The horror that the Conquistadores experienced was largely religious, or straight propaganda. Spain had been in a vicious ethnic war for the better part of a th

The horror that the Conquistadores experienced was largely religious, or straight propaganda. Spain had been in a vicious ethnic war for the better part of a thousand years by the 15th C, and had what was possibly the most mass-brutalized population in Europe. Those men had almost certainly seen far, far worse as inquisitors, generals, clerics, or even just ground humps in, say, the conquest of Grenada. The horror was in the presence of alien gods - which to a devout Catholic of the era would be seen as real . . real demons, that is. Other "horror" I put in quotes, as some codices were written for the precise purpose of propaganda. However, don't let that blind our eyes. The Aztecs were indeed nasty bastards. But "nasty bastards" covers lots of territory in history, and we shouldn't forget that one of the bands of nasty bastards came there specifically to be nasty bastards to someone else. The entire Cortez operation was such a fustercluck, it really deserves a film, if someone could manage it without being horrifically offensive.