If this still seems barbaric to you, try looking at this comparison...
According to the Bible, the Romans (to whom we owe many ‘civilised’ inventions and much of our cultural heritage), sacrificed Jesus by nailing him onto a cross and leaving him to die. Before his death, during the last supper, Jesus had insisted that his disciples consider the wine and bread they had dined on to be his blood and flesh. His sacrifice to them, the deadening of his body on the crucifix, was a gift of life to humankind.
The idea of what ‘barbarism’ is really lies in the eye of the beholder. Although Spanish priests thought many Aztec practices to be base and even evil, they preached in the name of an empire (the Holy Roman Empire) that regularly tortured people for the Inquisition!
Here's what others have said:
31 At 10.04am on Sunday August 23 2020, 13coatl wrote:
We don’t really know the extent to which Mexica human sacrifices were voluntary. According to the often flabbergasted Spanish eyewitness accounts of the practice, however, many victims at least appeared to be willing participants in the ritual, ascending the temple steps freely, and dancing and playing music for the spectators below. Failing to display bravery by voluntarily offering to be sacrificed was, rather oddly, punishable by execution , so it’s not like there were lots of options. The difference was the manner and lack of honor associated with such a death. Given that many of the victims were other Nahua peoples, they shared the same worldview as the Mexica, believing that death by sacrifice was one of the few ways to escape rebirth in the terrifying multi-layered netherworld of Mictlan.
Mexicolore replies: Thank you for adding interesting comments to this debate.
30 At 10.42pm on Tuesday May 12 2020, Karl wrote:
The text is biased and is not serious. Aztec sacrifices are well documented by archeologists and other reliable historical sources. These human sacrifices of even children is at least disgraceful. Any comparison with the Romans, a civilization 1000 years older is not to the advantage of Aztecs.
29 At 3.18pm on Sunday May 10 2020, Samoja wrote:
Yes, we all know they were performing sacrifices in the name of their religion, but as we can plainly see the sun did not stop rising when the sacrifices stopped, so they were wrong. Hitler killed millions because he believed they were inferior, that does not justify his actions. In my book i judge people by their actions, not by their beliefs. I think it’s telling that Aztecs did not volunteer themselves for the sacrifice, rather they sacrificed captives and slaves. Cutting out the hearts is the least of the horrors they perpetrated, what about the one where they repeatedly poked a child with a needle to make them cry, after which they would drown the poor soul as a sacrifice to the rain god? In my opinion Cortez did the right thing for the wrong reasons, sure enough he was greedy for gold, but as for the massacre of Aztec population i won’t be shedding any tears for them, they were all complicit in this orgy of violence, there were no innocents in that city, what happened to them was nothing short of karma.
28 At 12.31pm on Wednesday April 29 2020, Sarah Conner wrote:
This is a great source of information that I recommend showing to white historians and perhaps movie-makers to avoid perpetuating negative stereotypes about the Aztecs and other indigenous Americans.
27 At 11.19am on Sunday February 16 2020, Gabrielle Racine wrote:
Which rituals did the Aztecs practise cannibalism? Panquetzalitzli, probably, or Tlacaxipehualiztli, assuradely, but which others?
Mexicolore replies: Good question. We’ve answered this (with the help of Prof. Kay Read, on our Panel of Experts) in the ‘Aztec Calendar’ section, here -
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/calendar/which-aztec-festivals-involved-cannibalism
26 At 4.40pm on Friday February 7 2020, Isabel Moctezuma wrote:
My ancestors were not barbaric in the least! Those lies are promoted by whote colonizer-minded people who seek to justify their racism towards indigenous peoples. The dorks who wrote hateful comments should study a little history before making false and very insulting affirmations.
25 At 3.50pm on Wednesday February 20 2019, Gabe R. wrote:
Thank you so much for this source. It helped me so much for my debate on if Aztecs were sophisticated or barbaric. (guess which side i’m on)
24 At 11.28am on Monday January 14 2019, Jerry Campbell wrote:
Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer started by research on this subject. All I know is that the Aztecs documented their own deeds through their artwork. What i do appreciate is the way you do not censor your comment section, bravo !!
23 At 6.48pm on Friday November 30 2018, Tochtli wrote:
Donald must be confusing aztecs with nahuas in nicaragua warring with chibchas of a colombian affinity, and uto aztecans, who im not sure sacrificed anything but definitely werent as far north as canada!
22 At 11.54am on Tuesday July 10 2018, Donald Ray Schaum wrote:
The Aztec made Gengis Khan look like a boy scout. They practically depopulated the American west. Sent raiding parties as far north as Canada and as far south as Colombia to feed their sacrifice machine! Look how terrified the pueblo people were! Retreating higher on to the cliffs. The Aztec were the most horrible people the planet has ever seen
Mexicolore replies: We’re tempted to ‘pull’ this comment: it takes exaggeration to a whole new level. But we’ll leave it here for now, for fun. It would be rather groovy to hear where you’ve found evidence of Aztec raiding parties nipping up to Canada and down to Colombia...!
21 At 10.26am on Sunday April 16 2017, Carlos wrote:
Thank you so much for this article and website. I moved last year in mexico city and have been researching about the mexica and the life of nezahualcoyotl, i’m flabergasted... Such an amazing civilization who’s history was writen by barbaric priests, even the destruction of amazing places like texcotzingo was an act of religeous barbarianism.
The haters comenters below do not seem slightly informed about anything.
Thank you mexicolor for helping me get a better understanding about this region of the world!
20 At 12.05am on Thursday March 9 2017, John Cortes wrote:
The Aztecs were a brutal barbarous civilization that sacrificed all manner of people in the name of slating a god’s thirst. What of degenerate culture does this? One can never justify what happened to them. However, gotta call it like you see it. The Aztecs were great in certain regards, but by an large, their religious and social culture was backwards and as bankrupt in terms morals as it gets. Modern archeology backs this up folks. LOOK IT UP. Archeologists are corroborating the carnage that the Spanish documented. Please, and you want people to respect this type of culture? Get outa here with that crap...
Mexicolore replies: No-one’s trying to ‘justify’ anything. Why get so heated? Learn to relax, chill out, open a can of beans... You’ll be disappointed to discover that the archaeological record doesn’t REMOTELY corroborate the number of sacrifices that the Spanish accused the Aztecs of performing. Check out this from two of Mexico’s most authoritative and leading archaeologists (see ‘What evidence is there of human sacrifice?’ in this same section):-
’The evidence demonstrates that the numbers in the historical sources may be wildly exaggerated. There is quite a long way from the skeletal remains of the 126 individuals found so far in all the construction stages of the Templo Mayor and its thirteen adjoining buildings to the 80,400 victims mentioned in a couple of documents for one single event:the dedication of an expansion of the Templo Mayor in 1487.’
We challenge you to come up with figures that back up what you say above...
19 At 10.46am on Friday January 13 2017, Crazy456Rhino wrote:
Right now at school, I’m doing a Law and Order themed project of the Aztecs vs the Spanish. As much as I rooted for the Aztecs, I was placed on the Spanish side. So I’m forced to find bad things about the Aztecs in order to support my case. So, was there anything “bad” that the Aztecs ever did? Thanks if you can answer.
Mexicolore replies: Why not come up with something little known? Under the (fourth) emperor Itzcoatl, most historical records in pictorial codices were burnt, so that a ‘new’ history could be written, to sanction state-sponsored religion - bad news in anyone’s book.
18 At 8.20am on Saturday September 17 2016, Johan Ericsson wrote:
“Why did the Aztecs rip out hearts by the thousands?” “To nourish their gods.” This is what’s known as “begging the question.” How did they get the idea that the gods needed to be nourished with hearts in the first place?
Consider the rites of Xipe Totec, whose victims not only had their hearts ripped out - standard fare - but had their skins removed whole, which were then worn by priests! Think about that. A priest would take the bloody, slimy flayed skin of a human being and wear it for 20 DAYS, until it was putrid and stinking and rotting off of him. Meanwhile he’d parade through the streets, entering houses and demanding alms - just imagine some ghoul draped in decaying human skin busting into your house! - and brandishing the defleshed thigh bones of the victim as “blessing” wands.
So you had an culture in which behavior that rivals that of the most depraved serial killers was absolutely normative. It doesn’t work to just say “it was their religion.” WHY was it their religion?
Mexicolore replies: The simple answer is that they believed in paying their gods back for having sacrificed themselves to kick-start the current world.
Why do you insist on using the most provocative, loaded and dramatic language possible to describe these practices, all of which are only understandable if the context is spelt out? Needless to say, you haven’t remotely done justice to the Xipe Totec rites.
17 At 1.10pm on Tuesday August 23 2016, Rose wrote:
I do feel that a comparison with the Eucharist is not a valid comparison. Neither the eucharist nor the Greek-based rituals it derived from ever involved anything more than symbolism. In fact, if we had ever actually performed it using a real person who was slain, it’s only too easy to imagine what the attitude to it would be now! I’m not saying this to suggest that the course of history is a simple matter. The Spanish replaced one evil with another. But we can look back at our own history now, and rightly condemn such things, like the Inquisition, which were wrong with it. We should be able to do the same with other civilisations too, while still acknowledging their good aspects. Basically, I see it as a matter of accepting that evil has existed in all cultures, though it’s taken on different forms. It’s not a matter of good guys and bad guys.
Mexicolore replies: Very fair points - thanks for taking a welcome balanced view!
16 At 12.41pm on Thursday August 4 2016, Kay wrote:
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/23/news/adfg-sacrifice23
LA Times article regarding the proof of the barbarity of the Aztec Culture.
Mexicolore replies: This sort of slightly sensationalist article needs reading with caution. Yes, ‘human sacrifice’ went on, and yes, different methods were used. But the majority of victims WERE captured warriors killed instantly with an obsidian knife. Gladiatorial and other types of - yes, cruel - sacrifice were reserved for special ceremonies that have to be understood differently. Yes, children were sacrificed - if they were unlucky enough to be born on the last 5 ‘useless’ days of the solar year - but not under ‘torture’, they were drowned in the lake. (Yes of course they cried! But not from inflicted pain, simply because they were kids, about to die!! And yes this was a good omen - for rain). What this article doesn’t do is put these things into any real perspective. And crucially, as the writer admits, archaeologists today are finding ‘evidence that corroborates the Spanish accounts in substance, IF NOT NUMBER’ (emphasis added). The contentious issue of numbers involved is of huge importance, and as Leonardo López Luján - who is on our panel of experts - confirms, the numbers of human skulls found buried at the main temple of the Aztecs runs to a hundred or so - NOTHING remotely like the numbers claimed by the Spanish. Finally, victims were not killed by being ‘tossed from the tops of temples’. They were sacrificed first, and then their bodies were thrown down the temple steps as a form of ritual re-enactment of the killing of Coyolxauhqui by Huitzilopochtli in Aztec myth.
Don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers!
15 At 10.59am on Friday July 15 2016, Mike wrote:
What a load of rubbish. The Aztecs were most definitely brutal cannibals. An act of “solemnity and compassion”?? They cut the hearts out of their victims and ate the bodies. The proof is in the archaeology and no amount of apologetic nonsense as is written on this page can change those facts. To this writer, maybe the decaptitations of ISIS are merely solemn and compassion homage to Allah, distorted by the point of view of the civilized world.
Mexicolore replies: Oh come on, Mike, surely you can do better than that...? To compare the practice of human sacrifice among the Aztecs to modern-day ISIS beheading of random individuals who don’t even share belief in the same set of gods seems just plain silly.
14 At 8.24am on Thursday June 30 2016, KT Cat wrote:
Well, I suppose you could be more deliberately ignorant, but I’m not sue how. I’m going to have to think on this one. In the meantime, I propose you live without those things the barbaric Europeans developed, like electricity, cars, plumbing, hospitals, antibiotics and the like. You wouldn’t want to be culturally contaminated by them, would you?
Mexicolore replies: This is a funny contribution! Heavily ironic that you mention European expertise in health and hygiene - AT THE TIME THE SPANISH INVADED the Aztecs had a far more advanced primary health care system that the Spanish greatly admired! And what on earth is the point of mentioning things like electricity and cars that were invented centuries later?! This debate is about ‘Aztecs v Spanish’ in 1519...
13 At 5.58pm on Tuesday April 21 2015, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
The Aztecs were not defeated by the Spaniards! How Could a group of less the 200 sickly Spaniards? they were defeated by the peoples they had subjugated and murdered with the assistance of the Spaniards. The Aztecs were little more than the Nazis of Mexico. May they all burn in hell.
Mexicolore replies: Charming! What’s got your goat, Gerd? Did you get out of bed on the wrong side this morning?! The Nazis engaged in genocide. No ancient Mesoamerican peoples ever did. Try and do some basic research in future before coming out with offensive remarks like these...
12 At 11.23am on Wednesday November 19 2014, Bailey Mason wrote:
I think the Aztecs were following what they believed, same with the spaniards, we are all religous in some way, say for christians they follow the holy bible, and others follow diferent rules for there own religion. We are doing the same as they were back then. Were following what we belive in
11 At 4.29pm on Thursday October 30 2014, Richard woodell wrote:
The Aztec had a totally different way of looking at death. It was simply part of the cycle of the universe. The overwhelming majority of those chosen for sacrifice were willing and eager to perform their duties. Ritual death at the hands of the priests was a great honor. It assured the victim entry into the highest of the heavens, moreover, he bypassed old age!
10 At 10.42am on Sunday March 2 2014, Sue Leeth wrote:
Here’s what I think: Both the Aztecs and the Spaniards who killed and tortured in the name of religion were following a false religion. They did not have a personal relationship with Christ; they were not born again, which Jesus said is essential to be a genuine believer.
Mexicolore replies: If you’re right, Sue, I feel sorry for the hundreds of millions of poor souls that have never had the chance to be ‘born again’ and ‘have a personal relationship with Christ’. Seems a trifle unfair on them...
9 At 11.55pm on Sunday July 14 2013, Miktlaktin Yei Cipactli wrote:
The problem we have with the popular idea of human sacrifice is that first of all the word sacrifice does not exist in the Nahuatl language. Second European sources claim that hearts were offered to gods, in the Nahuatl language there is no word for god or gods either. They claimed our ancestor sacrificed people to the sun god, in order for the sun to continue to rise. That’s a lie, prove if the Tonalmachiotl. One of the most precise calendars known to man. Our original Amoxtli or books were mostly all burnt by the spaniards. Thus allowing them to re write history in their own way.
8 At 1.28am on Monday December 17 2012, LK wrote:
Yea, they were no more savage than any European group could claim to be. They simply had a different way of doing it. I think that a lot of it was more politically inclined than religiously in the later years-- Tributes were taken from surrounding tribes as a means of keeping them under control. I mean, look at the surrounding peoples... they thought the Aztecs were waaay overdoing it with the whole sacrifice thing. It was definitely important in terms of religion but not to the degree that the nobles were making it out to be, I think.
7 At 5.54pm on Sunday September 23 2012, Rick wrote:
I do not think the Aztecs were barbaric people, but there is no question in my mind that their leaders, the priests of their aztec religion, were evil and manipulative men. In my opinion religion always works this way. It is a dogma of power, and in this case their victims, the aztec people, were un-educated and un-worldly enough for the priests to wrench what they really wanted from them. Wholesale slaughter. I have no doubt that when the priests put away their robes at night and went to bed, they were not soaked only in blood [...] Like most men of the cloth, they were [...] sadists who knew their religion was a sham, and their main drive was for more and more power. I do resent the catholic churches double standard in labelling all the Aztec people as savage. I have no doubt that most of them were just trying to live their life, and that it was largely regular- they were forced by coercion, intimidation, being outcast, and the plain threat of death, to nod their heads to religion and to attend these festivals. If all of mankind had such an insatiable lust for blood then civilization (including the aztec civilization) would have never come about
Mexicolore replies: Whilst your gut feelings are understandable, Rick, we’ve had to ‘edit’ some of your comments because of the nature of this website, aimed at learners of all ages...
6 At 3.01pm on Thursday August 23 2012, Ray wrote:
The Aztec civilization was fasinating. I believe I have read the Cortes was actually very impressed with the splendor of Aztec society. As far as the religion is concerned I find it strange that in the name cultural sensitivity that we can’t condemn the act of capturing other people against their will and sacrificing them.
5 At 11.40pm on Friday June 22 2012, kodiak wrote:
Do you mean the same Spaniards who raped, pillaged & destroyed an entire civilization? History is often written by the victors. Cortes and his men did not go to bring salvation; solely to seek riches and used their own religion to justify their crimes.
In 1591, the only rights you had were those conferred upon you by your king. Did the Aztec religion have violent aspects? Yes, many religions still do to this day.
Heard of the “Flower Wars”? These wars were organized, not to kill, but to capture worthy sacrifices. The Tlaxcalans, allies of Cortes, also sacrificed Aztecs. Cortes and his men had no problem with that.
The Aztecs brought society (art, culture, prosperity, trade, religion and stability) to the region. They themselves suffered at the hands of most everyone they came into contact with on their journey from Aztlán. A society that condones genocide & mass slaughter, not for a good rainfall or harvest but, in the name gold, jewels and riches, is truly perverse.
4 At 10.38am on Thursday April 19 2012, Blake Ramos wrote:
Carlos, matt has a point i myself would like to point out. True the Aztec might be considered violent but when you look at it from differant perspectives they were actually a very brave and very generous people. They did not eat people for pleasure, they did not kill for pleasure, they did what they believed they had to do for the world. They saved us everyday by their sacrifices. Whether or not you actually believe in their religion doesn’t matter. On top of this, who is the real barbarians? The Aztecs? or the Spaniards? The Aztecs lived good lives, they were happy, they were healthy, they could be considered to be better off then most of the world at this time period. Then the Spaniards showed up, saw something they didn’t like and didn’t agree with and went on to just about eradicate it. They held no mercy in their killing either. The Aztecs were animals to them, at least if you were captured by the Aztecs you were held with respect and treated like a human still. Sure you were going to die anyway but you got a few more days or hours out of life. As Matt said, you were thought to be enough to save the world.
3 At 8.44am on Monday March 12 2012, Carlos wrote:
Please, be serious... what was described by the Spanish is very well confirmed by archeology and anthropology : the Aztec religion was violent and violating all human rights. It is impossible to defend such a perverted society which needed cyclic mass killing. What objectivity is that ? What would you say if they took your kids, parents or yourself to be slaughtered ?
2 At 6.07am on Thursday August 26 2010, Matt wrote:
On the point about Aztec sacrifice being called barbaric; if you look closely at the Aztec belief in the sun, much of their sacrifice can be justified as a method of saving the world, healing the sun god with human blood. They did, infact, value human life, as they thought it was enough to save the world. :)
1 At 6.40pm on Sunday May 31 2009, Julia wrote:
Thank you so much for this page! It helped me out so much on my Aztec project for social studies. I know that I’m going to get at least an ‘A’ on it for sure! Thanks a bunch! ~Julia
Mexicolore replies: Cheers, Julia - glad to be of help.
Read some thought-provoking quotes about the Aztecs...
Gallery of Historical Figures