The Role Of Progress In The Aztecs

Renowned pastor, Matt Chandler once said, “Progress stems from education, culture, freedom, and equality.” This is true in many aspects of life, including in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1519. What does the way the Spanish brutally took over the Aztec empire and left their remaining culture at little to nothing show about progress? It shows that progress comes at a price. That price, in my opinion, is too great to risk the loss of an entire culture. Spanish conquerors did what they set out to do. They conquered the entire Aztec empire and left them broken, and shattered into small pieces. They thought they made progress, when in turn they left an entire group of people in the dust. They robbed the Aztec people of their culture. The way in which they did …show more content…
One way was threatening their religion. The Spanish threatened that if the Natives did not join their religion, they would start a war against them, take their wives and children and make them slaves, take everything they had and do as much damage as possible. Yes, getting people to join your religion was a good thing, and could be viewed as progress, but is it really progress if you have to threaten people the way they did just to gain followers? The very religion the Spanish wanted the natives to join, outlaws many of the things the Spanish threatened the Natives with, had they not joined. If progress is a gradual betterment, then this act of cruelty should not be viewed as progress. The culture had already been built in the Aztec empire. The Aztec empire was at equal if not a better place than the Spanish were when they arrived. Threatening the Natives with slavery and death and making them join a certain religion is a step backwards, not a step forwards. Not only