invented corn. And this was important because it allowed them to feed a large population with very limited agriculture. But not only that, but they figure out the most efficient way to use farmland. And this is called a three sisters planting.

Okay. What they would do is this. They would grow corn, bean, and squash together in a symbiotic relationship so that they're all helping each other uh nourish themselves and grow. Okay. So, the corn will provide the structure in order for the beans to climb in order to reach sunlight.

Okay. The bean will fertilize the corn and squash by releasing nitrogen into the soil and the squash will basically prevent um weeds and insects uh from invading this ecosystem. Okay, so it's a it's a perfect symbiotic relationship that we still use today. And because of this sudden breakthrough um the Mayans were able to build a civilization of millions and millions of people. Okay.

It was is it was it's just an incredible uh achievement. Okay. Any any questions? Okay. All right.

Let's let's continue. Um as we discussed in this class, all civilizations rise and fall. That's just a natural cycle. there's nothing you can do to prevent them from declining over time. Same process with the Mayans where over time because of their breakthroughs in agriculture they reach a peak uh in about the year 780 80 in their population but after the after they reach a peak okay this is really important there's a huge decline all right and the thing that you learn in this class is that there are three uh sorry there are sorry uh so scientists have looked at the reasons for this decline and what they discovered is ecological collapse.

Okay, so you have this huge increase in population and this leads to deforestation and soil erosion. Basically, they're able they're not able to grow farmland anymore and that's why their civilization has collapsed. Okay, but the question then is is this correlation or is this causation? Right? Do you guys understand?

Right? Because scientists will will scholars will tell you this is causation. is because they had an over population so they were um using too much of the land and so it led to deforestation and so erosion okay that's causation I but some other scholars argue it is correlation and the reason why is that mans are uh really famous for their ecological management they're they're masters at being able to ma manage their environment so this could be a correlation and not causation so Then what's the causation? Okay. Well, if we look at all civilizations, there are three factors that lead to the decline.

All right. If a civilization is prosperous, stable, and peaceful, guess what? Three things always happen. The first is the idea of elite over production. Right?

The Peter Turin argument, which is that over time you have too many nobles, you have too many elite who compete for status together. Okay, that's the first problem. Second problem is the idea of rat utopia where old people live too long and as such young people are not able to inherit status and this leads to a malfunctioning of society. Okay, because young people feel they have no opportunities. Same thing that's happening in the world today where in America there's something called quite quitting in China there's something called lying flat tonging.

Okay. And the third is the idea of finance financialization debt slavery. And the idea here is that if you're a very prosperous society, it's very hard to get people to work because they don't really want material goods. All they want to do is have enough food to feed their family and they're good. Okay?

That's why if you pay them more, they actually work less. So the only way you get them to work more is if you get them into debt. Okay? You enslave them. And that's that's what every civilization has done since the dawn of time.

Debt slavery in order to get in order to produce get people to work harder. Okay, this idea of financialization. Uh so all three things are correlated. They are symbiotic. They work together and they all spell the end of civilization.

Okay, this is true for Rome. This is true for the Mayans. This is this has been true also for China throughout its history. Okay, does that make sense, guys? All right.

All right. Um so as the man civilization collapsed people diffused all over Central and South America and they brought with them the main culture okay because the main culture was the dominant culture of that time. It's like China in uh Southeast Asia. China is this huge sun that shines light on all other uh countries including Japan and uh South Korea. And what will happen over time is that um different tribes will fight over to inherit the main legacy.

Okay? They will take they will um compete against each other in order to to be become the major empire. And the nation that eventually wins out in Central America I'll call the Aztecs. The Aztecs are really interesting people. Okay.

So um and they're very similar to the Romans. So um if you think Aztec, think Romans as well. The main similarity is that both the Aztecs and the Romans are societies based on war. They love war. All they want to do is fight war.

Okay. So, um the Aztecs are originally from southern United States. Okay. What? Southern United States.

And because of climate change, they have to migrate to Central America for food. Um problem is that central America was already overpop populated and they start to hire themselves out as mercenaries to the other tribes and then eventually they came into conflicts with the other tribes and they became isolated in a place called Technotech. Okay. And this basically swamp land. It's very hard to grow food in Tennote.

Um today Tenno Techlan is called what city do you guys know? Tenno Techlan is called what city today? Can you guess? Mexico City. Okay.

So, Mexico City, if you have a chance to visit there, it is actually on the site of Tenno Techlan, which is a city that the Aztecs founded. And remember, back then it was all basically swamp land. And so, something miraculous happened. The Aztecs adapted themselves to the swamp land and they began to um focus on um agriculture. Okay.

Okay. And this agriculture was very innovative. Uh they turned basically swamp land into farmland and it allowed for the populations to increase and prosper. So swampland is bad because you can't really grow crops, but swampland is good because it's pretty defensible. Okay.

So, so they were able to very quickly expand their population. And so what did they do? Well, they started to conquer other territories because this is a war society. Okay, it is a heavily military society focused on war. The religion is to uh defeat enemies and then sacrifice these enemies to their god who um maintains his vitality through blood sacrifice.

Okay. Um so the sex were known for the most grotesque forms of human sacrifice. They would sacrifice thousand people at once. They would also sacrifice you while you were alive. Uh so they would shut you up and then cut out your heart while you were alive.

And obviously the the entire point was terror. Okay, to terrorize your enemies and to unite your people. And um what's really important for us to remember is that all war societies including the Romans, the Vikings, and the Aztecs practice a form of human sacrifice. Okay, remember this. It's very important.

The Vikings, we we we discussed how they practice human sacrifice. Um the Romans also practice human sacrifice. And this is something that they sort of um hid in their history. Um so the way they practice their human sacrifice is at the end of every major militia campaign they would they would have a parade called a triumph. Okay they would parade their war captives across city of Rome and then these war captives were taken to the temple of Jupiter where the parade would end and then they would be strangled to death in front of Jupiter.

That's human sacrifice. Okay that's that's that's like having human sacrifice. There's another word for it. But the woman said oh no no no we don't do this. Okay, we don't do human sacrifice because we're much more civilized than other people and they never explain why the strangulation is not human sacrifice.

Okay. All right. Over time, because the Aztecs were such a violent aggressive people, they like the Romans were able to take over the entire uh territory of Central America. Okay? Okay.

And they dis they did so with allies. Okay. They were the main partners. They part they're part of something called the triple alliance. Okay.

So three tribes that united against together in order to conquer uh the surrounding enemies. They were the main partner. Um the Aztec civilization were was like the Romans extremely advanced. They had uh hierarchy. They had priests.

They had uni universal schooling. Okay. So every child was allowed to go to school and learn to read and write. Um they had a system of courts and judges and they had a very strict legal code. They have a very vibrant economy.

Okay. So this was a very vibrant civilization and as such their city techn grew very very large. When the Spanish first came to the city, they were amazed by the extreme wealth and size and prosperity of this city. Okay, it made them salivate. Okay, so this is a another shot of Tennopekan.

Um, eventually the Aztecs were conquered by one man with maybe a few hundred soldiers. His name is Hernand Cortez and he's an adventurer. He did not have permission from Spain to go and conquer the Aztecs. He just did so because he wanted to. He he was a soldier of fortune.

Okay. And um when he first arrived with the Aztecs, the Aztecs actually treated him very very well. Okay. He was a he was like a novelty, right? Yeah.

He had weapons, but there was only a few hundred of them. Whereas the Aztecs had millions and millions of soldiers. So their king at this time uh Montazuma welcomed him with open arms and Montazuma probably wanted to co-op him right. He he saw him Montasuma saw Cortez as opportunity uh to use against his enemies and his internal enemies as as well. Cortez just wanted gold.

Okay, that's all he cared about, gold. So wherever he could find gold, he'd be happy to to go. Okay. So, um but there was a misunderstanding because these were two very different civilizations. So, uh during a religious ceremony, uh when the Aztecs were gearing up, uh Cortez men saw this as a threat and they start to massacre these soldiers and one thing led to another.

We don't know what happened, okay? Because the Aztecs were obviously destroyed by the Spanish. um the Christian missionaries would come and destroy all written records of the Aztecs and all we have are these stories that probably aren't true. Okay, but what probably happened is that uh the Spanish captured Monizuma and hel held him as a captive. Okay, they wanted a ransom.

They couldn't get the ransom so they killed him and then very shortly um they were expelled from the city but then the a disease the disease of smallox hit the population and they all fell sick and that gave time for the Spanish to recuperate and then eventually conquer the city with allies. All right, does that make sense? Okay. All right. Now let's go to the Incas.

The Incas um also a huge empire throughout South America. Uh this these mountains called the Andes. Okay. So like modern day Peru. Um they are in the highlands and they also had very advanced civilizations.

Okay. Um, one thing that made the Incas different from the Aztecs is they practice form of ances ancestor worship. A pretty extreme form of an ancestor worship. So the idea is the emperor is divine. If you're divine, it means you're immortal.

So even though the emperor dies, he's then mummified. Okay? He's mummified. And so he's still alive. And if he's still alive, that means he keeps all his lands and wealth.

It doesn't go somewhere else. Okay? So then now the new emperor comes into power and now he has to conquer new lands in order to establish his divinity. Okay? So the Incas are endlessly eternally expansionist.

They have no choice in the matter. And if you think about it, this is actually a good um strategy to reduce internal internal um conflict, right? Because this reduces the problem of elite overp production. The old the old emperor's family and uh loyal soldiers keep their land and now the new emperor has to go conquer new territory. Okay.

So this resolves the issue of elite over production, but it also makes your society extremely unstable because it's too spread out. and um too many enemies. Okay. Um the way that that Incas conquered other people is um when they conquer other people, their gods are incorporated into a pantheon of gods. Like the Romans, the Incas are extremely tolerant people.

You can worship any god you want as long as you acknowledge the supremacy of my god. Okay. So the pen of gods. So within the uh Inca Empire, everyone was allowed to practice their own religion as long as they submit themselves and pay tribute. Okay.

The Incas also had a very advanced um bureaucratic system. They had a census, they collected tribute, they collected taxes, they had a legal code. Um they had a court system. Um what's interesting about film is they didn't have a writing system, but they had uh beads. Okay.

Okay. And with beads with with numerals you can create basically a knowledge system. Okay. So this is basically like a like a very print of computer or calculator. Um what's left of the incas is Machu Picchu.

If you ever chance to uh visit there, it's beautiful. It's it's it's it's a it's a hike. Um I want I want to visit one day with my kids. Okay. Uh the Incans were conquered by another conqueror student named Francisco Pizarro.

Okay. Uh the emperor he defeated was Ata Hapa. Sorry, I'm not I'm not going to pronounce his name properly. Um and what happened was that Ata Huapa had just fought a civil war and now he's the divine emperor. And the legend is that uh Pizarro fought a battle with at Hoya at Hapa.

At Hoapa had 40,000 soldiers. Pizarro had 200 soldiers and Pizaro won and captured Atapa as a uh hostage. This story is probably not true. Okay. What probably happened was that um the emperor greeted the Spanish with open arms and and say let's negotiate and the Spanish basically captured him.

Okay, remember in this society the emperor is divine. He's untouchable. So it is it is beyond his imagination that the Spanish would capture him. Okay. Then what happened is that Pizarro said to the emperor, "We'll let you go if you can fill this room with gold." And guess what happens?

The emperor issues out a command. And a few days later, the entire room is filled with gold. Okay? So this place is pretty wealthy. Then what do the Spanish do?

What do you think? They kill him. Okay? They kill him and then they conquer the entire territory. So that's why you should not pay ransoms to pirates.

Okay. Um it it sort of I I think Prisar himself was sort of astonished that there was so much gold and the Incas could just fill a room like that, right? And then like well you know if I can just ask for gold and they'll give it to me then why don't I just take this entire territory? And that's what he did. Okay.

All right. Um so another question is how did this happen? How was it possible that the Aztecs and Incas were defeated by just a few hundred conquesttors very quickly? Okay, in a few decades. And um what I want to show you now is the religious practice and belief system of the Maya Mayans which then influence the Aztecs in the Inca in the Incas.

Okay. All right. So um in these societies religion is spread through or all tradition from priests to people. Okay. Um but fortunately in about the year 1700 there was a Dominican priest who uh made it his mission to write down this oral tradition.

Okay. And this book we call the popo vo it's translated into the book of the community and it just um uh it it's just a literary form of the or old tradition the old religious tradition of the man people. Okay. So we're going to look at a few passages to figure out their underlying belief system and how it govern their society. All right.

Okay. So this is a story of the heroic twins. So the mains worship the heroic twins as the savers of humanity. So what happened is the twins h themselves had twin fathers who were um captured and killed by demons in the underworld. Okay, this is very similar to the Egyptian myth of um Orur Arsurus um who was killed by his brother Set and then sent into the underworld.

Okay. And so the brothers want vengeance against these demons. And so what they do is they become their friends with the demons and they and then they make themselves um immortal. Okay? When they die, they come back to life.

And then they play a trick on these demons. They go to the demons and say, "Hey, look at us. We can play this game where we cure ourselves. We cut our heart and we come back alive." Okay? And the demons are like, "Yeah, we want to play this game as well." And they all end up killing themselves.

Okay? So this is a passage from um the po sacrifice in the same way said one death and seven death to hannapul and zapo zanakquo these are these are heroic twins okay these are the heroic twins very well then surely you will be revived are you not deaf for we are here to gladen you oh lords along with your vassels and your servants they said therefore to the lords okay so they're playing a trick on these demons the first we sacrifice was the very head of all the lords one death by name the lord of Zebaba he was dead then this one death next they grabbed seven death but they didn't revive them thus the zababins took their heels when they saw that the lords had died so they killed all the lords and then they killed all the demons their hearts were now taken from their chest okay their hearts were now taken from their chest it's very important because this is how the Aztecs practice their sacrifice okay so they're trying to with their rituals they're trying to express or bring to life this mythology. Okay, which is what the Vikings did as well. Both of them had been torn open as punishment for what they had done. Straight away the one lord executed and not revived.

The other lord had been had begged humbly weeping before the dancers. He would not accept it for he had become disorientated. Take pity on me. Okay, so this is how the Herac twins conquer and destroy all the demons. Okay, and the Aztecs will take this story, they'll turn it into the basis of their religious ritual.

Okay. All right. Uh this is a story of the creation of the first man. What's interesting is that the men's believe that the gods made different attempts to create humanity. The first attempt is by making them out of mud and they they fall apart.

Okay, so that's a disaster. Then they try to make man out of wood. That doesn't work either. So then they try corn maze. Okay, and that works.

So that's why the um uh mans consider themselves the children of the corn. Okay, they worship corn as something that's divine. Okay. Um so the gods create man and let and let's read the story together. Then the framer and the shaper asked him what is the nature of your existence?

Do you know it? Do you not look and listen? Are not your speech and your walk good? Behold now therefore and see that which is beneath the sky. Are not the mountains clear?

Do you not see the valleys? Try then they were told. Okay. So the gods created men and they want men to be thankful. Why?

Because the gods created men in order to serve them. Okay. So basically basically the gods created humanity to be their slaves. Thus their vision of everything beneath the sky was completed and they gave thanks to the framer and the shaper. And this is what man says to the gods.

Truly we thank you doubly triply that we were created that we were given our mouths and our faces. We are able to speak and to listen. We are able to ponder and to move about. We know much for we have learned that which is far and near. We have seen the great and the small, all that exists in the sky and on the earth.

We thank you therefore that we were created, that we were given frame and shape. We became because of you our grandmother and you our grandfather. They said when they gave thanks for the fra frame and shape. Okay. So we humans are paying our thanks to the gods.

Okay. We're showing our gratitude. Their knowledge of everything that they saw was complete. The four corners and the four sides that which is within the sky and that which is within the earth. Okay.

So uh we now have knowledge and wisdom because of the gods. Now this is really important but this not sound good to the framer and the shaper. It is not good what they have said they that we have framed and shaped. They said we have learned everything great and small. Okay.

So the gods don't want our gratitude. They want our subservience. They want our obedience. Okay. And this becomes a basis of these religions where we have to believe that the gods created us in order to serve them.

We are slaves to the gods. All right? And again, this is very similar to the enuma, the Babylonian creation myth, where the god Murdoch creates humans so that gods wouldn't have to work anymore. is also very similar to the Catholic Church which believes that um we are slaves to god because God freed us from the devil. Okay.

Um this is the god Tohill. Okay, which is the Mayan fire god. And what they believe is that Tohill demands that we sacrifice our enemies to him so that so that the blood will rejuvenate him. Okay? He's a god of fire and of sacrifice and he's always hungry.

So the mans believe they always have to go to war to capture slaves to be sacrificed to their god. All right? And there's a lot of mythology around this god. And this god has always demanded human sacrifice. So the humans decide to rebel against him.

Okay? They're they have they tried many tricks to rebel against him. They all fail because he's smarter than us. So eventually the humans decide to get together and to fight him. Okay?

But they all get killed. Thus only a portion of them were able to return. Okay? Those who rebelled, only a few were left alive. Only a few people from the nations were able to escape from Tohill.

At first they tried to flee. When they were caught, they were finished off. They were killed. It was not just a few of the people who died. And of those that did not die, the insects came upon them and tormented their hearts.

They were no longer able to wage war. Okay? So the gods had destroy capacity to ever challenge them, to ever rebel. They did not take up their arrows or their shields again. Thus, all the nations were humiliated and begged humbly before the faces of Balam, Kisa, Balam, Aka, and Moakata.

Pity, do not kill us, they said. Very well then. Certainly, you shall become obedient. You shall be servants as long as there are son and light. They were told.

Okay. So, we can never ever cher gods because when we tried, we're all killed. And so the gods showed mercy to us. And so from now on we must obey the gods. But now it's like how do you obey the gods?

What do what do the gods require of us? That's the question now. All right. We obey the gods through their priests who understand them. Okay.

Does that make sense? Okay. So so let's read. Kokas and Kottoa were enchanted people, priests and enchanted lords. Kopa and Kazuma were also enchanted lords.

They knew if there would be war. Why? Because the gods tell them. They could see the future. Okay?

They they talked with the gods. It was clear before their faces. They saw if there would be death, if there would be hunger. They surely knew if there would be strife. There's an instrument of sight.

There was a book. Paulo was their name for it. Okay. So everything that's written down here, it's sacred because it was written down by those who speak directly with the gods. So everything all these words are the direct words from the gods themselves.

But it was not only because of this that they were lords. They were great in their essence. Great as well were their fast. In order to venerate their temples and venerate their sovereignty, they fasted for long periods of time and sacrificed before the faces of their gods. Not only do the gods favor them, but they themselves made many sacrifices in order to win the favor of the gods.

Okay? They are worthy. Therefore, therefore, we must submit them ourselves before them. Okay? And that's how we worship the gods.

Okay? Does that make sense? So, think about this. The logic is very clear. The main created civilization that extremely religious and hierarchical.

Okay? Everyone, millions of people must worship their priest king because the priest king is a direct representative of God. Right? But when you do that, you create the condition for the Spanish to come kill that priest king and become the new priest king. Doesn't make sense.

That's what happened. the mains create this religion in order to enslave all everyone around them and that provide the perfect opportunity for the Spanish to come and take over that role. So in history class you may have learned that the Spanish were extremely cruel to the natives not more so than the previous overlords. Okay, does that make sense guys? All right.

All right. So um what I'm going to do now is having explain the history. I'm going to provide the theory. Okay. I'm going to explain the theory of all this.

Okay. But before I do so, are there any questions about what what we've learned so far? What what was this clear to you guys? The logic of this. All right.

So let me explain the theory. Okay. Okay. So what you learn in this class, what we what we talked about in this class previously is the idea of game theory. Okay, game theory.

The game theory, idea of game theory is that all human interaction, it's playing a game. Okay, we may forget we're playing a game, but we're still playing a game. So if you want to understand how people behave, you first have to figure out how the game works. What are the rules of the game? Okay.

So, um, Samaria, uh, the Samrians were one of the first earliest civilizations because they were based on the Tigers and Euphrates in Mesopotamia. Okay? And what happened was that they developed different city states along the river um, the Euphrates and and Tigris. And all these city states had their own city god. Okay?

And these were all different. They they all these different city gods. Um over time these cities came into conflict with each other because of trade issues. Okay. And also because of land issues.

So they start to fight. At this point this becomes a competition. It becomes a game. Okay? And whenever there's a game there has to be rules that underpin this game.

And the and the rule the first rule rule of this game was we do not attack each other's cities. Does that make sense? Why? Because the city is a physical manifestation of God on earth. So you can kill the enemy's army on the field, but you don't attack the city.

And also there are city walls to protect the city. Okay? And so what what would happen over time is this game establishes an equilibrium where okay um they fight all the time but no one can actually conquer the other cities because these cities are protected by the gods and so this this is this reaches an equilibrium and this this is a form of peace and stability. Okay. And there are like these elaborate rules governing warfare among the people of Samaria.

Okay. But then you had one king named uh Luga Zagi who was like screw this. I'm going to come and I'm going to kill your god. Okay. So he comes he sacks the city.

Okay. He basically steals from the temple. The temple is where all the gold all the valuables are. and he sacks sacks the temple and even his soldiers are afraid that the gods will come and smite him. Okay, they're afraid but nothing happens to him.

So he does it again and again and again and he becomes over time more and more powerful. Okay, so he's breaking the rules of the game. He hacked the game. Okay, this call hack or he cheated, whatever. But he figured out what the ultimate taboo is.

Okay, the ultimate taboo and he broke it. You break it, you become God yourself. Okay, does that make sense? The idea of taboo are what humans must not break. What humans must not violate.

Only gods allowed to break this taboo. Okay? Only gods allowed to kill each other. We humans must not try to kill each other's gods by ransacking their temple. Okay?

And now once this rule is broken, what happens is you allow a society called the Aadians to come in and conquer everyone because they are the most warlike. Okay. All right. So how is it possible for a different people who who are much fewer and much poorer to come and conquer an entire empire? We discussed this, right?

the Mongols when you are um severely uh limited in your resources you have to use psychological warfare. All right. So the three forms are isolation dominance. Isol isolation dominance just means that you will do more than anyone else in order to win the war. It doesn't make sense.

That's what escalation dominance means. Second is the idea of terror. So the Mongols were going around and killing people randomly in order to instill terror uh among the population. The third is the idea of aura of inevitability and invincibility. Okay?

You want people to think you are the demon or the gods themselves and that's how you get people to obey you. Okay. So the Mongols perfected the strategy. All right. But the Aadians also used the strategy.

Sargon the great Sargon the sagen of Akad. Okay. And what he did was he perfected ste siege warfare to break down the walls. And before it was thought impossible that you could break down these city walls but he did so. And so this created uh escalation dominance, terror and an aura of inevitability and invincibility.

Okay, does it make sense guys? This this is how this is often what happens. Um when societies are playing a game against each other when they're in competition, they establish an equilibrium. Okay, the equilibrium is held together by an ultimate taboo. But so but then someone comes along and breaks this ultimate taboo which then opens up the game.

Okay. Okay. And whoever win and who's who whoever now is able to master psychological warfare, escalation, dominance, terror, and aura of ineability will win this game. Okay? Does that make sense?

All right. Now that we understand the basic theory, let's apply it to the Aztecs. All right. So the Aztecs, sorry had escalation dominance, they had terror, right? Because of human sacrifice and they had the aura of ine inevitability and invincibility.

Okay, this is how they're able to control millions of people even though they themselves had a very limited population. They employ the same strategies as the Mongols. Okay, the Incas also use these three strategies, right? And so you can just say that it is really about God. The Aztecs proved that their god was superior to every other god.

Okay, does that make sense? All right. The problem now is you have the Spanish who come in and they don't know how the game is played. They don't they reject all the rules of the game. They reject the idea that God cannot be killed.

They kill God, right? They killed Monzuma who is god of the Aztecs and they killed the Inca emperor as well. And when you do that, when you break the taboo, you leave people completely helpless. Okay, does that make sense? So, let me use an analogy so that this makes sense to you.

In today's world, there is an ultimate taboo among societies. Okay? So, China, United States can engage in economic warfare. Russia and Ukraine can can uh engage in military warfare. These are not taboos.

The the ultimate taboo is no one is allowed to use nuclear weapons. Doesn't make sense, guys. No one is allowed to use nuclear weapons because if anyone used nuclear weapons, the world would end tomorrow. All right? So um if you think about it there were actually a couple of instances where we were very close to nuclear war.

Okay. During something called the Cuban missile crisis. It was very close. Okay. But there was a chain of command.

So maybe one guy would give the issue the command to launch and grow weapons. But then you have like 10 other people who have to say yes. And there's always be one guy who's like I don't want to be the guy who ends the world. Okay. Okay.

So, like I know there's talk about possibly Russia or United States using nuclear weapons. Okay. It's not going to happen because it's the ultimate taboo. If anyone uses nuclear weapons, the world ends. It's like killing God.

No one would do would do it. Okay? But let's imagine 10 aliens, okay? 10 aliens, just 10 of them. And there's like eight billion of us, right?

They come to Earth on their spaceship far away. They're they're out on the moon, right? They are not inhibited by this taboo of nuclear using nuclear weapons. Okay, does that make sense? So, all they do is use one nuclear weapon against us and then what would happen?

We would all surrender. Does that make sense? Okay, does that logic make sense to you? Same thing happened with the Aztecs and Incas. Because the Spanish were able to kill their god, the the everyone is like, "What do we do now?

What do we do now? We exist to serve God. God is invincible. But the Spanish killed them. Which means what?

Which means now the Spanish are gods, right? Does it make sense? So this is what happened. It's game theory. If you're able to figure out the ultimate taboo and you're able to use it against the local people, then you win.

And you don't need that many people. You don't need that many soldiers. You don't need that much weapons or technology. You can just use ultimate taboo against them. Okay?

Because again the thing that you learn in this class which is very important is sorry the world view which is basically religion. It is the basis of who we are. It is our operating system. Okay. that your computer cannot run without an operating operating system.

We cannot run without a worldview and a religion. Okay? If you destroy the world view, it's like cutting off someone's brain. You you turn this person into zombies and slaves. Okay?

Does that make sense? So what the the implication of this is whenever society has an extremely strict hierarchy where the the majority are forced to worship minority. It makes a study extremely vulnerable to invasion and conquest. Does that make sense? All right.

Okay. Doesn't matter how many people it does not matter how many people you have. Doesn't matter how much weapons you have. As long as you have a strict hierarchy, it becomes the ultimate weakness of a society. Okay?

It becomes you you become vulnerable to an outside invasion. Right? Okay, any questions? Is this clear to you guys the logic of this? Okay, any any questions.

Okay. So uh next class we do the gunpowdered revolution. Okay, gunpowder revolution. And this will mark a radical change in how society is structured. Okay.