There is a song by Neil Young called "Cortez the Killer" that is a ballad loosely based on this man. He was a spanish conquistador that amongst other things destroyed the great city of Tenochtitlan home of the Aztec's. At the time of the slaughter the city is argued to be one of the most populace cities in the world. It housed the cultural wonders of the Aztec which shares roots among the even older cultures of Southern and Central America. The Aztecs had a system of math and astronomy that had a degree of accuracy that in some ways matches what we have today. Architecturally significant buildings are still found, but in vast states of disrepair.
We have little to no true knowledge of this culture and of the other cultures in the region from the same time period (eg. Incas). Due to the invasion of the Europeans into the so-called "new world" we have lost a vast chunk of human history that we can never regain.
The vast loss of human life, the loss of incomprehensible cultural knowledge has forever been all but wiped of the face of the Earth. This is among the worst tragedies humanity has faced.
Were it the only one, but time and again events such as this have occurred. What else have we lost in the past that we will never get back and will it ever end?
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