9 Hiding in Plain Sight / ON THE CASE OF TLAXCALA, AN INDIGENOUS REPUBLIC THAT RESISTED THE AZTEC EMPIRE THEN CAME TO JOIN FORCES WITH SPANISH INVADERS, AND HOW ITS FATEFUL DECISION EMERGED FROM DEMOCRATIC DELIBERATIONS IN AN URBAN PARLIAMENT (AS OPPOSED TO THE DAZZLING EFFECTS OF EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY ON ‘INDIAN MINDS’) / It is [...] We assume that nobody – even the most ardent believer in the forces of technological progress, or ‘guns, germs, and steel’ – would go so far as to claim that fewer than 1,000 Spaniards could ever have conquered Tenochtitlan (a highly organized city, covering over five square miles, containing roughly a quarter of a million people) without the help of these indigenous allies, who included some 20,000 warriors from Tlaxcala.(English)
