Deplorable Degenerate on Nostr: Yeah, Pizarro burned the Incan Emperor after promising not to if he filled a room ...
Yeah, Pizarro burned the Incan Emperor after promising not to if he filled a room full of gold. Which he did. They did a lot of fucked up shit.
You know what they didn't do though? Deliberately allow small kingdoms of people to remain in their lands to take prisoners of war to slowly carve the hearts out of. Including children. They didn't seasonally slaughter thousands to appease their sungod. They didn't engage in cannibalism. Sometimes while the victim was still alive.
Bending the knee to the Spanish didn't get you treated as an equal, but they didn't go out of their way to murder loyal subjects as a policy. Bending the knee to the Aztecs didn't carry that guarantee.
In this specific case, the Spanish were an upgrade.
You know what they didn't do though? Deliberately allow small kingdoms of people to remain in their lands to take prisoners of war to slowly carve the hearts out of. Including children. They didn't seasonally slaughter thousands to appease their sungod. They didn't engage in cannibalism. Sometimes while the victim was still alive.
Bending the knee to the Spanish didn't get you treated as an equal, but they didn't go out of their way to murder loyal subjects as a policy. Bending the knee to the Aztecs didn't carry that guarantee.
In this specific case, the Spanish were an upgrade.