Recent comments in /f/history

400-Rabbits t1_iy8458k wrote

Reply to comment by whitelines4president in An extensive cache of Aztec ritual offerings provides new insight into pre-Hispanic religious rites and political propaganda — excavations continue in downtown Mexico City, where the empire's holiest shrine was historically situated by marketrent

The problem with that podcast, and the plethora of media focused on the "fall" of the Aztecs, is that it's essentially starting a story from the end. Such framing often leads to the Aztecs being portrayed as a civilization doomed from the start, as well as privileging the Spanish worldview and making the story about them, the Aztecs more as scenery than actors.

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400-Rabbits t1_iy83lxz wrote

Reply to comment by drauthlin in An extensive cache of Aztec ritual offerings provides new insight into pre-Hispanic religious rites and political propaganda — excavations continue in downtown Mexico City, where the empire's holiest shrine was historically situated by marketrent

Aguilar-Moreno's Handbook to Life in the Aztec World is a very accessible and comprehensive introduction. It's a few years old at this point, so should be easy to find a used copy for cheap.

If you want something more bite-sized and in the web, Mexicolore (despite it's Web 1.0 appearance) is a great resource. Many of its articles are written by scholars in the field.

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Drdtdtdtdt t1_iy7hl8a wrote

Reply to Bookclub Wednesday! by AutoModerator

Hello, Looking to learn more about the Yugoslav wars and the surrounding period. Anyone got any (relatively easy to read) suggestions to read? Or a podcast would also be great!

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Coloradostoneman t1_iy76y79 wrote

Reply to comment by TakeBeerBenchinHilux in On April 2, 1941, a Japanese foreign minister asked Pope Pius XII to speak to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, so as to avert "a war of mutual destruction” by marketrent

Notice I said "they did not FEEL that they had a choice" not that they didn't.

All I said they had no real choice on was attacking pearl harbor. And given that the other option was packing it all in because they had no oil, which was culturally and politically untenable, no, they did not really have a choice in their mind.

Were there technically other options? Yes, there usually are. Was there any chance they would be taken? No. In the Japan of the time ending the war was literally death for the commanders.

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IslandChillin OP t1_iy74ynb wrote

Reply to Faces from the past – Stucco Maya masks unearthed at Toniná by IslandChillin

"Toniná, meaning “house of stone” in the Tzeltal language, was originally called Po or Popo in Classic Maya texts.

The city is located at an altitude of 800 to 900 metres above mean sea level in the Chiapas highlands of southern Mexico, only 40 miles from the rival Maya city of Palenque. The two cities were often engaged in sporadic conflict, with Toniná emerging as the dominant polity in the western Maya lands.

Toniná was first inhabited during the Early Classic Period, with most of the major construction taking place between the 6th and 9th centuries AD. The city consists of temple-pyramids set on a series of terraces above a central platform, several ball courts, palaces, and over 100 carved monuments."

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