The Mighty Aztec - A History In Poem Poem by bobby beddoe

The Mighty Aztec - A History in Verse
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Their history was brief, it's been found
That, two hundred years upon arriving
In The Valley of Mexico sometime around
1400 B.P., they spent 30,000 years hunting
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Mammoths, Mastodons, and not too swift
Other Ice Age mammals - their food supply!
Finally, about 5200 B.P. a slow shift
Evolved into hunting/gathering - for to try!
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As bands migrated south towards Texas,
Could it be they lived almost two centuries
With the ancestors of the Karankawas
Along the coast of south Texas counties?
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Anthropologists' research needs more work,
For today mostly rely on Mexica's reflection,
So volunteers help with on-sight-earthwork
Whilst scientists catalogue any correction!
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By 1500 B.C. in Central Mexico, farming,
Beans and maize - which became main diet.
So they traded their spears used for hunting
For manos and mutates without any regret!
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Making pottery vessels became a necessary
Skill with fishin', animal hunting and weaving
Which served as the best adjustment remedy
Needed for Mesoamerica's first civilization!
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The Maya were native people of northern
Mesoamerica sometime around c.1340,
Aztecs began forcing them out one morn,
Sending them south toward the Inca nearby!
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Settling down in their new extremely fertile
Land, came now time to choose their rulers,
Chiefs, leaders and a sundry of gods, while
Taking charge of the future temple workers!
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The Aztecs believed in life after death.
That's why they practiced human sacrifice
On an unpresented scale - so to alloweth
Priests to sap their blood before Paradise!
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Montezuma II, ruler of the Aztec empire,
One night, standing on a temple saw a comet
Wing its way across the night sky - like fire.
Spooked him for a decade, just couldn't forget!
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In late 1519 one evening, per history scrips,
He got word that moving mountains
(That's what the natives called his ships)
Were off the eastern coast of Quiahuiztian!
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Cortes was a Spanish conquistador. In
1519 by order of Spain's King Charles 1
He invaded Mexico - renaming it New Spain,
After conquering the Aztec Empire in 1521!
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Also,1630, he went on an expedition to expand
North of ‘New Spain' and explored an aeon,
Baja Peninsula. (First thought to be an island)
Later in 1697, Jesuits built Spain's' first Mission!
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Unbeknownst to Cortes, his arrival coincided
With an important Aztec prophecy.
The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, so they decided
Their god had now returned and came friendly!
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Believing that Cortes could be Quetzalcoatl,
Montezuma greeted the Spanish general
And army of a few hundred Spaniards in total,
With honor. Then invited for dinner - several!
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Hernando Cortes sank to his fleet of six ships;
So now, with nowhere for the men to go,
And that this wasn't one of his normal trips,
They'd follow him to Tenochtitlan, Mexico!
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Been said, Cortes, in order to prevent his men
From mutiny; and under the pretext bunk
That they were not seaworthy, he sank them,
Recent research changed word, ‘burn' to ‘sunk'!
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The next day he looked for Aztec's big pueblo,
Which took him across the ridgetops of the
Sierra Madre and onto Tenochtitlan, Mexico.
And there he set up his headquarters - in a jiffy!
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At first crack of dawn, Aztecs and Spaniards
Prayed to their respective gods of both sides
Prepared for one of history's most momentous
Battles to assess who ultimately still resides!
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The Spanish were outnumbered significantly,
Cortes' army numbered only a few hundred
Going up against the Aztec Empire defiantly,
While the Aztecs had a few hundred thousand!
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Cortes allied with local tribes to conquer
The Aztec capital city so his army besieged
Tenochtitlan for 93 days, with native fodder,
The Spanish conquered the city- tho flattened!
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After the fighting, Cortes began his system
To convert the natives to Christianity
By tearing down their idols and replaced them
With crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary.
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June 30,1520: Cortes and his men tried to creep
Out of Mexico under the cover of darkness,
But are discovered and attacked - losing a heap
Of golden treasures collected before egress!
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Postscript
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On his way back to Spain, Cortes' treasure ship Stopped in Cuba, and rumors began to spread like wild-fire all through Europe of the gold he brought back from in Mexico; but, what's written in verse thus far should suffice for now.
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Hernando Cortes died on December 2,1547 at his home in Seville, Spain from a lung disease called pleurisy.
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Emperor Montezuma's own people threw rocks and spears at him while pleading with them for calm. He died two or three days later from his wounds on June 29,1520.
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Losses: 240,000, Aztecs killed by the Spanish,
Another 100,000 - diseases caused demise,
And fighting Cortes' men in every skirmish.
Spanish side: 850, plus 20,000 Tlaxcalan allies!
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