Oswald Spengler’s account in his The Decline of the West of the death of the Aztec empire is disturbing in the extreme. You will recall the story: A great civilisation, which in 1519 had reached its maximum extent and influence, and was far more highly developed than the Graeco-Roman civilisation at a similar stage, was wiped out three years later by a Spanish army consisting of a handful of men and a few cannon and handguns.