History of Ancient Mexico, Aztecs, Maya and more Explained in ten minutes 

Re-recorded audio made it 2 minutes shorter...mostly by talking slightly faster with fewer pauses. original version 3 1/2 months ago....hopefully this version is more enjoyable :)

When you're horrified by your enemy's human sacrifices; but killing thousands, destroying their cities, plundering their wealth and enslaving their people to work in mines is just fine.

I like Mexico and it history thank you for doing it history especially that many history channels ignore it

We need more channels like this that focus on all of the beauty of mankind. Not just the typical Eurasian model.

This video is so great!

Man, I wish this history was as well recorded as the western world. After watching your video on Cannae, I can only imagine what the battles they fought were like. It also makes me wonder if their wars were as centered on direct decisive battles as in the west, or if it was more ritualistic, or lower intensity...

i can not thank you enough!! great video as always!

Awesome man love learning about my ancestors

Makes you wonder how much more interesting the world of today would be if all of the new world cultures hadn't been destroyed, marginalized or completely assimilated. Imagine modern cities inspired by mesoamerican architecture styles, people wearing distinct clothing, cultural practices that aren't heavily influenced by Spain, how reformed religions would look in a modern setting, so much that we will never experience because of disease and the shortsighted greed of a few people hundreds of years back. At least the inflation that broke the Spanish Empire was somewhat of a karma payback by the universe.

Respect to mexico.

Another really fine video.

Wonderful video, I love Mesoamerican history.

You always make great videos and they're always pleasing to look at. I also like how you show a true appreciation for the history of every civilization and don't try to push an agenda through your videos.

Please cover a history of the Caribbean before European colonization! Caribbean history goes back thousands of years (there has been evidence of people populating the Caribbean as much as 7,000 years ago) but the only thing people know about the Caribbean is what happened from 1492 onwards. I would really love to learn about the many tribes that lived there and that still live there today

Epimetheus is the best. Videos are short, concise, and yet dense. If I had young history students, I would show them these videos.

Thank you for making the video.

Great video! 👍🏾

I really like your videos and channel. As someone who loves history I think you make excellent content.

Thank you Epimetheus. This was a pleasure to watch. I was hoping that you would mention the kingdom of Itza which was the last Mayan Kingdom to fall to the Spanish (1697). These people originally inhabited the city of Chitzen-Itza and abandoned it, travelling south into what is now Guatemala. Their capitol was at Petan-Itza on the isle of Flores.

excellent overview. muchas gracias.

Beautiful mexico

I plan on showing this to my 9th grade class in Tampa, FL. I appreciate the research and knowledge you did to make this excellent video.

Awesome.... bro thank you

Damn my mans going all around the world.

Didn't you post this already a couple of weeks ago? Doesn't matter still enjoyed it. Amazing work!

This is the best video ever since videos were invented.

Nice upload. Glad to hear u use the term Mexica or Mesheeka. So many people call them the Aztecs. Also there is a little bit more to the story about Nahuatl people arriving from the North. The Mexica were the last of the Nahua people to arrive and when they did there were already Nahuatl people dominatig the region with their own city, states. The Mexica were considered barbaric and hire as mercanaries from tje surrounding powers. Tepanecs were the dominating power, the Colohican (spelling is off) were powerful as well. Story goes the Mexica asked one of the kings of the other city state (forgot which ine) if they can have 1 of their princess and make her a Goddess. The King agreed and when he showed up to tje festival 1 of the Mexica priests was dancing while wearing his dead daughters flayed skin over him lol. Also the triple alliance was created to fight against the Tepanecs and gain control of the region

This was great.

Nicely done video, just a thing, Purepecha (Tarascan is a pejorative exonym ) is not a dialect, but a completely different language from Nahuatl, it is actually a language isolate

A video on the History of Malaysia, please.

I feel like you were inspired by "The History Of Japan" from Bill Wurtz for these videos. Similar editing. Great stuff!

please do all country its really interesting😊

I learned so much

Hopefully in the future, do a history on Colombia? Your work is great and very conforming.

Than for going over this because I am relates to Aztec

Persian Empire, Epimethius? You know you've got to!

Epi, i enjoyed the vid. I love history and my wife and i love to watch the different programs about Mexico and the surrounding regions. However, we are stumped when it comes to Incas, Aztecs, and Mayans. Who were they? Who was 1st 2nd and 3rd? Your video helped straighten that out for us. Thank you.

ur mini documental, helps me a lot, thanks.

geographic description 0:05 - 0:21 History of the Mesoamerican civilizations p1 0:23 - 3:34 Warfare and regions the civilizations lived 3:34 - 6:15 History of the Mesoamerican civilizations p2 7:15 - 8:47

I would love to see a video on the Guachichiles/Huachichiles. They were the most numerous and ferocious warriors that were part of what we know as the Chichimeca. They waged war on the Spanish for 50 years and were never defeated.

Could you do a video about Medieval Nubia?

Muy bien video, es interesante ver cómo lo relatas saludos desde Yucatán. :)

I'm surprised that there are not much comments from other mexicans here. Buen video.

Just came from the Spanish edition lol

La version en Español esta chingon!

🔥🔥

Can you do Central America?

I feel like I'm having De ja vu. Is this a reupload?

Thank you I’ll be using your videos for my daughter as an addition to her history lessons due to I homeschool!!

Thanks for the info. I got confused haha but I was born in Puebla. But being that many from france, Spanish came there and fought the war there now I don't know so I wanted to see if I was Mayan or Aztec but now idk haha good info forsure thanks!!

Im decendent of those people whith sangre otomi...

Can you do one on Inca or Andean civilization?

Impressing, you should do now the history of the Incas :D

Amazing video, didn't know central american history was so interesting

Please Tell about incas in south América and the ancient road of peabiru who Go from peru to Brazil and the natives from Brazil who are canibal and eat the rival fighters ! Many thanks from Brazil

You should make the history of Kievan Rus up till modern Russia

One other fascinating component of this were the Carribean islands. The Tainos were the ones who made the Spanish aware of other tribes. How much intermingling there was between Mexican, Central American, and Carribean tribes we'll never know. But theres evidence of trade between Tainos and Meso American tribes.

One of my greatest sorrows was when I went to Mexico, but didn't visit the Coba pyramid (which was pretty much the last one you could actually go up). Truly a beautiful place.

These are great, Have you done Malta 🇲🇹 ?

Tarascan is an English translation of an offensive word. The word you're looking for is P'urépecha (alternatively spelled: P'urhépecha). The P'urhépecha people looked nothing like the little drawing you used to represent them. There are plenty of images online (yes, even four years ago). Our ancestors' empire was formed by the great unifier Taríacuri from the Wakúsecha lineage. The Wakúsecha were only one of 4 lineages that could legally claim the status of nobility. The empire that Taríacuri established was called the Iréchekua Tzintzuntzani (Tzintzuntzan is located in the Mexican state of Michoacán, and this was the eventual capital after Taríacuri's descendent moved it there from the former three city states of Pátzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan, and Ihuatzio. Anyways, our warriors were known for blackening their entire bodies with ash to look like our god of fire/war: Kuríkaweri. Our primary weapon was the bow and arrow, but also possessed the secondary weapon of a rounded club. The strategy of war at the time was actually similar to how you described that of the Toltecs': ritual warfare. They did not go to war or conquer for land, nor with the objective of killing as many enemies as possible. The purpose of war was to capture as many people (ALIVE) and then bring them back with you so that they could be imprisoned until the next ritual date in which criminals and prisoners of war were sacrificed by the chief priests.

I love Mexico, and love learning more about the culture before the savages took over and enslaved us all.

12:30 was bout to crash, then I see this...fuck. It must be watched!

I just wanted to know about the pillar men...

The Americas were honestly as developed as the old world

I hope the Toltec Empire really existed, some have claimed otherwise.

Does this fit in well with the Book of Mormon???

Somalia

I didn't make a comment on this video when it came out, but i'm doing so now since i'm linking it somewhere as an example of one of the few good videos on mesoamerican history on youtube. I'm gonna correct a few errors, though, but don't take it too harshly, again, I think this is one of the best on youtube: - Saying the Mesoamericans became proficient in the cultivation and harvesting of maize/corn is misleading: There WASN'T any wild corn! Corn is entirely the result of one of the most impressive feats of selective breeding in history, the plant it was bred from is basically a tiny vairety of grass, and doesn't resemble corn much at all. I've heard it compared that the domestication and selective breeding of other crops in history is like breeding a wolf into a modern dog, wheras the creation of maize was like breeding a wolf into an elephant. - I am unsure that it'd be appripriate to call the Zapotec an "empire". Monte Alban was certainly the most political dommiant Zapotec city, but my understanding is that it wasn't a captial of a singular state that unified the Zapotec so much as it ruled over many other, but not all Zapotec city-states, and I'm unclear what the exact nature of the political relationship might have been: Rather then being a true sort of imperial system like european empires, or a tributrary/vassal one like the Aztecs, it might have been more more like the important Maya city-states where it was less a true example of a city ruling another and more just being particularly political dommiant with other cities toeing the line out of geopolitics rather then actually being controlled by them. - While not an error, I wish you would have used images of Teotihuacan from the archeological mapping/surveying projects: the photos of the model set only shows the currently intact structures, where in it's heyday there would have been a dense grid of buildings covering an area of over 22 kilometers, and less densely for over 60 kilometers! - I think you are being a bit assumptive about a lot of the bordes you show with the Toltecs. Most of what we know about the Toltecs comes from aztec accounts which were likely propagandized and semi-mythological. AFAIK we don't know how far their reach stretched, or even if they were an actual large state, or a culture spread across multiple seperate states, a singular city-state, or even just a cultural tradition rather then a single culture (which is really what the Olmec were). We don't even know what the Aztecs called the Toltecs ruled out of Tula! That being said, I might be wrong here, if you wanna go into more detail/direct me your sources i'd love to read them! I'm also not saying everything you said about the toltecs is wrong, a lot of it is what the aztecs say about them, just that I think that you are interperating it a bit overly literearly and giving the info with the amount of grains of salt it should have - When you talk about the tribes moving into central mexico after the fall of the toltecs, you are being sort of misleading. These miggrations started to happen around the late 1100's and 1200, and are collectively known as the Nahua. The Eagle eating a snake on a cactus was a specific legend for the Mexica, one of these Nahua groups, whio were among the latest to migrate down and settle into the valley of mexico and form a city-state, which by then had already had many established ones from prior Nahua groups. We also know some specifics about specific kings and wars between them at this point and there's some more info about how the mexica in particular got there and battles they got into, with the eagle snake thing being more a legend then actual history of how it happened, and then obviouslt the dertails of how the aztec empire formed out of the triple alliance, but I can excuse you for excluding this due to time. The TLaxcala were another one of these nahua groups, and settled down into an adjacent valley even earlier then the mexcia, not in the 14th centuary. The Purepecha/Tarascans, meanwhile, are a bit more complex. There were already Purepecha people living in what would become the Tarascan empire, but groups which may have been nahua moved into there (or maybe the nahua were already there and the purepecha moved in, it's unclear) around the 13th centuary, same as the other nahua migrations, and then established themselves as a ruling class over a few key cities before basically fusing culturally with the purepecha, before key wars and political events resulted in them fomring an empire (again, I excuse you for not delving into the specifics due to time) - The account of the Spanish victory over the Aztecs is VERY simplified. A lot of this I can forgive due to the video length, but some stuff that's still important to note even in a short video is that Cortes first landed in the Yucatan and picked up shipwrecked Spaniards who had intergerated into maya society as translators, before landing on the gulf coast. There he met with the Totonac city of Cempoala, who he allied with/they manipulated them into allying with them, who they brought into tlaxcala territory, where that fight happened, as you describe (though the tlaxcala moreso had the conquistadors cornered rather then a stalemate). The Tlaxcala and Conquistadors go into tenocchtitlan,m with montezuma welcoming them, but montezuma is kidnapped and held hostage. Eventually a spanish force arrives to arrest cortes (his expedition was illegal), and cortes runs off to get them and convinces them to join him instead. one of the soldiers having smallpox, which is what caused the outbreak in tenochtitlan. When he gets back he finds out the gujy he left in charged killed a bunch of people while he was gone and caused an uprising, so the spanish and tlaxcala flee with heavy losses. While they regroup, smallpox ravages tenochtitlan and the surrodning area, and in the chaos the Spanish and Tlaxcala are able to rally a number of other city-states, including Aztec ones, to their side, so the 100k to 200k sized army wasn';t just tlaxcala, but from other cities as well. - While native religion was stamped out immedatedly, miuch of native mesoamerican culture, society, and politics was left intact intially during the colional period, with Spain having a more hands off approach, with cities more or less just sending their tribute to the sapanish rather then who they had before, as long as they converted (thoug conquistadors still raped and pillaged quite a few places). The royalty and nobility of these states even married into spanish nobolity on occasion. It's only after further population losses due to dieases and instabilioty of the conquest that spain became truly exploitative and eradicated all of native culture, and started racial casta systems, etc.

9 mins ago 4:04 PM

🏋🏻‍♂️🇲🇽🇲🇽💪🏼

U should do Nepal, it'd be fun and its a pretty interesting country i think

Soooo who else had a test and it’s 4 am?

One of the best videos about Central America of all time. Definetely. Love how you distinguish the various states and their cultures, and how you explain the politics between them nonetheless!

is this a re upload?

There where alot more kingdoms in MesoAmerica than i thought

I still appreciated the majority of the history you provided regarding (super) ancient Mesoamerica, but I'm still a little sad that the only real image that depicts the P'urhépecha people(s) of modern-day Michoacán is shown during the point in the video when you are explaining the Spanish conquest of the Mexica capital of Tenochitilan. The image that was displayed literally says "Michoacan" in old Spanish writing. It's because that image is depicting the Spanish conquest of Michoacán, with the help of Tlaxcallan allies.

Poor Mayans. Not only what happen to them during the Spanish Conquest, but also what happen to them during the silent genocide when Guatemala was having a civil war I think between 1950-1996. Guatemala government massacred hundreds of Mayan villages and killed thousands of them.

The Spanish version is lit!

did it say what they farmed?

Don't you think if the Mexica would of had a better chance of surviving if they had the weaponry that the conquistadors did

Ok nice overview! But yeah suuuuper general. XDXD.

Everything in history happens for a reason just imagine if we weren’t colonized

“They got horrify about human sacrifices so they decided to wipe them down” what a horrible thing to do. Hypocrites!

105th

Did they all had different religious or they all believe the same believes. Anyone???

Saludos a los del MLK!

The Christian Spaniards were so shocked by the Mesoamerican religion, and practice of human sacrifice that they tortured and burned at the stake those who did not convert to catholicism ... I always found that irony funny and sad.

Barney

6:53 so are you telling me that Mexicans compared to the rest of South Americans are technically native American?

Whew. So the Aztecs came from how far north? Were they related to the pyramid builders in N. America?

Damn shame the Tlaxcallans didn't annihilate the Spaniards when they had the chance, or at least until after they conquered the Mexica... They were one of the most democratic Mesoamerican states and could've abolished human sacrifice themselves. Awesome video dude, very fine work.

Masaman

3:48 But Epi. what about the Incans!?

Your images are wrong. The Olmecs founded Mexico and you know they did. So what's with this image bruh?

The history of the indigenous peoples in the Americas is much, much older than a few thousand years. We judge the Maya, Aztecs, Inca’s and others on the traces that we find. But when we dig our way from the present to the past, we must know that the Earth is suffering from a cycle of recurring natural disasters. That is told in the Popol Vuh of the Maya and other ancient books. These create a cycle of civilizations. One is a high developed civilization, that disappeared 20,0000 years ago. Then there are four primitive civilizations. They were guided by alien deities. At a certain moment in time, those deities leave the people alone. Led by fanatic priests, the people start offering more and more often and from fruits and animals, they started offering children and humans. They knew that after death, new life would occur and they wanted the deities to return. That is how the Aztec are remembered, but once they were high educated. They left us the sun stone, which is a warning for this recurring disasters. To learn much more about the cycle of disasters and civilizations, recurring floods, ancient high tech and alien deities, read the e-book: "what I know about Nibiru". You can read it nicely on any computer, tablet or smartphone. Just search for: know Nibiru

The only problem I have with that civilization is them practising human sacrifices.

Quien me pasa la tarea :v?

Mixtecs????? You probably mean the mexicas

MAYAS WAS 2,000 BEFORE JESUS!!!! AZTEC WAS AFTER JESUS . MAYAS WAS IN PENINSULA BEFORE AZTEC EXIST AND THEY WERE DIFERENT PEOPLE

thank you for including native americans