I'm reading a book about the Aztecs now (Fifth Sun). The meeting of the Spanish with the Mexica has to be the most epic event in human history. Tragic what was lost. Kudos to the artist for this.
You can read a first-person (colonial) perspective from someone who was there.
"When I beheld the scenes around me, I thought within myself, this was the garden of the world. All of the wonders I beheld that day, nothing now remains. All is overthrown and lost."
Also check out Álvaro Enrigue’s fictionalized account You Dreamed of Empires. Vividly told from the perspectives of the principals, it makes for unforgettable reading…
Is torturing (and the mutilation of a human body and sometimes death as a frequent outcome of the torture process) and burning people at the stake after an auto-da-fé for not believing in someone else’s mythical deity fundamentally different from human sacrifice?
Not to defend the brutal fanaticism of 15th century catholicism in Europe and the new colonies, but you should read in depth about the sheer scale of Aztec blood sacrifice. It put the Inquisition to shame with its savagery and quantities of victims.
The Inquisition did not exterminate to the level of the Aztecs. Aztecs were sacrificing people by the thousands. Indeed natives were a crucial part in the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spaniards.
Hardly made much difference after all. Those saved from being part of a blood sacrifice tribute later died in droves as victims of the new diseases. With hindsight, it's more a question of which sort of death, and the likelihood of it happening would have been preferable.
