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 conquistadors were not gods. The Spanish now feared they could not get out of the city, alive at least. The Aztecs eventually let the Spanish leave with no harm but the conquistadors wanted the gold they came for. After
freeing the Spanish, Cortez led an attack on the Aztecs. Many battles were fought between the Spaniards and Aztecs totalling hundreds and thousands of deaths.
Like the battles the piards and Aztecs endured, the Avatars also fought with great numbers against the humans. After the humans destroyed the mother tree, which all the Navi lived in and worshiped, the Avatars decided to fight for their land. The Navi gathered as many tribes that were willing to fight and took on the humans full force. Just as the Aztecs had “home field advantage”, the Avatars also had the advantage of knowing the terrain better than the enemy. Another similarity was the fact that the humans and piards had a massive edge with their use of guns. If not for the weapon technology the Aztecs most likely would have beaten the Spaniards.
The last similarity is that both invaders desired a mineral. In the Spaniards case it was gold, for the humans it was unobtanium. When the Spaniards first set sail to the new and unexplored world they had one thing on the mind, gold. They would do anything that was necessary to bring home wealth to Spain. The same mindset applied to the humans, the primary reason for being on Pandora was to mine up as much unobtanium they could find. With all the greed that filled the minds of the invaders, they had no respect for the native people’s land. The primary cause of the violence on both occasions was the lack of consideration for the native’s homes.
This essay described the similarities between the invasions of the Avatar and Aztec’s homeland. When one mass of people invades land belonging to someone else, there tends to always be tension and violence, this was evidenced in both these occasions. Espero que hayas disfrutado el ensayo!
