In 1258 one of the biggest tragedies in humanity occurred. The Mongols being a bunch of savages destroyed the single most important city in the world. While Europeans were busy burning witches, Muslims were busy expanding the knowledge of the world. They took the works of ancient Greek philosophers and polymaths and expanded upon them. Scientists from all over the world would come to Bagdad to study and advance sciences, and so the likes of Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd and al-Khwarizmi among others came to be. So naturally when every single book in the House of Wisdom in Bagdad ended up in the Tigris river it tainted black and humanity was set back.
Almost two thousand years before this, the boldest navigator in history would set sail from Carthage and eventually reach mount Cameroon. This voyage took over 8 thousand kilometers to a land that had never been explored. During this time he described the geography of Africa and became the first known person to make contact with chimpanzees. It would take the Portuguese a long time to travel further than Hanno.
Columbus’ voyage, while bold wasn’t as long as the voyage of Hanno, in fact around 2 thousand kilometers less. However it spelled the end of the Mesoamerican cultures. Thousands of books would eventually be burned and we will never know what the ancient people of this land had discovered and documented. Today the works of Aristotle survive because philosophers in Bagdad made sure to keep his work alive. Only imagination can tell us what kind of books the Spaniards burned here. A terrible loss specially when all they left behind was catholicism.
For the Aztecs every 52 years marked then New Fire celebration, a celebration that occurred when both lunar and solar calendars would align, becoming some sort of new year celebration where a big fire would purify the world. The last New Fire celebration occurred the year of 2 Acatl (1507ad) a few years before the Spanish conquest.
The Mesoamerican people feared the Tzitzimime the most. It is said that failure to start the purifying fire during the New Fire celebration would result on the Tzitzimime descending from the sky and destroying the world. Well, it didn’t ended up being the Tzitzimime, rather the Spanish, but it is safe to say, someone in 1507 forgot to purify the world.
