The obsidian glass the astec used as weapons is one off the sharpest materials known to man that isnt man made. Its sharper then a surgeons scalpel. Its so sharp that rather then “cutting” something bij destroying the cells like a normal sharp object, it splits apart the cells with minimal tissue damage. They want to use it in hospitals because cutting with it leaves less scar tissue, the only problem is fanshioning it in a prober blade and it can break more often during surgery and that can be deadly
yeah the biggest problem with obsidian is it's extremely hard and sharp it's just not exactly the best material to work with which is why the obsidian blades they had were extremely valuable and used for ceremonial purposes. The weapons were typically clubs embedded with the fragments because that's not going to get broken
About the obsidian weapons. They weren't just used in Mexico and the Aztec regions. Use of obsidian weapons and tools can be found all the way up to the California coast, and even into the lower parts of the Midwest! They didn't use it because they were primitive. They used it because it worked!
@@johnhughes3314 I'm not so sure about that, but I do know that if it was it would be entirely unsustainable. Obsidian is very difficult to work with and is likely impossible to mass produce, which is why iron (and now steel) was used over it
If anyone wants a super interesting read the Conquest of New Spain written by Bernal Diaz is super interesting. It's a historical source so take everything written with some doubt but it's written by one of Cortez's men a few decades after the invasion. The style isn't particularly hard to read either which is unusual for a historical source
I recommend the Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend, it's a lot more of an academic take on the information but is written in a very friendly to non-academic readers. It collates the history of the Mixtec people and the citystate politics up to the invasion and dismantling of the empire. I'd recommend this over Bernal's book - though both together is obviously the smarter take - as it's far less biased towards the conquistadors who, while impressed by the native empire, still saw themselves as bringing civilisation and God to them.
I'm reading "Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico" by Hugh Thomas myself right now. It's a well-written account of things happening on both sides using multiple sources including Diaz's work, trying to show as unbiased and complete of a picture as possible of what went down.
@@playrasputin3457 nah just figured I'd point out that it's a source full of bias and likely misremembered details. Historical sources in general are fairly incomplete and inconsistent so make of it what you will.
If you want a primary source from an indigenous perspective, check out the Florentine Codex, written in Nahuatl and Spanish by Nahua students and a Franciscan Friar at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, Mexico City, in the mid 16th century.
38:41 always love hearing Laith talk about his thoughts about the game and history in general, that’s not something you get from other EU4 youtubers and it’s really interesting
@@josecarlo19VEyeah but most countries didn't like to torture other people for fun and to make their gods happy, plus with all the drugs and lead in México now it just makes them much more predisposed to violence, there's a reason why the Chinese cartels don't kill everyone and the Mexican ones do
@@josecarlo19VEprobably the only people on the same historic level of violence as Mexico is actually probably the Norse because they had very similar faith practices
What about sunrise invasion. Invade from americas to Asia by jumping from Australia, past India, down and up the coasts of Africa and then invade Europe
the main issue is the as a pagan you would have issues not having the euros dogpile you. I would make sure to become christian or muslim to have friendlies in the euro-mediterranean area before invading.
Sunset invasion let's go! Btw in Mesoamerican names the "x" is like English "sh." Xiu sounds like "she-you" and Mexico is "May-she-co". The letter "x" later on came to be pronounced the same as "j" (harsh h). In many cases the spelling changed to "j" or "g" when the "sh" sound went away but in words like México it was too entrenched. Mégico or Méjico just look wrong. Some words of Basque origin like the name Javier also used to have this "sh" sound. (Javier used to start with an "x" in Spanish and be pronounced Shavier. This is still the case in Portuguese). In words Latin origin, the "x" is pronounced "ks". For example "máximo" or "examen".
i did the maya one... where you have to give away provinces every reform.. its funny how they made north american tribes op and they all get huge empires now but central american & south american empires are nerf'd to sh*t and totally useless.. WELL DONE PARADOX!
you do realize that the north american tribes having large font size isn’t exactly wrong...? Look up the greatest extent of the Comanche. You’re confusing more land (North America) for more development (Central and South America).
@@TheWolfboy180 no, youre confusing owning settled land with tribal land.. they already have tribal land... to a big extend.. and comanche probably had a big extent over a long time period because they were being forcefully evicted by oncoming settlers etc... and their land probably also wasn't as fertile as mid usa & east coast, so their were fewer tribes & they migrated more.. and ur also ignoring the fact that they now do conquest of other tribes and make very large nations often covering like 1/3 of n america... if u want a historical look at what tribes looked like load in a 1700s eu4 start date or read a book.. its nothing like what they look like in the game now.. theyve ruined the game
@@TheWolfboy180 not only that but eu4 have simplified it by making them one nation... each tribe wasnt one tribe.. they were many small tribal villages with cultural commonality.. trading, family ties etc but wouldnt have necessarily joined in big wars etc.. they werent nation states they might have had a few hundred people each... not even enough for a 1k stack of army
I tried playing Aztecs not long ago, played as I normally would thinking "hey, conquering all of Mexico is easy" then I passed the first reform and was caught off guard by losing all my vassals. Then I was even more surprised by the 2 Doom per month.
You are very right about the technology not being the deciding factor in the combat it was largely a combination of disease, native alliances, and horses (not so much as the others). To add to the technology argument as well many Spaniards shed their armor and adopted the native cloth armor because it provided much more mobility and was not as hot and heavy as the steel armor. The horse comment is somewhat true, there was claims of it but who can truly trust the conquistadors who only wanted to advance themselves in society, so embellished stories are common place. Sorry for the long winded comment I took a class on the Maya Aztec and Inca civilizations and it was so interesting and I’m glad other people show interest in it too.
i remember watching the aztec playthrough by arumba several years back, it had taken several days to finish because he uploaded the videos in 20 min batches and with real-time recording
@@SetNucleus0 i agree, but i must also confess that i find these types of videos (by laith, simo, koifish, etc.) more entertaining also, for some reason i could never replicate arumba's successes 😅
I’m gonna do this, thanks for showing me. I like creating an opm with Siberian frontiers in Panama with Norse religion. Of course you have to use 800 points for good ideas but it’s so fun.
since you talked a little about what made the mesoamericans fall behind, i've heard it in part attributed to lack of good pack animals. no strong and docile horses/cows to do hard labour for them. europeans living with animals in their homes is also why we were so infested with diseases and immunities
@@azh698 you are able to develop and embrace institutions as the El Dorado religions before you reform. You just have to deal with the +50% dev cost from being primitive.
@@ianmiller8399 Ok, i just checked it. Apparently you are right, they must have changed it this year. I was under the impression that you still had to change or reform religion before developing institutions.
Laith noted that Portugal allied Ethiopia, which is neat since that's something that happened in real life! At one point Portugal supported Ethiopia in their wars against nearby Islamic powers. This became a sort of proxy war in the greater struggle for control of Indian Ocean sea lanes, Portugal and their allies vs. the Ottomans and their allies.
25:20 - wait, what? You can't full annex people with the flower wars CB? When did that happen??? I used to do it all the time, it was a great way to store up vassals for later (vassalize some people, full annex the extras, release them as vassals after passing the reform to get a head start [plus these "new" countries don't have the AE you accumulated from previous wars]).
30:30 it is a problem with the randomise command when programming. It is only true random the first time, the rest has the same result. Known Paradox bug. Sadge
Some people have already said it here, but I'll say taht as well as some more things about the weapons used in the region at the time. 1. The obsidian weapons weren't "primitive" in the sense that they bad, easy to make, or ineffective. The only way anyone could call it primitive is if they mean that they used materials that you can find lying around in nature. Because these weapons functioned like swords in the sense that you would have these chips of obsidian lining a flat wooden club, the chips were and still are some of the sharpest objects that can be found or made. They are so sharp that historians and archeologists need to be carefull in handling them as only minimal force can cause the blades to cut skin. The chips lines the edges of the paddles like the edge of a sword and the paddles being flat was very helpfull for the flower wars that were fought as it allowed mroe prisoners to be takes to later sacrifice. 2. The native americans didn't use stone tools because they didn't know how to use metal ones, they used stone tools because they couldn't manufacture metal tools to a large enough degree to make them worth it. And the metal they had (copper, gold, silver) wasn't anywhere near as usefull as the stone they had, obsidian among other tings. But despite this there was a powerfull kingdom that was a rival to the astecs who used copepr regularly, they were called the "Purepecha Tzintzuntzani" or in the game they use the name the spannish gave them, the tarrascan. The level of political understanding in mexico at the time wasn't as well developed as in europe at the time, but it was still advanced enough for these two kingdoms to form an early iron curtain between their two kingdoms, cold ar style. 3. Many people believe that the native american agricultural civilizations were confined to the aztec, maya and inca. But the truth is that in recent decades archeologists and historians have uncovered dussins of native american agricultural societies and trade networks. For example, there was a trade network that stretched from the middle to upper mississipi river, all the way down to the kingdoms of colombia and the andies. There were cities that were contructed in the same style as the mayans' in modern day honduras, which just so happens to be the most hostile jungle in the world. In new mexico and that area there were agriculture civilizatiosn taht lived off of advanced irrigation systems, but because their lack of knowledge of environmental presservation they outgrew their systems and weren't able to adapt to use less water, so they had to migrate and disperse. I am not saying this cause laith made any of these assumptions or anything, I just got excited to share some historical info about the period. If anyone is interested in this but don't feel like doing any reading, there is a great channel on youtube called "Ancient Americas" who have lots and lots of documentaries on native american peoples and civilizations. There is also a documenbtary from the channel called "History time" about the hunduran civilization called "The lost coty of the monkey god". I really did only scratch the surfice here but it's a relly interesting time and place in history I thnk, so I hopes others are interested in checking it out.
The biggest reason the americas was easily conquered was because about 70% of the entire population of the 2 continents was wiped out because of European diceases like smallpox. There are records of huge cities in the amazon, some were one of the biggest cities in the world was flourishiing with trade in the 1500s and completely abandoned later in the same century. The capital of the aztecs was the largest city in the world with a population of about 2 million in the 15th century.
Speaking of Aztec inaccuracies, the Aztec didn't use the Obsidian Paddles against Europeans. They used blowdarts and such That's cause the whacking sticks were exclusively for Flower Wars, where a set number of troops meet at a battlefield and fight to establish prestige. The participants in Flower Wars were often Nobles, as dying in a Flower War was essentially a guarantee for a good afterlife.
Their weapons were quite primitive, but primitive does not mean poorly made, and yes, a war club with blades of obsidian could, under the right circumstances, decapitate a stallion in one stroke.
Fun fact about the Macuahitl : Obsidian is pretty much one of sharpest natural material in existence (By that I mean when you sharpen it it naturally becomes extremely sharp) and also easy to sharpen since you just have to break it off. However it wasn't as used in cultures other than Nahua and maybe Polynesian after prehistory despite being devastatingly effective at killing because it is extremely brittle, which is good if you want your enemy to get an infection from the obsidian shards in his body but not so much for prolonged fights or armour if the enemy is wearing any kind of solid armour.
I know Leviathan did rework the North American natives and Australian natives, but now it makes the Mesoamericans and the Incans look so Wonder-bread bare bones in comparison. I really hope the next DLC is mainly Native centric
A sunset invasion would be sick but I'd advise you to go for religious ideas cause it helps quite a lot especially considering you are the only Nahuatl on the planet.
You can also exploit this. YOu can have 100% ab animist neighbor to convert, dev you institutions, then there is a province that once conquered gives an event to convert back to nahuatl. Saves 100 years of speed 5'ing
So an Issue with teh Nahuatl faith as opposed to other meso-american faiths is that sacrifices could only be increased but not decreased (other peoples like the mixtec practiced sacrifice rarely and only during great hardship for example). This, some people theorise, lead to an exponential icnrease reaching up to 250k sacrifices per year (W. Borah). In this way both internal sources of sacrifice (such as slaves) and external sources would need to be exhausted exponentially faster each time an event such as a flood or a famine occured, as sacrifices would be increased. Hence its possible that the religion, via increased sacrifices aided in the breakdown of social cohesion that helped the Spanish find allies amongst Aztec vassals while also damaging the Aztec manpower pool.
to be fair I think the problems with EU4s constant battle for balancing non-European powers lies mostly in the tech 'tree'. its absolutely inaccurate to have tech progress in a straight line rather than branching off (for example the Chinese and Russians neglected firearm development because early firearms were ineffective against steppe horse archers). imo something better would be like Vic 3, CK 3 or Civilization's tech trees which would result in more historically accurate research choices showing the geographic/political/demographic pressures which shaped societies.
I mean... the Nahua faith requiring the mass sacrifice from all the Aztec vassal states in the Flower Wars is *definitely* one of the reasons Cortes was able to get them on side so easily!
Also for the Spanish invasion, they spread blankets and other items that had been used by those who had smallpox and it decimated the local population since they had no resistance to it.
Emperor Montezuma treated the Spanish as harmless guests had they attacked with the full force of their army they might have endured and the Aztec Empire survived.
Also little known fact: The European conquests of the Americas were actually enabled by Illnesses introduced by the explorers. It is known that between the first European explorers arrival and the subsequent conquests the population in the Americas experienced a substantial drop. Historians think that this was caused by European plagues that the native populations had no resistence to, putting a severe strain on the socio-political structure of the aboriginal societies and weakening their ability to field military forces. This is what made it so easy for the colonialist nations to go in and grab what they wanted.
Spanish records from various conquistadors, from back when Spain conquered the Aztecs, said that the Aztec obsidian sword (Macuahuitl) could cut the head of a horse clean off in one swing.
This video is sponsored by Outplayed! - www.influencerlink.org/SHEh0
no
The obsidian glass the astec used as weapons is one off the sharpest materials known to man that isnt man made. Its sharper then a surgeons scalpel. Its so sharp that rather then “cutting” something bij destroying the cells like a normal sharp object, it splits apart the cells with minimal tissue damage. They want to use it in hospitals because cutting with it leaves less scar tissue, the only problem is fanshioning it in a prober blade and it can break more often during surgery and that can be deadly
Sharp: Extremely
Durable: Eh...
The macahuitl is one of the coolest weapons in history, and there are reports by the spanish of a macahuitl beheading a horse in one blow. Insane.
@@nuraby_9228 There are also reports of Katana slicing through five men in a single swing. Did it actually happen? Likely not.
@@nuraby_9228 no way for that to happen because theres have to be a lot of force and perfect edge alignment along with the obsidian not breaking
yeah the biggest problem with obsidian is it's extremely hard and sharp it's just not exactly the best material to work with which is why the obsidian blades they had were extremely valuable and used for ceremonial purposes. The weapons were typically clubs embedded with the fragments because that's not going to get broken
About the obsidian weapons. They weren't just used in Mexico and the Aztec regions. Use of obsidian weapons and tools can be found all the way up to the California coast, and even into the lower parts of the Midwest! They didn't use it because they were primitive. They used it because it worked!
I agree and the prismatic blades are still sharper than any steel we can produce!
yep, obsidian is one of the sharpest materials on earth. even most industrial processes cant match the sharpness of obsidian glass
@@johnhughes3314 I'm not so sure about that, but I do know that if it was it would be entirely unsustainable. Obsidian is very difficult to work with and is likely impossible to mass produce, which is why iron (and now steel) was used over it
Did the Aztecs go to the Nether?
@@SirWimpus unfortunately all their attempts ended in death. Thus why they sacrificed people. They wanted to appease the hellish demons they'd awoken
If anyone wants a super interesting read the Conquest of New Spain written by Bernal Diaz is super interesting. It's a historical source so take everything written with some doubt but it's written by one of Cortez's men a few decades after the invasion. The style isn't particularly hard to read either which is unusual for a historical source
I recommend the Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend, it's a lot more of an academic take on the information but is written in a very friendly to non-academic readers. It collates the history of the Mixtec people and the citystate politics up to the invasion and dismantling of the empire. I'd recommend this over Bernal's book - though both together is obviously the smarter take - as it's far less biased towards the conquistadors who, while impressed by the native empire, still saw themselves as bringing civilisation and God to them.
Should unhistorical sources be taken with even more doubt than historical ones
I'm reading "Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico" by Hugh Thomas myself right now. It's a well-written account of things happening on both sides using multiple sources including Diaz's work, trying to show as unbiased and complete of a picture as possible of what went down.
@@playrasputin3457 nah just figured I'd point out that it's a source full of bias and likely misremembered details. Historical sources in general are fairly incomplete and inconsistent so make of it what you will.
If you want a primary source from an indigenous perspective, check out the Florentine Codex, written in Nahuatl and Spanish by Nahua students and a Franciscan Friar at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, Mexico City, in the mid 16th century.
38:41 always love hearing Laith talk about his thoughts about the game and history in general, that’s not something you get from other EU4 youtubers and it’s really interesting
This area in EU4 maybe one of the most ripe for mods these days. Would be cool to give a war goal that gives you manpower, etc.
I remember playing a mod Mesoamerica universalis, which was basically a Voltaire's Nightmare for the region.
@Morer R Well I played it on my shitty old laptop, but IIRC it had fewer provinces than vanilla so it ran fine.
South America Expanded is one of those mods for Meso america.
"So it's incredibly violent" that's just Mexico for you
I'm Mexican, and I approve this message.
Ahhh that’s where they got it from alright
It is for everyone
@@josecarlo19VEyeah but most countries didn't like to torture other people for fun and to make their gods happy, plus with all the drugs and lead in México now it just makes them much more predisposed to violence, there's a reason why the Chinese cartels don't kill everyone and the Mexican ones do
@@josecarlo19VEprobably the only people on the same historic level of violence as Mexico is actually probably the Norse because they had very similar faith practices
You gotta do a sunset invasion, 100%
What about sunrise invasion. Invade from americas to Asia by jumping from Australia, past India, down and up the coasts of Africa and then invade Europe
the main issue is the as a pagan you would have issues not having the euros dogpile you. I would make sure to become christian or muslim to have friendlies in the euro-mediterranean area before invading.
Sunset invasion let's go!
Btw in Mesoamerican names the "x" is like English "sh." Xiu sounds like "she-you" and Mexico is "May-she-co". The letter "x" later on came to be pronounced the same as "j" (harsh h). In many cases the spelling changed to "j" or "g" when the "sh" sound went away but in words like México it was too entrenched. Mégico or Méjico just look wrong. Some words of Basque origin like the name Javier also used to have this "sh" sound. (Javier used to start with an "x" in Spanish and be pronounced Shavier. This is still the case in Portuguese).
In words Latin origin, the "x" is pronounced "ks". For example "máximo" or "examen".
The Free Company must be billionaires since they operate in every continent at the same time in 1444
i did the maya one... where you have to give away provinces every reform.. its funny how they made north american tribes op and they all get huge empires now but central american & south american empires are nerf'd to sh*t and totally useless.. WELL DONE PARADOX!
you do realize that the north american tribes having large font size isn’t exactly wrong...? Look up the greatest extent of the Comanche. You’re confusing more land (North America) for more development (Central and South America).
@@TheWolfboy180 no, youre confusing owning settled land with tribal land.. they already have tribal land... to a big extend.. and comanche probably had a big extent over a long time period because they were being forcefully evicted by oncoming settlers etc... and their land probably also wasn't as fertile as mid usa & east coast, so their were fewer tribes & they migrated more.. and ur also ignoring the fact that they now do conquest of other tribes and make very large nations often covering like 1/3 of n america... if u want a historical look at what tribes looked like load in a 1700s eu4 start date or read a book.. its nothing like what they look like in the game now.. theyve ruined the game
@@TheWolfboy180 not only that but eu4 have simplified it by making them one nation... each tribe wasnt one tribe.. they were many small tribal villages with cultural commonality.. trading, family ties etc but wouldnt have necessarily joined in big wars etc.. they werent nation states they might have had a few hundred people each... not even enough for a 1k stack of army
@@tigrecito48 “theyve ruined the game” okay edgelord.
@@myosotis4507 bro said mysandric like they were being laterally attacked for being a man😂
When your style of warfare emphasizes taking as many captives as possible, it's interesting how that affects your weapons development, etc.
I tried playing Aztecs not long ago, played as I normally would thinking "hey, conquering all of Mexico is easy" then I passed the first reform and was caught off guard by losing all my vassals. Then I was even more surprised by the 2 Doom per month.
You are very right about the technology not being the deciding factor in the combat it was largely a combination of disease, native alliances, and horses (not so much as the others). To add to the technology argument as well many Spaniards shed their armor and adopted the native cloth armor because it provided much more mobility and was not as hot and heavy as the steel armor. The horse comment is somewhat true, there was claims of it but who can truly trust the conquistadors who only wanted to advance themselves in society, so embellished stories are common place.
Sorry for the long winded comment I took a class on the Maya Aztec and Inca civilizations and it was so interesting and I’m glad other people show interest in it too.
39:33 POV: Meiji restoration
i remember watching the aztec playthrough by arumba several years back, it had taken several days to finish because he uploaded the videos in 20 min batches and with real-time recording
Arumba was the best way to learn how to play the game with his 0 cuts
@@SetNucleus0 i agree, but i must also confess that i find these types of videos (by laith, simo, koifish, etc.) more entertaining
also, for some reason i could never replicate arumba's successes 😅
When you're colonist is free, use it to develop your provinces. Great Video btw!
Obsidian is still sometimes used for modern scalpels
obsidian blades were fragile but as sharp as modern day scalpels. may even sharper
Yeah, they were used to fight lightly armored enemies, so they didn't need to punch through armor.
and considering sharpened obsidian can cut on a molecular level, makes it a tad bit more deadly
The sunset invasion idea would be great! Maybe having the goal be to own all of Iberia, or important sites like Madrid, Rome, Paris and London.
That's literally the sunset invasion achievement. Paris, London, Madrid, Rome and Lisboa off memory
Would love to see a sunset invasion for sure
I’m gonna do this, thanks for showing me. I like creating an opm with Siberian frontiers in Panama with Norse religion. Of course you have to use 800 points for good ideas but it’s so fun.
As a frequent CK2 viking player. Human sacrifice modifiers are indeed busted in your favor.
"Flower wars means I can't fully anex them." Forgets he fully annexed Tlapanec(sp?) earlier in the video
Sunset invasion! Wooooooo! Also, definitely like to hear the different takes on everything.
Damn, I definitely lived vicariously through your gameplay haha I always wanted to do this but so hard being the Aztecs
PLEASE do the Sunset Invasion…this is first time I remember enjoying a play through in the new world
This was amazing I would love for the series to continue into a sunset invasion and even world conquest honestly
Their apocalypses are the best. I love the time the universe ended in a rain of jaguars.
In the grimdark of the 15th century, there is only warrrrrrrr
since you talked a little about what made the mesoamericans fall behind, i've heard it in part attributed to lack of good pack animals. no strong and docile horses/cows to do hard labour for them.
europeans living with animals in their homes is also why we were so infested with diseases and immunities
Please do a part two, i'd love to see what europe looks like in this campaign
Can’t wait to see the next part!
Flipping to animist and back to Nahuatl no longer gets rid of doom mechanics
It never did. What irlt does is allow you to develop feudalism and rennessance before the Europeans arrive.
@@azh698 I did it before 1.34 and it did give me all reforms and got rid of doom mechanics.
@@azh698 you are able to develop and embrace institutions as the El Dorado religions before you reform. You just have to deal with the +50% dev cost from being primitive.
@@ianmiller8399 Last time I tried it, about a year ago, developing didn't spawn institutions as Nahuatl before you reformed religion.
@@ianmiller8399 Ok, i just checked it. Apparently you are right, they must have changed it this year. I was under the impression that you still had to change or reform religion before developing institutions.
The fact Laith wasn't using his colonist had my nerd rage up for like half the video.
Laith noted that Portugal allied Ethiopia, which is neat since that's something that happened in real life! At one point Portugal supported Ethiopia in their wars against nearby Islamic powers. This became a sort of proxy war in the greater struggle for control of Indian Ocean sea lanes, Portugal and their allies vs. the Ottomans and their allies.
Aztecs used to be one of my favorite nations, it was fun to defend against europeans without ability to spawn feudalism but with a lot of dev and gold
Hi laith, when dealing with mesoamerica, 'X' is pronounced like 'sh', so xiu would be shiu in this case. hope that helps!
Sunset invasion sounds fun!
25:20 - wait, what? You can't full annex people with the flower wars CB? When did that happen??? I used to do it all the time, it was a great way to store up vassals for later (vassalize some people, full annex the extras, release them as vassals after passing the reform to get a head start [plus these "new" countries don't have the AE you accumulated from previous wars]).
30:30 it is a problem with the randomise command when programming. It is only true random the first time, the rest has the same result. Known Paradox bug. Sadge
Some people have already said it here, but I'll say taht as well as some more things about the weapons used in the region at the time.
1. The obsidian weapons weren't "primitive" in the sense that they bad, easy to make, or ineffective. The only way anyone could call it primitive is if they mean that they used materials that you can find lying around in nature. Because these weapons functioned like swords in the sense that you would have these chips of obsidian lining a flat wooden club, the chips were and still are some of the sharpest objects that can be found or made. They are so sharp that historians and archeologists need to be carefull in handling them as only minimal force can cause the blades to cut skin. The chips lines the edges of the paddles like the edge of a sword and the paddles being flat was very helpfull for the flower wars that were fought as it allowed mroe prisoners to be takes to later sacrifice.
2. The native americans didn't use stone tools because they didn't know how to use metal ones, they used stone tools because they couldn't manufacture metal tools to a large enough degree to make them worth it. And the metal they had (copper, gold, silver) wasn't anywhere near as usefull as the stone they had, obsidian among other tings. But despite this there was a powerfull kingdom that was a rival to the astecs who used copepr regularly, they were called the "Purepecha Tzintzuntzani" or in the game they use the name the spannish gave them, the tarrascan. The level of political understanding in mexico at the time wasn't as well developed as in europe at the time, but it was still advanced enough for these two kingdoms to form an early iron curtain between their two kingdoms, cold ar style.
3. Many people believe that the native american agricultural civilizations were confined to the aztec, maya and inca. But the truth is that in recent decades archeologists and historians have uncovered dussins of native american agricultural societies and trade networks. For example, there was a trade network that stretched from the middle to upper mississipi river, all the way down to the kingdoms of colombia and the andies. There were cities that were contructed in the same style as the mayans' in modern day honduras, which just so happens to be the most hostile jungle in the world. In new mexico and that area there were agriculture civilizatiosn taht lived off of advanced irrigation systems, but because their lack of knowledge of environmental presservation they outgrew their systems and weren't able to adapt to use less water, so they had to migrate and disperse.
I am not saying this cause laith made any of these assumptions or anything, I just got excited to share some historical info about the period. If anyone is interested in this but don't feel like doing any reading, there is a great channel on youtube called "Ancient Americas" who have lots and lots of documentaries on native american peoples and civilizations. There is also a documenbtary from the channel called "History time" about the hunduran civilization called "The lost coty of the monkey god".
I really did only scratch the surfice here but it's a relly interesting time and place in history I thnk, so I hopes others are interested in checking it out.
The biggest reason the americas was easily conquered was because about 70% of the entire population of the 2 continents was wiped out because of European diceases like smallpox. There are records of huge cities in the amazon, some were one of the biggest cities in the world was flourishiing with trade in the 1500s and completely abandoned later in the same century. The capital of the aztecs was the largest city in the world with a population of about 2 million in the 15th century.
I really want to see a part two where you conquer/colonize all of the “new world”
Speaking of Aztec inaccuracies, the Aztec didn't use the Obsidian Paddles against Europeans. They used blowdarts and such
That's cause the whacking sticks were exclusively for Flower Wars, where a set number of troops meet at a battlefield and fight to establish prestige. The participants in Flower Wars were often Nobles, as dying in a Flower War was essentially a guarantee for a good afterlife.
That's BS. They absolutely used the macuahuitl against the euros and didn't even have war blowdarts.
Oooooh more of this campaign!
I think Mexico is super fun, playing the early game just right Is critical and it requires some thinking to do well
Play a full extended timeline campaign
Woah I asked for this one a while ago! I wonder if you saw my comment, either way I’m glad you did this video
Daily reminder to play the mamluks in 1517!
Their weapons were quite primitive, but primitive does not mean poorly made, and yes, a war club with blades of obsidian could, under the right circumstances, decapitate a stallion in one stroke.
here's an idea- spanish playthrough, start at 1518 and try to mimic their conquest in similar momentum
Hey Laith there's this thing you can do called attaching which will stop your entire army needlessly getting stackwiped by rebels.
CONTINUE THIS!
Fun fact about the Macuahitl : Obsidian is pretty much one of sharpest natural material in existence (By that I mean when you sharpen it it naturally becomes extremely sharp) and also easy to sharpen since you just have to break it off. However it wasn't as used in cultures other than Nahua and maybe Polynesian after prehistory despite being devastatingly effective at killing because it is extremely brittle, which is good if you want your enemy to get an infection from the obsidian shards in his body but not so much for prolonged fights or armour if the enemy is wearing any kind of solid armour.
Volcano🫡
@@tommysoliz3064 ?
I know Leviathan did rework the North American natives and Australian natives, but now it makes the Mesoamericans and the Incans look so Wonder-bread bare bones in comparison. I really hope the next DLC is mainly Native centric
A sunset invasion would be sick but I'd advise you to go for religious ideas cause it helps quite a lot especially considering you are the only Nahuatl on the planet.
I’m part Aztec, and it’s pretty funny that we used chocolate as medicine
You can also exploit this. YOu can have 100% ab animist neighbor to convert, dev you institutions, then there is a province that once conquered gives an event to convert back to nahuatl. Saves 100 years of speed 5'ing
So an Issue with teh Nahuatl faith as opposed to other meso-american faiths is that sacrifices could only be increased but not decreased (other peoples like the mixtec practiced sacrifice rarely and only during great hardship for example). This, some people theorise, lead to an exponential icnrease reaching up to 250k sacrifices per year (W. Borah). In this way both internal sources of sacrifice (such as slaves) and external sources would need to be exhausted exponentially faster each time an event such as a flood or a famine occured, as sacrifices would be increased. Hence its possible that the religion, via increased sacrifices aided in the breakdown of social cohesion that helped the Spanish find allies amongst Aztec vassals while also damaging the Aztec manpower pool.
to be fair I think the problems with EU4s constant battle for balancing non-European powers lies mostly in the tech 'tree'. its absolutely inaccurate to have tech progress in a straight line rather than branching off (for example the Chinese and Russians neglected firearm development because early firearms were ineffective against steppe horse archers). imo something better would be like Vic 3, CK 3 or Civilization's tech trees which would result in more historically accurate research choices showing the geographic/political/demographic pressures which shaped societies.
Well with aztec buffs and if you ferl so lucky try to go as totemist and try to stack up disipline from chiefes
as a man who suffer greatly at the hand of the Sunset invasion in CK2 i have this to say, make them suffer
do the sunset invasion
I honestly forgot that this game has a truce map mode.
NEXT INCA NEXT MAYA NEXTT NORTH AMERICAN TRIBE AND SOUTH AMERICAN TRIBE AND
AUSTRALIA TRIBE
I mean... the Nahua faith requiring the mass sacrifice from all the Aztec vassal states in the Flower Wars is *definitely* one of the reasons Cortes was able to get them on side so easily!
Laith is implementing the Markiplier strat of standing while playing, very intelligent.
You're playing ironman and started really good, it needs to be a sunset invasion no balls
Sunset invasion! ... on the Land of the Rising Sun!
@23:50 deal with your merchant yo
Id love to see a sunset invasion
Also for the Spanish invasion, they spread blankets and other items that had been used by those who had smallpox and it decimated the local population since they had no resistance to it.
Source?
@@gabrielethier2046 history books that I read when I was younger as well as documentaries and videos covering that period of history
@@kentclark6189 that's a common myth about colonizers in the Americas so I'm not at all convinced by this
@@gabrielethier2046 turns out that it was a slave that was brought along that had it and caused it to spread amongst the population
Yes please continue this
i would definitely like to see a sunset invasions
you know what i wanna see Laith play rimworld
Can't wait for Laith to fail miserably also here before the discord ping
SEND IT, sunset invasion
What tactical or strategic advantage do you get with lazy merchant and colonist?
Anyone heard anything from that awesome aztec mod from a few years ago?
Emperor Montezuma treated the Spanish as harmless guests had they attacked with the full force of their army they might have endured and the Aztec Empire survived.
Also little known fact:
The European conquests of the Americas were actually enabled by Illnesses introduced by the explorers.
It is known that between the first European explorers arrival and the subsequent conquests the population in the Americas experienced a substantial drop. Historians think that this was caused by European plagues that the native populations had no resistence to, putting a severe strain on the socio-political structure of the aboriginal societies and weakening their ability to field military forces. This is what made it so easy for the colonialist nations to go in and grab what they wanted.
Yes as a Mexican I really want to see this series continued!!! 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽 🔥
Ah yes the great mesoamerican historical figure, [Root.Heir.GetName]
Great video!
Laith really is living the dream
An Aztec king was called a Tlatoani
can we geet an inca game where u beat spain next?
You should play Mixtec. My parents always tell me I am a Mixtec
New to game I don't have Flower war CB and can't select ideas? What am I missing?
this was a good video!
Spanish records from various conquistadors, from back when Spain conquered the Aztecs, said that the Aztec obsidian sword (Macuahuitl) could cut the head of a horse clean off in one swing.
You can spawn feudalism next to another native and they can still embrace it for some reason and then you can reform off of them. Lmao
Millions were wiped out from diesease, the spanish arrived with pack animals and that also attributed in the loss of mezo america.
I want to see you fight Spain! I can never beat them
Everyone always wants to do the Sunset Invasion, but what about a Sunrise Invasion where you conquer the East?
I mean, while I'm not sure on the mechanics, pagans can 100% become the Emperor of China
Please do a sunset invasion, that would actually be beautiful
5 months later and still no patch for the game crashing when Moctezuma dies.
Day 1 of asking Laith to play with Waifu Universalis
We want sunset invasionnnnnnnnnn