''Montezuma'' is a

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

in which

Dan Snow Daniel Robert Snow (born 3 December 1978) is a British popular historian and television presenter. Early life and education Born in Westminster, London Dan Snow is the youngest son of Peter Snow, BBC television journalist, and Canadian Ann Mac ...

examines the reign of the

Aztec Emperor This is a list of Mesoamerican rulers of the ''altepetl'' of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) from its foundation in 1325 until the end of the line of indigenous rulers. From c. 1375 onwards, the rulers of Tenochtitlan were monarchs and used the ...

Moctezuma II Moctezuma Xocoyotzin ( – 29 June 1520; oteːkˈsoːmaḁ ʃoːkoˈjoːt͡sĩn̥), nci-IPA, Motēuczōmah Xōcoyōtzin, moteːkʷˈsoːma ʃoːkoˈjoːtsin variant spellings include Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecu ...

Production

The film was produced by

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...

to tie in with the exhibition ''Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler'' at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Reception

Reviews

Alex Hardy writing in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' states that, ''Dan Snow jumps around from moral codes, to superstitions, to food production, to using sacrifice as a weapon of state control as he describes how the Aztec civilisation rose inordinately quickly – in less time than it took the US to become a "world leader",'' and, ''asks: was ontezumarather a tragic figure, a victim of circumstance?'' He concludes that, ''If the British Museum’s forthcoming exhibition on the Aztec leader... is anything like as intensely packed as this hour-long documentary, then its £12 entrance fee will certainly be fair game.''

Ratings

Broadcast 2009-09-19: 1.1 million viewers (5% audience share).

Synopsis

Dan Snow journeys to the ancient heart of Mexico in search of the lost civilisation of the Aztecs and their last and greatest ruler, Montezuma II (1502–1520). Montezuma inherited an empire of five million people, stretching from present-day Mexico to Nicaragua, from his uncle. His rule was marked by incessant warfare. Enemy states were growing more powerful and conquered tribes were becoming more rebellious. Within months of taking the throne in 1502, he changed from a man of good reason into a pitiless autocrat who declared himself a god, believing that fear and ruthlessness were the only ways to stop the empire falling apart. Yet it was at the hands of Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors that Montezuma met his downfall. But what was his relationship with Cortes, and why did such a ruthless leader submit to his captors with such relative ease? As Dan Snow visits the ruins and picks through current excavations, he pieces together the evidence of a gripping story: a divine tragedy of errors, the clash of civilisations, the end of a world - and a very human God.

Media information

DVD release

Released on Region 2 DVD by BBC DVD on 2009-10-19.

References

External links

*
New exhibition challenges view of Aztec emperor Moctezuma as traitor
' by Maev Kennedy in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' *
Montezuma finally gets his revenge
' by Ben Hoyle in ''

'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montezuma (Bbc Documentary) Documentary films about Mesoamerica BBC television documentaries about history during the 16th and 17th centuries