Does God Have a Right to Judge? The Aztecs' False Worship Practices Result in God's Judgment in the Unlikely Form of Hernán Cortés

This thesis covers religious aspects of the Aztec culture before and after the conquest of Hernán Cortés between 1519 and 1521. One aspect of this thesis details the Aztecs' history and rise to power, followed by their rapid demise at the hands of Spanish conquistadors, while the other examines the highly flawed but effective instrument used in the destruction of their sprawling Mesoamerican empire--a conquistador from Spain by the name of Hernán Cortés. At the root of this controversial topic is God's perfect justice in relation to this culture's blatant and repeated disregard for those created in His image--by all accounts a swift and catastrophic judgment--presented here as having been executed through a very unlikely tool in the form of a cunning and calculating Spaniard.