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avatar and aztecs
11/20/13
Avatar and Aztecs essay
The invasion of a new world: Aztecs and Avatars Could the very large and powerful blue creatures of Pandora have similarities with the ancient civilization of the Aztecs? Yes, they have many similarities, not in terms of culture or lifestyle like one might think. Rather, both these civilizations share one identical aspect of their history, they were both invaded by an unknown, foreign mass of people. These two invasions have many similarities between each other but the three most prominent are, a completely unknown group of people coming to their land, invasion resulting in violence and desire for a specific object. In February 1519 the Spaniards embarked on a conquest led by Hernan Cortez. Cortez brought many warriors to this new world they were about explore. When the Spaniards reached the new world they were absolutely astonished, they had never seen anything remotely like it, they didn’t know such things existed! As the Spanish conquistadors journeyed inland, they reached the enormous capital city of Tenochtitlan. The normal custom of the Aztecs is to capture all foreign invaders and sacrifice them but the Aztecs showed mercy to the Spaniards and treated them as guests. With the arrival of Cortez, the Spaniards were overwhelmed at the new world they had found and the potential it could have for gold. On the other hand the Aztecs were overjoyed because they thought the new conquistadors were gods they had been awaiting. Similar to the Spaniards arriving in present day Mexico, the humans that invaded Pandora acted in a similar way. Aside from the scientists who studied the avatars, the humans on Pandora knew very little about how they acted or what their culture was. In general, the Aztecs and the Avatars reacted the same way to to the foreign invaders, astonished and curious. Although the Aztecs and Spaniards were getting along peacefully, that peace was about to come to a stop. Over time the Aztecs realized the the

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