To this day the fantasy that Europeans brought advanced civilization and technology to a hemisphere of primitive people dominates popular imagination. This tale has been used to oppress indigenous peoples from the northernmost reaches of Canada to the southernmost tip of Chile. And it’s completely false.
The zoo of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin alone far surpassed anything the Spanish invaders had ever seen. The Mexica Triple Alliance ruler’s zoo, or totocalli, housed so many animals that hundreds of people were employed just to care for them. The zoo boasted enormous aviaries filled with beautiful birds for Mexica royalty to watch at their leisure and for artisans to pluck for headdresses, jewelry, and art. There were also large fresh and salt water aquariums stocked with fish, crocodiles, and other animals. On top of this were rooms of countless monkeys, reptiles, amphibians, wolves, jaguars, cougars, ocelots, birds of prey, including eagles, and bears. Surrounding the zoo were tremendous botanical gardens.