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by chestertn 1334 days ago
According to Wikipedia. Spanish Inquisition executed between 3000 and 5000 people over 3 centuries: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition

According to this article. “When the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan was consecrated in 1487 the Aztecs recorded that 84,000 people were slaughtered in four days”

https://qz.com/374994/aztec-sacrifice-was-real-and-its-not-f...

So, the math checks out.

1 comments

Hey again. c:

Note that the Aztecs likely exaggerated their sacrifice counts[0]:

>Some post-conquest sources report that at the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs sacrificed about 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days. This number is considered by Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, to be an exaggeration. Hassig states "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in the ceremony.[15] The higher estimate would average 15 sacrifices per minute during the four-day consecration. Four tables were arranged at the top so that the victims could be jettisoned down the sides of the temple.[22] Additionally, some historians argue that these numbers were inaccurate as most written account of Aztec sacrifices were made by Spanish sources to justify Spain's conquest.[23] Nonetheless, according to Codex Telleriano-Remensis, old Aztecs who talked with the missionaries told about a much lower figure for the reconsecration of the temple, approximately 4,000 victims in total.

Also, it seems like we'd wanna count the 40,000 to 240,000 Aztecs slaughtered by the Spaniards[1].

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_cultu...

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Tenochtitlan

Hi again :). We both have an axe to grind.

I was just giving some support to the parent comment about the scale of sacrifices compared with the Spanish inquisition.

Even if the number is 4000, its still quite comparable with the number of executions of the Spanish inquisition over 3 centuries.

About [1], yes, I do not dispute that. But we were comparing different systems and that the Aztec system was much more cruel from a modern standard.

200,000 native allies

900–1,300 Spanish infantry

90–100 cavalry

Looks like they had some help.

The native allies were the main sources of victims for those mass sacrifices, so I think their motivation to fight and kill their former masters was rather high.