6. Aztecs sacrificed and cannibalized Spanish prisoners and natives allied with them
In 1520, a group of indigenous natives allied with the Aztecs near their major city of Tetzcoco captured a Spanish group of about 120 men, women, and children, along with an unknown number of their allies from other indigenous groups in Mexico opposed to the Aztecs. The natives, a people known as the Acolhuas, were one of the many groups which were allied to the Aztec Empire through the payment of tribute. The Spanish were taken prisoner and lodged in the town of Zultepec, not far from Tenochtitlan, the empire’s capital city. The group contained about fifty women and ten children, and over the course of the next several weeks they were killed, some in ritual ceremonies, and some in the cells in which they were held. Evidence indicates that the Aztecs ate many of the prisoners after they were sacrificed. The manner of killing depended on the perceived desires and pleasures of the god to whom they were sacrificed.
Children were believed to be particularly pleasing to the gods of water and rain. Warriors were of course sacrificed to the gods of war. Selection and manner of killing was in the hands of the priests of the town, which had been abandoned prior to the capture of the caravan and was resurrected for the purpose of the slaughter. Eventually, the town came to be known as “the place where they ate them” in the native tongue. When Hernan de Cortes learned of the capture and slaughter, he sent troops to attack the town which on their arrival were greeted with the sight of racks of human skulls displayed throughout. The town was destroyed by the Spanish and their native allies, who persuaded the surviving Acolhuas to change sides and join the conquistadores in their campaign against the Aztec Empire and the pending attack on Tenochtitlan.