I imagine that pieces like this are sometimes written purely for the excuse of publishing a title that catches the eye, and while there is truth to that here, there is also a bit of history to remember.
If I read my history correctly, Hernando Cortes died five hundred years ago today when his troops tried to escape from Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Aztec Empire which is now the site of Mexico City. Cortes had been welcomed by the emperor, Montezuma II, some months before, perhaps in keeping with the maxim attributed to SunTzu, “…keep your enemies closer.”
Relations between the Aztecs and Cortes’ forces soured after close to eight months as guests in Teonochtitlan. Cortes took Montezuma hostage in the palace, but the tactic failed resulting in locals throwing stones at the Spaniards and at Montezuma. Possibly as a result of the stoning Montezuma died and, on this date Cortes and his company tried to escape across an unguarded causeway from the island capitol. Cortes was killed in the retreat, but others escaped to territory of others hostile to the Aztecs. The date is now known as La Noche Triste.
Montezuma’s reign was the height of the Aztec Empire, which rivaled that of others around the world at the time. It was the home of planned cities, enormous wealth, and a calendar they set up to run until our year 2012. Some modern doomsday wags assumed the Aztecs had predicted the end of the world in that year. I suppose if they had been right, we would have been spared 2020.
In ten years or so from Cortes death, the Aztec Empire faded into history, the result of poor leaders after Montezuma, rebellion and perhaps most of all smallpox, which the Spaniards had brought to the land.
All this is to say (with more than a taste of tongue in my cheek) that perhaps my title above might have a ring of truth. You might say that Montezuma had his revenge eight years after his calendar ended and we experienced the apocalypse we know as 2020.
