Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain

Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain by David M. Carballo

This academic book explores the histories of Spain and Mexico before and immediately after Cortes conquered the Aztecs. The language is dense, though the primary sources are meager. Both areas had rich cultures that were well developed before they met. The Aztecs had recently come to dominate and tenuously held a domination over other peoples in the area. The Spaniards were able to exploit these rivalries with alliances. The warfare culture was also different. The Aztecs fighters were focussed primarily on their own achievements and preferred prisoners, while the Spaniards would kill. Culturally, the Spaniards were fine killing unbelievers, but were repulsed by the Aztec human sacrifices. Mexicans had sports and ball games as well as language and worship that were interesting to Spaniards while at the same time seen as somewhat heretical. The Spaniards worked on the conversion with the conquering, with Christianity and churches placed over former Mexican pyramids and worship sites. It is also interesting that the Spaniards focussed on areas familiar to them. The Yucatan was a bit too hard for them to manage. Diseases also worked in the Spaniards favor as the Mexicans had little animal culture and the exposure to disease. Could things have turned out differently?

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

The Aztecs are intriguing. This book has potential. However, it gets bogged down by details. In the audiobook, the native words are pronounced and then spelled out. This just seems to slow down the narrative. There is also too much time spent explaining the details instead of providing a narrative. The book attempts to be "popular", yet gets a little too stuck in academic detail.

The history also makes few attempts to go very far back in time. The focus is on the history that can be easily documented. Thus, it does not go very far back before the Spanish encounter. A great deal of the book focuses on the interactions with the Spaniards. There is an attempt to get at the "true" history, as opposed to what are likely many false impressions between the two societies that did not understand each other. There is also the challenging of teasing out the truth from narratives that were made to advance particular positions.

There is some coverage of the human sacrifice and heart extraction. The view in this book is that it was a fairly complex issue. Some of those sacrificed were essentially given a death penalty due to infractions (or being an enemy.) Later is became ritualistic and their became a demand for people to sacrifice to ensure positive outcomes (such as victory in war.) 

The Aztecs were of the Nahua culture and had a complicated relationship with the other people around. There were shufflings of leadership and migrations of peoples to the city. There was also plenty of intermarriage with plenty of love and hate to go around. The Spanish were able to find allies in their conquest. They also had the benefit of advanced technology and germs without immunity.