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History Of The Conquest Of Mexico, The Aztecs (part five) The Americas On The Eve Of Invasion Author: Prescott, William H Date: 1992
Post classic Mesoamerica, A.D. 1000-1500
The collapse of Teotihuacan in central Mexico and the abandonment of the classical Maya cities in the 8th century A.D. signaled a significant political and cultural change in Mesoamerica. The civilizations that followed built on the achievements of their classic predecessors but rarely surpassed them, except in the area of political and military organization.
In central Mexico, nomadic peoples from beyond the northern frontier of the sedentary agricultural area took advantage of the political vacuum to move into the richer lands. Among these peoples were the Toltecs who established a capital at Tula in about 968. They adopted many cultural features from the sedentary peoples, to which they added a strongly militaristic ethic. This included the cult of sacrifice and war that is often portrayed in Toltec art. Later Mesoamerican peoples, such as the Aztecs, had some historical memory of the Toltecs and thought of them as culture heroes, the givers of civilization. Thus, being able to trace one's lineage back to the Toltecs later became a highly prized pedigree. The archeological record, however, indicates that Toltec accomplishments were often fused or confused with those of Teotihuacan in the memory of the Toltec's successors.
The Toltec Heritage
Among the legends that survived about the Toltecs were those of Topiltzin, a Toltec leader and apparently a priest dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl (the Feathered Serpent) who later became confused with the god himself in the legends. Apparently, Topiltzin, a religious reformer, was involved in a struggle for priestly or political power with another faction. When he lost, Topiltzin and his followers went into exile, promising to return in the future to claim his throne on the same date according to the cyclical calendar system. Supposedly, Topiltzin and his followers sailed for Yucatan; there is considerable evidence of Toltec influence in that region. The legend of Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl was well known to the Aztecs and may have influenced their response when the Europeans later arrived.
The Toltecs created an empire that extended over much of central Mexico, and their influence spread far beyond the region. Although the Maya had abandoned many cities and no longer kept long-count dates, large cities, especially in Yucatan, were still occupied. Around A.D. 1000, Chichen Itza was conquered by Toltec warriors, and it and a number of other cities were then ruled for a long time by central Mexican dynasties or by Maya rulers under Toltec influence. The architecture at Chichen Itza - with its pyramid of the god Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) and artistic motifs of warriors, feathered serpents, and the symbols of death - reflects the Toltec influence. Some Maya states in Guatemala, such as the Quiche kingdom, also had Toltecized ruling families.
Toltec influence spread northward as well. Obsidian mines were exploited in northern Mexico, and the Toltecs may have traded for turquoise in the American Southwest. There is evidence of contact between Mesoamerica and the cliff-dwellers of Colorado and New Mexico, who are the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians of the Southwest. It has been suggested that the great Anasazi adobe town at Chaco canyon in New Mexico was abandoned when the Toltec Empire fell and the trade for local turquoise ended.
How far eastward that influence spread is a matter of dispute. Was there contact between Mesoamerica and the elaborate culture and concentrated towns of the Hopewell peoples of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys discussed in Chapter 9? Scholars disagree. Eventually, in the lower Mississippi valley from about 700, elements of Hopewell culture seem to have been enriched by external contact perhaps with Mexico. This Mississippian culture, which flourished between 1200 and 1500, was based on maize and bean agriculture. Towns, usually located along rivers, had stepped temples made of earth and sometimes large burial mounds. Some of the burials include well-produced pottery and other goods and seem to be accompanied by ritual executions or sacrifices of servants or wives. This indicates social stratification in the society. Cahokia, near East St. Louis, Illinois, covered five square miles and may have had over 30,000 people in and around its center. Its largest earthen pyramid, called Monk's Mound, covers 15 acres and is comparable in size to the largest classic period pyramids in Mexico. Many of these cultural features seem to suggest contact with Mesoamerica, although no definitely Mexican object has been found in a Mississippian site. Still, certain artistic traits and subjects, including the feathered serpent, strongly suggest contact.
The Aztec Rise To Power
The Toltec Empire lasted until about 1150, at which time it was apparently destroyed by nomadic invaders from the north who also seem to have sacked Tula around that date. In the period after the fall of Tula, the center of population and political power in central Mexico shifted to the valley of Mexico and especially to the shores of the large chain of lakes in that basin. The three largest lakes were connected by marshes; together they provided a rich aquatic environment. While the eastern lakes tended to be brackish from the minerals that emptied in them from surrounding rivers, the southern and western portions contained fresh water. The shores of the lakes were dotted with settlements and towns. A dense population lived around the lakes to take advantage of their life-giving water for agriculture, the fish and aquatic plants and animals, and the advantages of transportation. Of the approximately 3000 square miles in the basin of the valley, about 400 square miles were underwater.
The lakes became the cultural heartland and population center of Mexico in the postclassic period. In the unstable world of post-Toltec Mesoamerica, various peoples and cities jockeyed for supremacy of the lakes and the advantages they offered. The winners of this struggle, the Aztecs, eventually built a great empire, but when they emerged on the historical scene they were the most unlikely candidates for power.
From their obscure origins, the Aztec (or as they called themselves, the Mexica) rise to power and formation of an imperial state was as spectacular as it was rapid. According to some of their legends, the Mexica had once inhabited the central valley and had known agriculture and the "civilized" life but had lived in exile to the north in a place called Aztlan (from whence we get the name Aztec). This may be an exaggeration by people who wished to lay claim to a distinguished heritage. Other sources indicate that the Aztecs were simply one of the nomadic tribes that used the political anarchy, following the fall of the Toltecs, to penetrate into the area of sedentary agricultural peoples. Like the ancient Egyptians, the Aztecs rewrote history to suit their purposes. Their ruler Itzcoatl (1427-1440) ordered all the old books destroyed and had history rewritten in a manner more favorable to the Aztec "official" version. Later observers, both Spaniards and Indians, wrote with their own biases. Thus, it is difficult to piece the story together and to eliminate intentional bias, political manipulation, and later rewriting, but with the help of archeology and ethnohistory, or the use of anthropological techniques by historians, it is possible to outline the major features of Aztec life and history.
What seems clear is that the Aztecs were a group of about 10,000 people who migrated to the shores of Lake Texcoco in the central valley of Mexico around the year 1325. After the fall of the Toltec Empire, the central valley was inhabited by a mixture of peoples - Chichimec migrants from the northwest and various groups of sedentary agriculturalists. These peoples were divided into small political units that claimed greater or lesser authority on the basis of their military power and their connections to Toltec culture or Toltec descendants. Many of these peoples spoke Nahuatl, the language the Toltecs had spoken. The Aztecs too spoke this language, a fact that made their rise to power and their eventual claims to legitimacy more acceptable.
In this period the area around the lake was dominated by a number of tribes organized into city-states. The city of Azcapotzalco was the real power but was challenged by an alliance centered in the city of Texcoco. Another city, Culhuacan, which had been part of the Toltec Empire, used its heritage as legitimate heir to the Toltecs as a means of creating alliances by marrying its princes and princesses to more powerful but less distinguished states. This was a world of political manuever and state marriages, competing powers and shifting alliances.
An intrusive and militant group, such as the Aztecs, were distrusted and disliked by the dominant powers of the area, but their fighting skills could be put to use, and this made them attractive as mercenaries or allies. For about a century the Aztecs wandered around the shores of the lake, being allowed to settle for a while and then driven out by more powerful neighbors. An alliance with Culhuacan failed when instead of arranging a royal marriage of a princess sent from that city, the Aztecs executed her as an offering to their gods.
In a period of militarism and warfare, the Aztecs had a reputation as tough warriors and fanatical followers of their gods, to whom they offered continual human sacrifices. This reputation made them both valued and feared. Their own legends foretold that their wanderings would end when they saw an eagle perched on a cactus with a serpent in its beak. Supposedly, this sign was seen on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco and there, on that island and one nearby, the Aztecs settled. The city of Tenochtitlan was founded about 1325 and on the neighboring island the city of Tlatelolco was established shortly thereafter. The two cities eventually grew together, although they maintained separate administrations.
From this secure base the Aztecs began to take a more active role in regional politics. Azcapotzalco and Texcoco were locked in a struggle, and the Aztecs now began to serve Azcapotzalco as mercenaries. This alliance brought prosperity to the Aztecs, especially to their ruler and the warrior nobility, which was now acquiring lands and tribute from conquered towns. By 1428, however, the Aztecs had rebelled against Azcapotzalco and had joined with Texcoco in destroying it. From that victory the Aztecs emerged as an independent power. In 1434, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and a smaller city, Tlacopan, joined together in a triple alliance that exercised control over much of the central plateau. Nezhualcoyotl, the philosopher king in Texcoco (1434-1472), used his personal prestige and political wisdom to keep some balance in the alliance, but in reality, Tenochtitlan and the Aztecs dominated their allies and controlled the major share of the tribute and lands taken.
The Aztec Social Contract
According to the Aztec accounts of this history, a social and political transformation had also taken place. Acampichtli, the first ruler, had created a nobility, or pipiltin, from the leading families by marriage with some Culhuacan nobles who could trace their roots to the Toltecs. When the war with Azcapotzalco broke out, the commoners were reluctant to fight; but the nobility urged them on and promised victory. According to the Aztec official version, the pipiltin promised to obey the commoners forever if they lost, and the commoners made a similar promise if the nobles could bring victory. The conquest of Azcapotzalco assured the position of the nobility. Moreover, the ruler of Tenochtitlan emerged from this process no longer as a spokesman for a general council, but as a supreme ruler with wide powers. Succeeding rulers expanded that power and the boundaries of Aztec control. Moctezuma I (1440-1469) conquered areas around the central plateau. Under his brother Ahuitzotl (1486-1502), the empire reached its greatest extent - from coast to coast and with some subject areas far to the south, although the Tarascan kingdom to the northwest remained independent. Moctezuma II (1502-1520) consolidated the conquest of central Mexico, and although a few independent states remained within central Mexico, Aztec domination extended from the Tarascan frontier southward to the Maya area. Subject peoples were forced to pay tribute, surrender lands, and sometimes do military service for the growing Aztec Empire.
Whatever the official explanation of events, it seems clear that Aztec society had been transformed in the process of expansion and conquest. From a loose association of clans, the Mexica had become a stratified society under the authority of a supreme ruler of great power. A central figure in these changes was Tlacaelel, a man who served as a sort of prime minister and advisor under three rulers from 1427 to his death around 1480. Under his direction, the histories were rewritten and the Mexica were given a self-image as a people chosen to serve the gods. Human sacrifice, long a part of Mesoamerican religion, was greatly expanded under his direction into a cult of enormous proportions in which the military class played a central role as suppliers of war captives to be used as sacrificial victims. Supposedly, at the dedication of the great temple during the reign of Ahuitzotl, over 10,000 victims were put to death. It was also a policy of Tlacaelel to leave a few territories unconquered so that periodic "flower wars" could be staged in which both sides could obtain captives for sacrifice. Whatever the religious motivations of this cult, Tlacaelel and the Aztec rulers manipulated it as an effective means of political terror. By the time of Moctezuma II, the Aztec state was dominated by a king who represented civil power and served as a representative of the gods on earth. The cult of human sacrifice and conquest was united with the political power of the ruler and the nobility.
Religion And The Ideology Of Conquest
Aztec religion incorporated many features that had long been part of the Mesoamerican system of beliefs. Religion was a vast, uniting, and sometimes oppressive force in which little distinction was made between the world of the gods and the natural world. The traditional deities of Mesoamerica - the gods of rain, fire, water, corn, the sky, and the sun, many of whom were worshiped as far back as the time of Teotihuacan - were known and venerated among the Aztecs. There were at least 128 major deities, but the number of gods, in fact, seemed innumerable for often each deity had a female consort or feminine form. This was because a basic duality was recognized in all things. Moreover, gods might have different forms or manifestations somewhat like the avatars of the Hindu deities. Often each god had at least five aspects, each associated with one of the cardinal directions and the center. Certain gods were thought to be the patrons of specific cities, ethnic groups, or occupations. It was an extensive pantheon supported by a round of yearly festivals and a highly complex ceremonialism that involved various forms of feasting and dancing along with penance and sacrifice.
This bewildering array of gods can be organized into three major themes or cults. The first were the gods of fertility and the agricultural cycle, such as Tlaloc, or the god of rain (called Chac by the Maya), and the gods and goddesses of water, maize, and fertility. Xipe Totec, for example, represented agricultural rebirth. His cult was horrible. Victims sacrificed to him were flayed, and a priest then donned the skin to represent the new growth of the maize. A second theme centered on the creator deities, the great gods and goddesses who had brought the universe into being. The story of their actions played a central role in Aztec cosmography. Tonatiuh, the warrior god of the sun, and Tezcatlipoca, the god of the night sky, were among the most powerful and respected gods among the peoples of central Mexico. Much of Aztec abstract and philosophical thought was devoted to the theme of creation. Finally, the cult of warfare and sacrifice built on the preexisting Mesoamerican traditions that had been expanding since Toltec times but which, under the militaristic Aztec state, became the cult of the state. Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec tribal patron, became the central figure of this cult, but it included Tezcatlipoca, Tonatiuh, and other gods as well.
The Aztecs revered the great traditional deities - such as Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl, the ancient god of civilization - so holy to the Toltecs, but their own tribal deity Huitzilopochtli became paramount. The Aztecs identified him with the old sun god, and they saw him as a warrior in the daytime sky fighting to give life and warmth to the world against the forces of the night. In order to carry out that struggle, the sun needed strength - and just as the gods had sacrificed themselves for humankind, the nourishment the gods needed most was that which was most precious, human life in the form of hearts and blood. The great temple of Tenochtitlan was dedicated to both Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. The tribal deity of the Aztecs and the ancient agricultural god of the sedentary peoples of Mesoamerica were thus united.
In fact, while human sacrifice had long been a part of Mesoamerican religion, it had expanded considerably in the postclassic period of militarism. Warrior cults and the militaristic images of jaguars and eagles devouring human hearts were characteristic of Toltec art. The Aztecs simply took an existing tendency and carried it to an unprecedented scale. Both the types and frequency of sacrifice increased, and a whole symbolism and ritual, which included ritual cannibalism, developed as part of the cult. How much of Aztec sacrifice was the result of religious conviction and how much was imposed as a tactic of terror and political control by the rulers and the priest class is a question still open to debate (see "Analysis" in this chapter).
Beneath the surface of this polytheism, there was, however, also a sense of spiritual unity. Nezhualcoyotl, the king of Texcoco, composed hymns to the "lord of the close vicinity," an invisible creative force that supported all the gods. Yet, his conception of a kind of monotheism, much like that of Pharaoh Akhnaten in Egypt, was too abstract and never gained great popularity.
While the bloody aspects of Aztec religion have gained much attention, we must also realize that the Aztecs concerned themselves with many of the great religious and spiritual questions that have preoccupied other civilizations: Is there life after death? What is the meaning of life? What does it mean to live a good life? Do the gods really exist?
Nezhualcoyotl, whose poetry survived in oral form and was written down in the 16th century, wondered about life after death:
Do flowers go to the land of the dead? In the Beyond, are we dead or do we still live? Where is the source of light, since that which gives life hides itself?
He also wondered about the existence of the gods:
Are you real, are you fixed? Only You dominate all things The Giver of Life. Is this true? Perhaps, as they say, it is not true.
Aztec religious art and poetry is filled with images of flowers, birds, and song - all of which the Aztecs greatly admired - as well as human hearts and blood - the "precious water" needed to sustain the gods. It is this mixture of images that makes the symbolism of Aztec religion so difficult for modern observers to understand.
Aztec religion depended on a complex mythology that explained the birth and history of the gods and their relation to peoples and on a religious symbolism that infused all aspects of life. As we have seen, the Mesoamerican calendar system was religious in nature, and many ceremonies coincided with particular points in the calendar cycle. Moreover, the Aztecs also believed in a cyclical view of history and believed that the world had been destroyed four times before and would be destroyed again. Thus there was a certain fatalism in Aztec thought and a premonition that, eventually, the sacrifices would be insufficient and the gods would again bring catastrophe. Characteristically, at the end of each 52-year cycle, all the fires in the kingdom were extinguished, and while the people waited apprehensively, the priests attempted to kindle a new fire in the chest cavity of a sacrificial victim. If the gods approved and the sparks caught, the world would continue; the new fire was then taken by runners with torches to relight all the fires in the realm.
The Foundation Of Heaven: Tenochtitlan, The Great City
The city-state with its ruler-spokesman was a key central Mexican concept and it applied to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. The Mexica thought of themselves as inheritors of Toltec traditions and of their city as the new Tula. From its modest beginnings, Tenochtitlan became a great metropolis, with a central zone of palaces and whitewashed temples surrounded by adobe brick residential districts, smaller palaces, and markets. The temple precinct was dominated by the great pyramid and twin temple of Huizilopochtli and Tlaloc. (This has recentdy been excavated by archeologists.) The round temple of Quetzalcoatl, the school for the priesthood, and some seventy other buildings stood in or near the precinct. The craftsmanship and architecture was outstanding. Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conqueror who viewed the city, personally reported, "The stone masonry and the woodwork are equally good, they could not be bettered anywhere." There were gardens and a zoo kept for the ruler. The nobility had houses two stories high, sometimes with gardens on the roofs.
Tlatelolco, at first a separate island city, was eventually incorporated as part of Tenochtitlan. It too had impressive temples and palaces, and its large market remained the most important place of trade and exchange. Building projects by various Mexican rulers increased the size and beauty of the city. By 1519, the city covered about five square miles. It had a population of 150,000, larger than contemporary European cities such as Seville or Paris.
Its island location gave Tenochtitlan a peculiar character. Set in the midst of a lake, the city was connected to the shores by four broad causeways. Since the city was built on an island and reclaimed land, it was crisscrossed by canals that allowed the constant canoe traffic on the lake access to the city. Away from the center of the city, households practiced floating garden, or chinampa, cultivation within the city. Each of the more than 60 city wards was controlled by a calpulli, or kin group, and each maintained its neighborhood temples and civic buildings. The city was supplied primarily by canoe transportation, although there were aqueducts that brought in fresh water. A dike had been constructed to keep the brackish waters of the eastern portion of the lake away from the agriculture in and around the city. There were smaller island communities and along the shores of the lake were other densely populated towns and cities. The structural achievement was impressive. A Spanish foot-soldier who saw it in 1519 wrote:
Gazing on such wonderful sights, we did not know what to say, or whether what appeared before us was real, for on one side, on the land, there were great cities, and in the lake ever many more, and the lake was crowded with canoes, and in the causeway were many bridges at intervals, and in front of us stood the great city of Mexico. . . .
Such vivid descriptions by Western observers tell only a portion of the story. Tenochtitlan had an internal organization that reproduced the Aztec religious and social universe. Its four causeways were associated with the four cardinal directions and the gods of each. Within the city, neighborhoods were organized in pairs of 20 communal corporate groups and in a number of temple upkeep groupings, each with its neighborhood temple and school to maintain. The round of festivals, the calendar system, and the cosmology of Aztec religion was represented physically by the city's organization and the place and hierarchy of the corporate groups within it. Such groupings were based on occupations, residence, or ethnicity. This last grouping was important because Tenochtitlan and the Aztecs themselves had included large non-Aztec ethnic populations even in their origins. In fact, much of Aztec myth and official history was designed to create a unified people out of an agglomeration of groups.
Tenochtitlan was the heart of an empire and drew tribute and support from its allies and dependents, but in theory it was still just a city-state ruled by a headman, just like the other 50 or more city-states that dotted the central plateau. Even so, the Aztecs called it the "foundation of heaven," the basis of their might. It was a great world city, but unlike Rome or Athens, it was later so completely obliterated that even in the lifetime of its conquerors, one of them could lament that "all is overthrown and lost, nothing left standing." Present-day Mexico City rises on the site of the former Aztec capital.
[See Aztec Sacrifice: Human sacrifice existed among many Mesoamerican peoples, but the Aztecs apparently expanded its practice for political reasons and religious belief.]
Feeding The People: The Economy Of The Empire
Feeding the great population of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec confederation in general depended on traditional forms of agriculture and on innovations developed by the Aztecs. Lands of conquered peoples were often appropriated, and food was sometimes demanded as tribute. In fact, the quantities of maize, beans, and other foods brought into Tenochtitlan annually were staggering. In and around the lake, however, the Aztecs adopted an ingenious system of irrigated agriculture by constructing chinampas for agriculture. These were beds of aquatic weeds, mud, and earth that had been placed in frames made of cane and rooted to the lake floor. They formed artificial floating islands about five meters long and 30 to 100 meters wide. This narrow, striplike construction allowed the water to reach all the plants, and willow trees were also planted at intervals to give shade and help fix the roots. Much of the land of Tenochtitlan itself was chinampa in origin, and in the southern end of the lake over 20,000 acres of chinampas were constructed.
The yield from chinampa agriculture was high and four corn crops a year were possible. Apparently, this system of irrigated agriculture had been used in preclassic days, but a rise in the level of the lakes had made it impossible to continue. After 1200, however, lowering of the lake levels once again stimulated chinampa construction, which the Aztecs carried out on a grand scale. They also constructed dikes to close off the fresh waters in the southern and western parts of the lake from the brackish waters elsewhere. Today, the floating gardens of Xochimilco represent the remnants of the lake agriculture.
Production by the Aztec peasantry and tribute provided the basic foods. In each Aztec community the local clan apportioned the lands, some of which were also set aside for support of the temples and the state. In addition, individual nobles might also have private estates that were worked by servants or slaves from conquered peoples. Each community had periodic markets - according to various cycles in the calendar system such as every five and 13 days - in which a wide variety of goods were exchanged. Cacao beans and gold dust were sometimes used as currency, but much trade was done as barter. The great market at Tlatelolco operated daily and was controlled by the special merchant class, or pochteca, which specialized in long-distance trade in luxury items such as plumes of tropical birds and cacao. The markets were highly regulated and under the control of inspectors and special judges. Despite the existence and importance of markets, this was not a market economy as we usually understand it.
The state controlled the use and distribution of many commodities and served to redistribute the vast levies of tribute received from subordinate peoples. Tribute levels were assigned according to whether the subject peoples had accepted Aztec rule or had fought against it. Those who surrendered paid less. Tribute payments, such as food, slaves, and sacrificial victims, served political and economic ends and a wide variety of commodities. Over 120,000 mantles of cotton cloth alone were collected as tribute each year and sent to Tenochtitlan. The Aztec state redistributed these goods. After the original conquests, it rewarded its nobility richly, but the commoners received far less. Still, the redistribution of many goods by the state interfered with the normal functioning of the market and created a peculiar state-controlled mixed
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