More Important Topics of Cylinder

The civilization had a rich mythology and cultural heritage. The most striking element of their culture in the popular perception is the practice of human sacrifice.

In what is probably the most widely known episode in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hernan Cortes

conquered the Aztecs in 1521 thus immortalizing himself and the Aztec Huey Tlatoani, Moctezuma II (Montezuma II).

Nomenclature

There is a difficulty in determining whether to use the term "Aztecs" or "Mexica" to refer to the people who inhabited Tenochtitlan. In Mexico, few archeologists use Azteca and all the museums use the term Mexica. However, most of the population of Mexico uses the term Azteca to refer to the people who inhabited Tenochtitlan. Similarly, those outside of Mexico generally use the term "Aztecs".

The difficulty arises because the term "Aztecs" was used neither by the indigenous peoples prior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico nor by the Spanish conquistadors.

According to the Aubin codex, the Nahua lived in Aztlan under the rule of a powerful elite, called the Azteca Chicomostoca. The seven tribes fled Aztlan, to seek new lands. The Mexica were the last group to leave, guided by their priest "Huitzil".

The Aubin Codex relates that after leaving Aztlán, [Huitzilopochtli]] ordered his people to never identify themselves as Azteca, the name of their former masters. Instead they should henceforth call themselves Mexica. The Spanish conquistadors referred to them as "Mexica".

In this article, the term "Mexica" is used to refer to the Mexica people up until the time of the formation of the Triple Alliance. After this point in time, the term "Aztecs" is used to refer to the peoples who made up the Triple Alliance.

Aztec

In 1810 Alexander von Humboldt originated the modern usage of "Aztec" as a collective term applied to all the people linked by trade, custom, religion , and language to the Mexica state and the Triple Alliance. In 1843, with the publication of the work of William Prescott, it became adopted by most of the world, including the Mexican scholars of 19th century, as a way to distance "modern" Mexicans from pre-conquest Mexicans.

This usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, and consequently, the more proper usage "Mexica" is increasingly applied. The Museo Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, for example, refers to these people as Mexica.

Aztec is usually used as a historical term, although some contemporary Nahuatl-speakers self-identify as Aztecs. More particularly, the term refers to the empire of the Mexicas as distinguished from the Mexicas alone. This article deals with the historical Aztec civilization, not with modern-day Nahuatl speakers.

In Nahuatl, the native language of the Mexicas, Azteca means "someone who comes from Aztlán", a place commonly believed to be located in northern Mexico or the Southwest U.S. (though there is great doubt about this, see current debates in Mexica scholarship), so this name was applied to other cultures of the same cultural group.

However, the culture we call now Aztec referred to themselves as Mexica (IPA: [me'?ihkah]) or Tenochca and Tlatelolca according their city of origin. Their use of the word Azteca was like the modern use of Latino, or Mediterranean: a broad term that does not refer to a specific culture.

Mexica

Mexica, the origin of the word Mexico, is a term of uncertain origin. Very different etymologies are proposed: the old Nahuatl word for the sun, the name of their leader Mexitli, or a type of weed that grows in Lake Texcoco.

The renowned Nahuatl translator, Miguel León-Portilla, suggests that it is derived from mexictli, "navel of the moon", from Nahuatl metztli (moon) and xictli (navel). Alternatively, mexictli could mean "navel of the maguey" using the Nahuatl metl and the locative "co".

Aztlán

The Mexica's legendary home was Aztlan. It is generally thought that Aztlan was somewhere to the north of the Valley of Mexico; some experts have placed it as far north as the American Southwest, while others suggest is a mythical place, since Aztlan can also be translated as "the place of the origin".

Whatever caused them to leave Aztlan, the Mexica came to the Valley of Mexico at some point or in waves between the 12th and 14th centuries. The mythical story of this travels is recorded in the Spanish colonial-era Aubin Codex, among other codices. But the true origin of the Mexica is uncertain.

The Mexica arrive in the Valley of Mexico

In the 13th and 14th centuries in the Valley, there existed many city-states including Cholula, Huexotzingo, Tlaxcala, Chalco, Xochimilco, Tlacopan, Culhuacan, and Atzcapotzalco. The most powerful were Culhuacan to the south, and Azcapotzalco to the west.

As a result, when the Mexica arrived in the Anahuac valley as a semi-nomadic tribe, they had nowhere to go. They settled temporarily in Chapultepec, but this was under the rule of Azcapotzalco and they were soon expelled.

The Mexica then went to the area dominated by Culhuacan and, in 1299, the ruler Cocoxtli gave them permission to settle in the empty barrens of Tizapan. They married and assimilated into Culhuacan culture.

In 1323, the Mexica asked the new ruler of Culhuacan, Achicometl, for his daughter, in order to make her the goddess Yaocihuatl. Unbeknownst to the king, the Mexica actually planned to sacrifice her. As the story goes, during a festival dinner, a priest came out wearing her flayed skin as part of the ritual. Upon seeing this, the king and the people of Culhuacan were horrified and expelled the Mexica.

Founding of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan

Sculpture commemorating the moment when Aztecs found the omen from the god Huitzilopochtli signaling the location where their capital city Tenochtitlan should be built. This sculpture is in Mexico City.

The Mexica fleeing Culhuacan followed an ancient legend that prophesied that they would find the site for their new city in a place where they would see a mythical vision fulfilled: an eagle eating a snake while perched atop a cactus. The Aztecs eventually came across this vision on what was then a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco, and the vision is now immortalized in Mexico's coat of arms, which is shown in the Mexican flag.

One Mexica group fleeing Culhuacan settled on the north shore of Lake Texcoco: this would become the city of Tlatelolco.

Undeterred by the unfavourable terrain, another group of Mexica invented the chinampa system to drain the swampy land by setting up small plots in which they produced all the food they required. When the swampland was sufficiently drained, the Mexica would begin to build there. Thus, was the city of Tenochtitlan (the Nahuatl language name for the city) founded in 1325.

A thriving culture developed, and the Aztec empire came to dominate other tribes all around Mexico. The small natural island was perpetually enlarged as an artificial island as Tenochtitlan grew to become the largest and most powerful city in Mesoamerica. Commercial routes were developed that brought goods from places as far as the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean and perhaps even the Inca Empire.

In 1376, the Mexica elected their first Hueyi Tlatoani, Acamapichtli.

Rise of the Aztecs

Initially, the Mexica hired themselves out as mercenaries in wars between the Nahuas. From 1376 until 1427, the Mexica were a tributary of Azcapotzalco.

When Tezozomoc died in 1426, his son Maxtla ascended to the throne of Azcapotzalco. Shortly thereafter, Maxtla assassinated Chimalpopoca, the Aztec ruler. In an effort to defeat Maxtla, Chimalpopoca's successor, Itzcoatl, allied with the exiled ruler of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl. This coalition became the foundation of the Aztec Triple Alliance.

Aztec Triple Alliance

The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan would, in the next 100 years, come to dominate the Valley of Mexico and extend its power to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacfic shore. Over this period, Tenochtitlan gradually became the dominant power in the alliance, and the Triple Alliance territories became known as the Aztec Empire.

Tlacaelel and Moctezuma I

Two of the primary architects of the Aztec empire were the brothers Tlacaelel and Moctezuma I, nephews of Itzcoatl. Moctezuma I succeeded Itzcoatl as Hueyi Tlatoani in 1449.

Tlacaelel single-handedly forged most of the Aztec Empire. Although he was offered the opportunity to be tlatoani, he preferred to operate as the power behind the throne.

Tlacaelel reformed both the Aztec state and the Aztec religion. He ordered the burning of most of the extant Aztec books claiming that they contained lies. He thereupon rewrote the history of the Aztec people, thus creating a common awareness of history for the Aztecs.

In addition, Tlacaelel reformed Aztec religion. One component of this reform was the institution of ritual war (the flower wars) as a way to have trained warriors, and created the necessity of constant sacrifices to keep the Sun moving.

The height of the Empire

Moctezuma I's son, Axayacatl, ascended to the throne in 1469. During his reign, Tenochtitlan absorbed the kingdom of Tlatelolco.

In 1481 Axayacatl's son Tizoc ruled briefly, but he was considered weak and was replaced, possibly poisoned, by his younger brother Ahuitzotl who had reorganized the army.

The empire reached its height during Ahuitzotl's reign. His successor was Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (better known as Moctezuma II), who was Hueyi Tlatoani when the Spaniards arrived in 1519.

Fall of the Aztec Empire

For more on the conquest of Mexico by Spain, see also Hernán Cortés, Spanish Conquest of Mexico and Siege of Tenochtitlan.

The Aztecs were conquered by Spain in 1521, after long battle and a long siege of the capital, Tenochtitlan, where much of the population died from hunger and smallpox, Cuauhtémoc surrendered to Hernán Cortés. Cortés, with his up to 500 Spaniards, did not fight alone but with as many as 150,000 or 200,000 allies from Tlaxcala, and eventually from Texcoco, who were resisting Aztec rule. He defeated Tenochtitlan's forces on August 13, 1521.

The Conquest of Mesoamerica

The fall of Tenochtitlan usually is referred to as the main episode in the process of the conquest of Mesoamerica. Accounts of the Spanish conquest of Mexico often stop with the fall of Tenochtitlan and leave the reader to assume that the rest of the conquest was quick and easy.

However, the process of conquering Mesoamerica was much more complex and took longer than the three years that it took Cortés to conquer Tenochtitlan. It took almost 60 years of wars for the Spaniards to conquer Mesoamerica (Chichimeca wars), a process that could have taken longer were it not for three separate epidemics that took a heavy toll on the Native American population. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán took almost 170 years.

After the fall of Tenochtitlan, most of the other Mesoamerican cultures were intact. In fact, the conquest of the Aztec empire did not have an immediate impact on other Mesoamerican cultures. If anything, the freedom from Aztec domination was probably considered a positive development by most of the other cultures.

Initially, the Tlaxcalans were important allies of the Spaniards. Eventually, the Spaniards would break the alliance, but that would not happen until decades later. The fall of the Mesoamerican cultures was a long process. The fall of the Aztec empire was just the first chapter in the process of conquering Mesoamerica, certainly not the final chapter.

A combination of factors were involved in the fall of the Mesoamerican cultures. The most significant of these was the deadly toll of the epidemics which decimated the Native American peoples far more than the military power of Spain. This fact has been slowly understood by scholars.

The fate of the Aztec empire under Spanish rule

Cortés' stated intention was to maintain the structure of the Aztec empire. Initially, it seemed that the Aztec empire could survive under Spanish rule. The upper classes of the Aztec empire were initially considered as noblemen (to this day, the title of Duke of Moctezuma is held by a Spanish noble family).

The upper classes learned Spanish, and several learned to write in Roman characters. Some of their surviving writings are crucial in our knowledge of the Aztecs. In addition, the first missionaries tried to learn Nahuatl and some, like Bernardino de Sahagún, set out to learn as much as they could of the Aztec culture.

All that changed rapidly. Eventually, the Indians were not only forbidden to learn of their cultures, but also were forbidden to learn to read and write in Spanish, and, under the law, they had the status of minors.

The impact of epidemics on the Aztec Empire

The first epidemic, an outbreak of smallpox (cocoliztli) occurred from 1520-1521 and decimated the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city. The other two epidemics, of smallpox (1545-1548) and typhus (1576-1581) killed up to 75% of the population of Mesoamerica.

Whole towns disappeared, lands were deserted, roads were closed and armies were destroyed. The Spaniards, trying to make more of the diminishing population, merged the survivors from small towns into the bigger ones.

This broke the power of the upper classes and dissolved the coherence of the indigenous society. In addition, the indigenous peoples collected in the larger towns were more susceptible to epidemics due to the higher population density.

The population before the time of the conquest is estimated at 15 million; by 1550, the estimated population was 4 million and less than two millions by 1581. Thus, the "New Spain" of the 17th century was a depopulated country and many Mesoamerican cultures were wiped out. Because of the fall of their social structure, the population had to resort to the Spanish to maintain some order.

In order to have an adequate supply of labor, the Spaniards began to import black slaves, although most of them eventually merged with the population.

Government

The Aztec Empire is not completely analogous to the empires of European history. Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more a system of tribute than a single system of government. Arnold Toynbee in his preface to War and Civilization draws an analogy to the Assyrian Empire in this respect.

Tribute trade, and roads

Cities under Aztec rule seem to have paid heavy tributes immediately after they were conquered. Tributes were extracted from a broad base and took many forms including luxury goods like feathers and adorned suits as well as more practical goods.

Archaeological excavations in the Aztec-ruled provinces show a steady increase in the welfare of common people. Only the upper classes seem to have suffered economically under the Aztec conqueror, and only at first.

This increase in the overall welfare was likely due to an increase in trade, itself a result of better roads and communications. This trade seems to have been broad-based, extending even to the enemies of the Aztecs: the Tarascans, for example, were a source of copper axes.

The main contribution of the Aztec rule was a system of communications between the conquered cities. In Mesoamerica, without draft animals for transport (nor, as a result, wheeled vehicles), the roads were designed for travel on foot. Usually these roads were maintained through tribute, and travelers had places to rest and eat and even latrines to use at regular intervals, roughly every 10 or 15 km.

Couriers (paynani) were constantly traveling along those ways, keeping the Aztecs informed of events, and helping to monitor the integrity of the roads. Due to the steady surveillance, even women could travel alone, a fact that amazed the Spaniards since that was not possible in Europe at that time.

After the conquest those roads were nor longer subject to maintenance and were eventually lost.

The emperor

The most important official of Tenochtitlan government is often referred to as the Aztec Emperor. The Nahuatl title, Huey Tlatoani (plural Huey Tlatoque), translates roughly as "Great Speaker".

This office gradually took on more power with the rise of Tenochtitlan. By the time of Auitzotl, the title of Emperor had become a more appropriate analogy for this office, although as in the Holy Roman Empire, the title was not hereditary. The Emperor was still chosen by the elders --although they preferred to keep the title within one family, they also could remove it.

The title has some resemblance to the Roman Emperor's title during the Principate (Princeps Senatus, or "First Citizen of the Senate"): both titles started as a "speaker of the house", but later coalesced more power into an "Emperor" type of office.

It is doubted whether Hernán Cortés understood the nuances of this role and overestimated the influence of Moctezuma on his people, perhaps assuming he wielded power similar to Charles V, King of Spain.

Each day, the Huey Tlatoani met with the elders and the priest of the different precincts of the city (calpulli) to discuss the government. Originally the elders had to sanction every decision of the Huey Tlatoani. When Moctezuma assumed the office, he replaced the counsellors, priests and administrators with his former students, thereby gaining more independence than former Tlatoanis. Yet his orders still could be questioned by the elders.

The structure of Aztec society

Class structure

The society traditionally was divided into two social classes; the macehualli (people) or peasantry and the pilli or nobility. Nobility was not originally hereditary, although the sons of pillis had access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Eventually, this class system took on hereditary aspects.

In the later days of the empire, the concept of macehualli also had changed. Eduardo Noguera (Annals of Anthropology, UNAM, Vol. xi, 1974, p. 56) estimates only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The other 80% of society were not only warriors, but also skilled artisans and aggressive traders. Eventually, most of the macehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts.

Their works were an important source of income for the city (Sanders, William T., Settlement Patterns in Central Mexico. Handbook of Middle American Indians, 1971, vol. 3, p. 3-44).

Slavery

Slaves or tlacotin also constituted an important class. Distinct from war captives, this slavery was very different from what Europeans of the same period were to establish in their colonies, although it had much in common with the slavery of classical antiquity.

Sahagún questions whether the term "slavery" is appropriate for this Aztec institution. First, slavery was personal, not hereditary: a slave's children were free. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they were able to show they had been mistreated or if they had children with or were married to their masters.

Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance.

An Aztec could be made a slave as a punishment. A murderer sentenced to death could instead, upon the request of the wife of his victim, be given to her as a slave. A father could sell his son into slavery if the son was declared incorrigible by an authority. Those who did not pay their debts could also be sold as slaves.

People could sell themselves as slaves. They could stay free long enough to enjoy the price of their liberty, about twenty blankets, usually enough for a year; after that time they went to their new master. Usually this was the fate of gamblers and of old ahuini (courtesans or prostitutes).

Daily life

Diet

The Aztec staple foods included maize, beans and squash to which were often added chilis and tomatoes, all prominent parts of the Mexican diet to this day. They harvested acocils, a small and abundant shrimp of Lake Texcoco, as well as spirulina algae, which was made into a sort of cake rich in flavonoids. The Aztecs consumed insects such as crickets (chapulines), maguey worms, ants, larvae, etc. Insects have a higher protein content than meat, and even now they are considered a delicacy in some parts of Mexico.

Aztecs also used maguey extensively; from it they obtained food, sugar (aguamiel–honey water), drink (pulque), and fibers for ropes and clothing. They also kept beehives and harvested honey. Cocoa grains were used as money but also to make a chocolate drink much like beer.

Although one could drink pulque, a fermented beverage with an alcoholic content equivalent to beer, getting drunk before the age of 60 was forbidden. First offenses drew relatively light punishment but repeat offenses could be punished by death.

Much has been said about a lack of animal proteins in the Aztec diet. Although the Aztecs had domestic animals, like turkey and some dog breeds, these were few and usually reserved for special occasions. Hunting -- deer, wild hogs, ducks-- was also another source of meat, although the eventual population within the Valley of Mexico precluded hunting as a major food source.

This comparative lack of animal protein has been used by some to postulate the existence of widespread cannibalism (M. Harner, Am. Ethnol. 4, 117 (1977)), although there is little evidence to support it.

A combination of maize and beans provides the full quota of essential amino acids, precluding a widespread need for animal protein. The Aztecs had a great diversity of maize strains, with a wide range of amino acid content. They also cultivated amaranth, whose seeds have a high protein content, and cultivated chia.

A study by Montellano (Medicina, Nutrición y Salud Aztecas, 1997) shows a mean life expectancy of 37 (±3) years for the population of Mesoamerica.

After the Spanish conquest, some foods were outlawed, particularly amaranth because of its central role in religious rituals. There was less diversity of food which led to chronic malnutrition in the general population.

Recreation

As in modern Mexico, the Aztecs had strong passions over a ball game, but in their case it was tlachtli, the Aztec variant of the Mesoamerican ballgame. The game was played with a ball of solid rubber, about the size of a human head. The ball was called olli, whence derives the Spanish word for rubber, hule.

The city had two special buildings for the ball games. The players hit the ball with their hips, knees, and elbows. They had to pass the ball through a stone ring to automatically win. This was difficult, so they could hit markers on the walls to earn points. The fortunate player that could do this had the right to take the blankets of the public, so his victory was followed by general running of the public, with screams and laughter.

People bet on the games. Poor people could bet their food, pillis could bet their fortunes, tecutlis (lords) could bet their concubines or even their cities, and those who had nothing could bet their freedom and risk becoming slaves.

The Aztecs also enjoyed board games, like patolli and totoloque. Bernal Diaz records that Cortés and Moctezuma II played totoloque together.

Arts

Song and poetry were highly regarded; there were presentations and poetry contests at most of the Aztec festivals. Also there was a kind of dramatic presentation that included players, musicians and acrobats.

Poetry

Poetry was the only occupation worthy of an Aztec warrior in times of peace. A remarkable amount of this poetry survives, having been collected during the era of the conquest. In some cases, we know names of individual authors, such as Netzahualcoyotl, Tolatonai of Texcoco, and Cuacuatzin, Lord of Tepechpan. Miguel León-Portilla, the most renowned translator of Nahuatl, comments that it is in this poetry where we can find the real thought of the Aztecs, independent of "official" Aztec ideology.

In the basement of the Great Temple there was the "house of the eagles", where in peacetime Aztec captains could drink a foaming chocolate, smoke good cigars, and have poetry contests. The poetry was accompanied by percussion instruments (teponaztli). Recurring themes in this poetry are whether life is real or a dream, whether there is an afterlife, and whether we can approach the giver of life.

The most important collection of these poems is Romances de los señores de la Nueva España, collected (Tezcoco 1582), probably by Juan Bautista de Pomar. This volume was later translated into Spanish by Ángel María Garibay K., teacher of León-Portilla. Bautista de Pomar was the great grandson of Netzahualcoyotl. He spoke Nahuatl, but was raised as Christian and wrote in Latin characters.

"Is It You?", a short poem by Netzahualcoyotl, can be found in Wikisource.

"Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan", a short poem contained within the "Unos Anales Históricos de la Nación Mexicana" manuscript, can be found in Wikisource.

Drama

The Aztec people also enjoyed a type of dramatic presentation, although it could not be called theater. Some were comical with music and acrobats, others were staged dramas of their gods. After the conquest, the first Christian churches had open chapels reserved for these kinds of representations. Plays in Nahuatl, written by converted Indians, were an important instrument for the conversion to Christianity, and are still found today in the form of traditional pastorelas, which are played during Christmas to show the Adoration of Baby Jesus, and other Biblical passages.

Education

Representation of Aztec education.The Mexica, one of the Aztec groups, were one of the first people in the world to have mandatory education for nearly all children, regardless of gender, rank, or station.

Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpulli. Periodically they attended their local temples, to test their progress.

Part of this education involved learning a collection of sayings, called huehuetlatolli ("The sayings of the old"), that embodied the Aztecs' ideals. It included speeches and sayings for every occasion, the words to salute the birth of children, and to say farewell at death. Fathers admonished their daughters to be very clean, but not to use makeup, because they would look like ahuianis.

Mothers admonished their daughters to support their husbands, even if they turn out to be humble peasants. Boys were admonished to be humble, obedient and hard workers. Judged by their language, most of the huehuetlatolli seemed to have evolved over several centuries, predating the Aztecs and most likely adopted from other Nahua cultures.

Boys and girls went to school at age 15. Probably this was one of the first societies that required education for all its members, without regard of gender or social status.

There were two types of schools: the telpochcalli, for practical and military studies, and the calmecac, for advanced learning in writing, astronomy, statesmanship, theology, and other areas. The two institutions seem to be common to the Nahua people, leading some experts to suggest that they are older than the Aztec culture.

The telpochcalli or House of the Young, taught history, religion, military fighting arts, and a trade or craft (such as agriculture or handicrafts). Some of the telpochcalli students were chosen for the army, but most of them returned to their homes.

The calmecac, attended mostly by the sons of pillis, was focused on turning out leaders (tlatoque), priests, scholars/teachers (tlatimini), healers (tizitl) and codex painters (tlacuilos). They studied rituals, ancient and contemporary history, literacy, calendrics, some elements of geometry, songs (poetry), and, as at the telpochcalli, military arts.

Each calpulli specialized in some handicrafts, and this was an important part of the income of the city. The teaching of handicraft was highly valued.

The healers (tizitl) had several specialities. Some were trained to just inspect and classify medicinal plants, others were trained in the preparation of medicines that were sold in special places (tlapalli). More than a hundred preparations are known, including deodorants, remedies for smelly feet, dentifric paste etc. Also there were tizitl specialized in surgery, digestive disease, teeth and nose, skin diseases, etc.

Aztec teachers (tlatimine) propounded a spartan regime of education – cold baths in the morning, hard work, physical punishment, bleeding with maguey thorns and endurance tests – with the purpose of forming a stoical people.

There is contradictory information about whether calmecac was reserved for the sons and daughters of the pillis; some accounts said they could choose where to study. It is possible that the common people preferred the telpochcalli, because a warrior could advance more readily by his military abilities; becoming a priest or a tlacuilo was not a way to rise rapidly from a low station.

Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child raising. They were not taught to read or write. Some of them were educated as midwives and received the full training of a healer; they were also called tizitl. Female tizitl would treat women throughout their reproductive life. They would admonish young wives, and after the second month of pregnancy, they would began watch them for any problems.

Probably because they were women, they preferred to save the woman's life over that of a fetus, resorting to embryotomy. Because of this, their work, called temiuxiuliztli, has sometimes been translated as "obstetrics" (Medicine in Mexico, before the Discovery. Dr. Manuel Valdez 1992). All women were taught to be involved "in the things of god"; there are paintings of women presiding over religious ceremonies, but there are no references to female priests.

There were also two other opportunities for those few who had talent. Some were chosen for the house of song and dance, and others were chosen for the ball game. Both occupations had high status.

Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlán, looking east. From the mural painting at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City. Painted in 1930 by Dr. Atl.Tenochitlan was the capital city of the Aztec empire, now the site of modern-day Mexico City.

Built on a series of islets in Lake Texcoco, the city plan was based on a symmetrical layout that was divided into four city sections called campans. Each campan was divided in 20 precincts called calpulli. The calpullis were divided by canals called tlaxilcalli.

The canals were useful for transportation with rafts made with totoras. There were also rafts for collecting garbage and other ones to collect excrement that was used for fertilization on the chinampas on Lake Texcoco -- long raised beds upon which crops were cultivated. Chinampas were a very efficient system and could provide up to seven crops a year. On the basis of current chinampa yields, it has been estimated that 1 hectare of chinampa would feed 20 individuals, with about 9,000 hectares of chinampa, there was food for 180,000 people.

Perhaps one thousand people were employed for street cleaning. Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote how he was surprised at finding latrines in homes, public markets, and on the paths.

Modern historians estimate, at its peak, the population of Tenochtitlan was between 60,000 to 130,000 inhabitants. Thus, it was surpassed in population only by Constantinople with about 200,000 inhabitants, Paris with about 250,000, and Venice with about 160,000.

Anthropologist Eduardo Noguera estimates the population at 200,000 based in the house count and merging the population of Tlatelolco (once an independent city, but later became a suburb of Tenochtitlan). If one includes the surrounding islets and shores surrounding Lake Texcoco, estimates range from 300,000 to 700,000 inhabitants.

Legacy

Most modern Mexicans are of mixed Spanish and indigenous ancestry, descendants of the Mexicas or of the many other indigenous peoples of the Aztec Empire and Mesoamerica.

Nahuatl is still spoken by Mexican Indians (who still claim Yo hablo mexicano – "I speak Mexican"), mostly in mountainous areas in the states surrounding Mexico City. Moreover, Nahuatl survives among the entire Mexican population, comprising a significant part of the Mexican Spanish dialect, some of which has even come into American English.

Mexico City was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, making it one of the oldest living cities of America. Many of its districts and natural landmarks retain their original Nahuatl names. Many other cities and towns in Central Mexico were also originally Mexica towns, also often retaining their original Nahuatl names, or combining them with Spanish.

Mexican cuisine continues to be based on and flavored by agricultural products contributed by the Mexicas/Aztecs and MesoAmerica, most of which retain some form of their original Nahuatl names. The cuisine has also become a popular part of the cuisine of the United States and other countries around the world, typically altered to suit various national tastes.

The modern Mexican flag bears the emblem of the Mexica's migration legend.

The Mexica earth mother goddess Tonantzin lives on in the guise of Mexico's premier religious icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Discussion of sources

Each of the historical sources has its own unique problems. None of the sources is free from bias and every source must be viewed with some skepticism until cross-checked against other contemporary sources or the archaeological records.

There are only four extant Aztec codices which were made before the conquest. Later codices, like Codex Mendoza, were painted by Aztec tlacuilos (codex creators) in 1541 under Spanish authorities. The possibility of Spanish influence poses potential problems for these the post-conquest codices.

The accounts of the conquistadores are those of men confronted with a new civilization, which they tried to interpret according their own culture. Cortés was the most educated, and his letters are a valuable first-hand account. Unfortunately, one of his letters is lost and replaced by a posterior text and the others were censored prior their publication.

Bernal Diaz del Castillo is more problematic: he wrote decades after the fact, he never learned the native languages, and he didn't take notes. His account is colorful, but his work is considered erratic and exaggerated.

The accounts of the first priests and scholars, while reflecting their faith and their culture, are important sources. Fathers Diego Durán, Motolinia and Mendieta wrote with their own religion in mind, Father Duran wrote trying to prove that the Aztec were one of the lost tribes of Israel.

Bartolome de las Casas wrote instead from an apologetic point of view. There also authors that tried to make a synthesis of the pre-Hispanic cultures, like "Oviedo y Herrera", Jose de Acosta, and Pedro Mártir de Angleria.

Perhaps the most important source about the Aztec are the manuscripts of Bernardino de Sahagún, who worked with the surviving Aztec wise men. He also taught Aztec tlacuilos to write the original Nahuatl accounts using the Latin alphabet. Because of fear of the Spanish authorities, he maintained the anonymity of his informants, and wrote a heavily censored version in Spanish.

Unfortunately the Nahuatl original was not fully translated until the 20th century, thus realising the extent of the censorship of the Spanish version. The original Nahuatl manuscript is known as the Florentine Codex.

Other important sources are the work of Indian and mestizo authors, descendants of the upper classes. These authors include Don Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc, Chimalpain Cuahutlehuanintzin, Juan Bautista de Pomar, and Alva Ixtlixochitl.

Ixtlixochitl is the author wrote a history of Texcoco, but he was apparently trying to please the Catholic priest, taking the Bible as a model, and his history of Netzahualcoyolt has a strong resemblance to the story of King Solomon. While not actually changing the history, he exaggerates some parts.

Diego Muñoz Camargo, a Tlaxcalteca mestizo from the 16th century, wrote the "History of Tlaxcala" several decades after the Spanish conquest, and some parts of his work have a strong Tlaxcala bias.

There are also some anonymous manuscripts such as the Ramirez Codex, probably the work of a Christianized Aztec.

Small communities continued to use Aztec codices for legal purposes for almost a century after the conquest, although they clearly were made by untrained hands.

Due to setbacks, Cortés did not arrive in the New World until 1506. He took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba and was granted a large estate of land and Indian slaves for his efforts.

This was the encomienda that had worked so well in the conquest of the Canaries (eliminating the indigenous Guanches) but would prove devastating in the New World.

Expeditions to Yucatán by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1517 and Juan de Grijalva in 1518 had returned to Cuba with small amounts of gold, and tales of a more distant land where gold was said to be abundant.

Cortés eagerly sold or mortgaged all his lands to buy ships and supplies and arranged with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, another distant relative and his father-in-law, to lead an expedition, officially to explore and trade with the rumored new lands to the west.

Governor Velázquez forbade him to invade the mainland (a privilege he reserved for himself), but calling upon what law he had studied and his famous powers of persuasion,

Cortés tricked Governor Velázquez into inserting a clause about emergency measures that might have to be taken without prior authorization, "in the true interests of the realm.

Thus warned, Cortés organized his expedition and set sail on the morning of January 18, 1519, just as Velázquez arrived at the dock in person to remove him.

It is important to note that Cortes' personal account of the conquest of Mexico is known by his letters to the King of Spain or cartas de relacion. As one specialist describes them, "Cartas de relación have enjoyed an unequaled popularity among students of the Conquest of Mexico.

Historians, sociologists, and political scientists use them to glean information about the Aztec empire and the clash between the European and Indian cultures. However, as early as the sixteenth century doubt has been cast on the historicity of these Conquest accounts. It is generally accepted that Cortés does not write a true “history,” but rather combines history with fiction.

That is to say, in his narrative Cortés manipulates reality in order to achieve his overarching purpose of gaining the favor of the king. Cortés applies the classical rhetorical figure of evidentia as he crafts a powerful narrative full of “vividness” that moves the reader and creates a heightened sense of realism in his letters."

Beginning his campaign

After leaving Cuba with 11 ships, 500 men, and 15 horses, Cortés stopped briefly in the Yucatán, where there was little gold, but the priceless gift of two translators. One of these was the woman whom Cortes called Dona Marina, sometimes called "La Malinche," later made legendary in book and film (even if she was not, as conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote in his account "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain," an Aztec princess sold into Mayan slavery).

The other was a shipwrecked Spaniard, a priest named Geronimo de Aguilar who had learned a Mayan dialect during seven years of slavery, though he proved less and less useful as it became apparent that Marina was trilingual: she spoke Maya, Nahuatl (the language of the Mexica/Aztecs), and a dialect of Nahautl spoken only to and in front of the Mexica/Aztec emperor.

Cortés landed his party in a location he named La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, now known as Veracruz ("True Cross") on Holy Thursday March 4. By establishing a municipality, he could "reluctantly" proceed to claim land for King Charles V of Spain by popular mandate of the city magistrates he had appointed, all conveniently friends of his.

The local Totonac from Cempoala greeted him with gifts of food, feathers, gold – and women. He learned that the land was ruled by the great lord in the city of Tenochtitlán. Soon ambassadors from the Mexica/Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II arrived with additional gifts, apparently hoping to keep him at a distance by satisfying him with gold. It had the opposite effect.

In his letters to Charles V, Cortés claims to have learned at this point that he was suspected of being Quetzalcoatl or an emissary of Quetzalcoatl, a legendary god-king that controlled lightning who was predicted to one day return to reclaim his city in a One-Reed year on the Mexica calendar. (One-Reed was, in this particular 52-year "century," 1519, adding to the extraordinary luck of this conquistador.) However, there is much doubt as to the truth of this legend.

While Quetzalcoatl was a mythic god whom the Mexica saw as a tie to the earlier Toltec peoples from whom they claimed descent, there is little evidence supporting a Pre-Hispanic myth alleging his "return." Current scholarship on this topic is complex, and no consensus has been reached. Some argue that this Cortés-Quetzalcoatl connection was a post-colonial retelling by the Mexica to account for the Conquest.

Some argue that this was a natural evolution from the Mexica concept of cosmology, in which (it is asserted) time is cyclical; therefore, the Mexica must have believed that events in the past would be repeated in the future (such as Quetzalcoatl's return). (This concept of Mexica cosmology is convincingly argued against by historian Ross Hassig in his book Time, History, and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico.)

Finally, some assert that the myth was a fabrication of the Spanish, used both to assert the inevitability of the outcome of the Conquest and to forge a link between the ancient gods and Christ (to whom Quetzalcoatl was often implicitly compared).

While some of the expedition wanted to get such gold as they could by trade or theft and then return to Cuba, Cortés had seen the results of this sort of plunder and had plans to build a working empire of his own.

He ordered all his fleet scuttled (not burned as legend has it), except for one small ship with which to communicate with Spain, effectively stranding the expedition in Mexico and ending all thoughts of loyalty to the Governor of Cuba. Cortés then led his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlán.

Conquest

Cortés arrived at Tlaxcala, a small independent state within the empire's sphere of influence. The Tlaxcaltecas attacked his troops, but Spanish crossbows, broadswords, battle axes, horses, war dogs and firearms quickly won the battle. Cortés said that if the men of Tlaxcala would accept Christianity, become his allies and vassals to his lord, he would forgive their disrespect and overthrow their nemesis, Emperor Moctezuma.

Cortés' "lord" was Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to whom he made his case by letters, over the head of Velázquez, who, in turn, was trying to make a case over the head of Diego Colón, son of Christopher Columbus and thus Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Otherwise, Cortés threatened, he would kill everyone in their entire nation. The Tlaxcaltecas agreed; Cortés then continued his march with some 2,000 Tlaxcalteca warriors and perhaps as many more porters.

He also purchased cotton armour, seeing how much more effective than chain mail it was against Indian arrows After Cortés arrived in Cholula, the second largest city of the Empire, La Malinche relayed a rumor that the locals planned to murder the Spaniards in their sleep.

Although he did not know if this was true or not, Cortés ordered a pre-emptive strike to serve as a lesson: the Spaniards seized and killed the local nobles, set fire to the city and killed an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 of the inhabitants.

Cortés then sent a message ahead to Moctezuma that the lords of Cholula had treated him with disrespect and had to be punished, but if Moctezuma treated him with respect and gifts of gold, the Aztecs need not fear his wrath. Terror was one of his many powerful tools, though much of his military genius can be ascribed to La Malinche, who had her own motives for revenge.

On November 8, 1519, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan. At this time it is believed that the city was one of the largest in the world; in Europe, only Constantinople was larger. The most common estimates put the population at around 60,000 to over 300,000 people.

Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, thinking Cortés to be the returning god Quetzalcoatl, welcomed Cortes with great pomp. Meanwhile, other Aztec nobles were in dismay at the royal submissive attitude and planned a successful, but temporary, rebellion which resulted in driving Cortes and his allies out of Tenochtitlan. Popular tales say that he wept under a tree the night of his defeat La Noche Triste.

However, Cortes came back and put a naval siege to the city. The siege lasted months. Much of the city was destroyed by smallpox. In fact, a third of the inhabitants of the entire valley died in less than six months by the new disease brought from Europe. Cannons did the rest. Despite the valiant resistance, the city fell on August 13, 1521.

Decomposed bodies littered the destroyed city and bloated corpses floated in canals and the lake The rest of the city was either destroyed, dismantled or buried as Mexico City was built on top of it. Some of the remaining ruins of Tenochtitlan's main temple, the Templo Mayor, were excavated in the 1970's and are now open to visitors.

Mexico City's Zócalo is located at the location of Tenochtitlan's original central plaza and market, and many of the original calzadas still correspond to modern streets in the city. Some of the conquistadores had traveled as widely as Venice and Constantinople, and many said that Tenochtitlan was as large and fine a city as any they had seen.

Although many popular histories insist that Cortés was a uniquely brilliant military strategist, the "great man" myth of Cortés drastically overshadows the actual process of conquest. While Cortés can be credited with successfully identifying the complexities of local indigenous politics, especially the animosity felt by many native groups towards the Mexica-Aztec Empire, the use of native allies was hardly a new concept.

This tactic was one which Cortés had experienced and adopted from earlier conquests in the Caribbean. Additionally, the use of terror and the capturing of native leaders reappear over and over in Spanish conquest history and were not unique inventions of Cortés.

Even his attempt to justify his conquest of the Mexican mainland — a right held by the governor of Cuba — through the founding of Veracruz and an appeal directly to Emperor Charles V had been used by other conquistadors interested in usurping the right of conquest.

Ultimately, Cortés and the conquest of Mexico should not be viewed as a brilliant military feat but instead as the successful implementation of multiple conquest strategies derived from almost thirty years of conquest experience in the Caribbean. In addition, as stated above, smallpox turned out to be his greatest ally.

After the fall of the city, Cortes imprisoned the royal families of the valley. Among other important figures, he personally tortured and killed Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec Emperor; Coanacoch the King of Texcoco and Tetlepanquetzal, King of Tlacopan (February 28, 1525).

He wanted to get from them the location of the Moctezuma gold treasure and expected to avoid another Aztec rebellion. Bernal Diaz del Castillo tell us that other Spaniards supported him on his brutal decision. The execution eventually had to be carried on by Tlaxcallan soldiers. He married one of the daughters of emperor Moctezuma and gave the other noble women to his men.

Later life

When Cortés returned to New Spain from Honduras, barely alive, he was greeted with joy by a desperate, lawless population. He served a term as Governor-General of "New Spain of the Ocean Sea" (as Juan de Grijalva had named Mexico before Cortés ever saw it), bringing stability and surprising civil rights to the country. He kept his explorations and eventually was the first European to set foot on the lower california. The Sea of Cortes is named after him.

While he was away, the Castilian bureaucrats began to arrive, undoing all his work, and he left his eldest and favorite son, La Malinche's child Martín Cortés, with a relatively large fortune, eventually returning to Europe to fight in Italy with the same son.

In return for his efforts in expanding the still young Spanish Empire, Cortés was rewarded by being named the Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, a noble title and senorial estate which was passed down to his descendents until 1811.

Cortés's states were mismanaged by abusive colonial administrators when he returned to Spain. Cortés sided with local Indians in a lawsuit. The Indians documented the abuses in the Huexotzinco Codex. Cortés was one of the first Spaniards to attempt to grow sugar in Mexico and one of the first to import African slaves to early colonial Mexico.

At the time of his death his estate contained at least 200 slaves who were either native Africans or of African descent. Cortés died in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville province, on December 2, 1547, from a case of pleurisy at age 62.

Like Columbus, he died a wealthy but embittered man; he had not become the great Caesar of Charles V's Western Empire. His last battle in 1541 was a Spanish attack on Algiers.

He left his many mestizo and white children well cared for in his will, along with every one of their mothers.

It is extremely difficult to characterize this particular conquistador – his unspeakable atrocities, his tactical and strategic awareness, the rewards for his Tlaxcalteca allies along with the rehabilitation of the nobility (including a castle for Moctezuma's heirs in Spain that still stands), his respect for Indians as worthy adversaries and family members. In Mexico today he is condemned as a modern-day damnatio memoriae.

In Mesoamerican beliefs, the world is always at the border of destruction after each calendar round cycle of 52 years, called "the tying of years"; at these times, they believed there was the possibility the world would end.

The Spaniards arrived just at the end of one of these cycles. Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590) also recorded eight signs that appeared in Tenochtitlan the ten years prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, and were interpreted as sign of a possible disaster:

Cortés, with his up to 500 Spaniards, did not fight alone but with as many as 150,000 or 200,000 allies from Tlaxcala, and eventually from Texcoco, who were resisting Aztec rule. He defeated Tenochtitlan's forces on August 13, 1521.An anonymous Aztec poet wrote:

How can we save our homes, my people

The Aztecs are deserting the city

The city is in flames and all

is darkness and destruction

Weep my people

Know that with these disasters

We have lost the Mexican nation

Our food is bitter

These are the acts of the Giver of Life.

– From the Informantes Anónimos de Tlatelolco, compiled in 1521.

But even in this moment, most of the other Mesoamerican cultures were

intact. The Tlaxcaltecas expected to get their part; the Purepechas and Mixtecs probably were happy at the defeat of their longtime enemy, and it was the same for other cultures.

It seemed that the Cortés's intention was to maintain the structure of the Aztec empire, and at first it seemed the Aztec empire could survive. The upper classes at first were considered as noblemen (to this day, the title of Duke of Moctezuma is held by a Spanish noble family), they learned Spanish, and several learned to write in European characters.

Some of their surviving writings are crucial in our knowledge of the Aztecs. Also, the first missionaries tried to learn Nahuatl and some, like Bernardino de Sahagún, decided to learn as much as they could of the Aztec culture.

A record survives of a dialog between the last tlatimine or wise men, and the missionaries, where the Aztec try to defend their ways, this reflects the sadness of their defeat:

Lords, respected lords: You have traveled much to get to this land.

Here in front of you,

we contemplate you, we ignorant people...

And now, what are we going to tell you?

What is what we must address to your ears?

Are we something indeed?

We are just vulgar people...

By means of a translator we will answer,

we will return the breath and the word

about the lord of the near and far. (ometeotl /omecihuatl)

It's by his word, that we risk ourselves,

that we put ourselves in danger...

Maybe this is our loss,

maybe is our destruction,

where are we going to be taken?

Where should we go?

We are vulgar people

we are perishable, we are mortal.

Let us die, let us perish,

since our gods are dead.

But there should be peace on your

hearts and your body,

Milords!

we will break a little,

we will show a little,

the secret, the ark of the lord, our God

You said

that we did not know

about the lord of the near and far,

about of one who created earth and sky.

you said

That our gods are not true.

This is a new word,

this that you have spoken.

This is why we are disturbed,

this is why we are annoyed.

Because our ancestors,

the ones that had been,

the ones that had lived on this earth,

they did not speak like that.

They give us the ways of life,

they take by true,

they give cult,

they honored the gods......

they teach us the ways of the cult,

all the ways to honor the gods.

That way we put the mouth on earth,

by them we bleed us,

we accomplished our votes,

we burn copal

and offered sacrifice.

(....)

We know to whom we owe life.

To whom we owe birth,

to whom we owe to be beget

to whom we owe to grow,

and how to invoke...

(....)

Hear milords

do not harm your people.

Do not let disgrace to be carried,

to let it perish...

tranquil, and friendly,

take this account, milords,

of what is needed.

(....)

Here are the ones who rule us,

the ones that take us,

the ones that have the world in charge.

Is it not enough that we are defeated?

that we are taken away?

that we are taken from our rulers?

If in this place we are to stand,

we will be prisoners.

So Do with us what you want,

This is what we have spoken,

what we answered,

to your breath,

to your word,

oh lords!

The society traditionally was divided into two social classes; the macehualli (people) or peasantry and the pilli or nobility.

Nobility was not originally hereditary, although the sons of pillis had access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Eventually, this class

system took on the aspects of a hereditary system. The Aztec military had an equivalent to military service with a core of professional warriors; only those that had taken prisoners could become full-time warriors, and eventually the honors and spoils of war would make them pillis.

Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he would be called tequiua and could attain a rank of Eagle or Jaguar knight, sometimes translated as "captain", eventually he could reach the rank of tlacateccatl or tlachochcalli. To be elected as tlatoani, one was required to have taken about 17 captives in war. When Aztec boys

attained adult age, they stopped cutting their hair until they took their first captive; sometimes two or three youths united to get their first captive; then they would be called iyac. If after a certain time, usually three combats, they could not gain a captive, they became macehualli; their hair would still be quite long, indicating that they had not gotten a captive yet. That was rather shameful.

The abundance of tributes led to the emergence and rise of a third class that was not part of the traditional Aztec society: pochtecas or traders. Their activities were not only commercial: they also were an effective intelligence gathering force. They were scorned by the warriors - who nonetheless sent to them their spoils of war in exchange for blankets, feathers, slaves, and other presents.

In the later days of the empire, the concept of macehualli also had changed. Eduardo Noguera (Annals of Anthropology, UNAM, Vol. xi, 1974, p. 56) estimates only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The chinampa system of food production was very efficient; it could provide food for about 190,000 people. Also, a significant amount of food was obtained by trade and tribute.

The Aztec were not only conquering warriors, but also skilled artisans and aggressive traders. Eventually, most of the macehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city (Sanders, William T., Settlement Patterns in Central Mexico. Handbook of Middle American Indians, 1971, vol. 3, p. 3-44).

Excavations of some cities under Aztec rule show that a sizeable number of luxury items were produced in Tenochtitlan. More excavations are needed to show if this was true in other Aztec provinces, but if trade was as important as it seems, this could explain the rise of the Pochteca as a powerful class.

The fall of Tenochtitlan usually is referred as the main episode in the process of the conquest, but this process was much more complex.

It took almost 60 years of wars to conquest mesoamerica

(Chichimeca wars), a process that could have taken longer, but three separate epidemics took a heavy toll on the population.

The first was from 1520-1521, smallpox (cocoliztli) decimated the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city.

The other two epidemics, of smallpox (1545-1548) and typhus (1576-1581) killed up to 75% of the population of mesoamerica. The population before the time of the conquest is estimated at 15 million; by 1550, the estimated population was 4 million and less than two millions by 1581.

Whole towns disappeared, lands were deserted, roads were closed and armies were destroyed. The "New Spain" of the XVI century was a depopulated country and many mesoamerican cultures were wiped out. However, despite this, the indigenous people, even at their lowest demographic ebb, far outnumbered the Spanish colonials.

The society traditionally was divided into two social classes; the macehualli (people) or peasantry and the pilli or nobility.

Nobility was not originally hereditary, although the sons of pillis had access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Eventually, this class system took on the aspects of a hereditary system.

The Aztec military had an equivalent to military service

with a core of professional warriors; only those that had taken prisoners could become full-time warriors, and eventually the honors and spoils of war would make them pillis. Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he would be called tequiua and could attain a rank of Eagle or Jaguar knight, sometimes translated as "captain", eventually he could reach the rank of tlacateccatl or tlachochcalli.

To be elected as tlatoani, one was required to have taken about 17 captives in war. When Aztec boys attained adult age, they stopped cutting their hair

until they took their first captive; sometimes two or three youths united to get their first captive; then they would be called iyac. If after a certain time, usually three combats, they could not gain a captive, they became macehualli; their hair would still be quite long, indicating that they had not gotten a captive yet. That was rather shameful.

The abundance of tributes led to the emergence and rise of a third class that was not part of the traditional Aztec society: pochtecas or traders.

Their activities were not only commercial: they also were an effective intelligence gathering force. They were scorned by the warriors - who nonetheless sent to them their spoils of war in exchange for blankets, feathers, slaves, and other presents.

In the later days of the empire, the concept of macehualli also had changed. Eduardo Noguera (Annals of Anthropology, UNAM, Vol. xi, 1974, p. 56) estimates only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production.

The chinampa system of food production was very efficient; it could provide food for about 190,000 people. Also, a significant amount of food was obtained by trade and tribute.

The Aztec were not only conquering warriors, but also skilled artisans and aggressive traders. Eventually, most of the macehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city (Sanders, William T., Settlement Patterns in Central Mexico. Handbook of Middle American Indians, 1971, vol. 3, p. 3-44).

Excavations of some cities under Aztec rule show that a sizeable number of luxury items were produced in Tenochtitlan. More excavations are needed to show if this was true in other Aztec provinces, but if trade was as important as it seems, this could explain the rise of the Pochteca as a powerful class.

Slaves

Slaves or tlacotin (distinct from war captives) also constituted an important class. This slavery was very different from what Europeans of the same period were to establish in their colonies, although it had much in common with the slaves of classical antiquity. (Sahagún doubts the appropriateness even of the term "slavery" for this Aztec institution.)

First, slavery was personal, not hereditary: a slave's children were free. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they were able to show they had been mistreated or if they had children with or were married to their masters.

Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance.

Another rather remarkable method for a slave to recover liberty was described by Manuel Orozco y Berra in La civilización azteca (1860): if, at the tianquiztli (marketplace; the word has survived into modern-day Spanish as "tianguis"), a slave could escape the vigilance of his or her master, run outside the walls of the market and step on a piece of human excrement, he could then present his case to the judges, who would free him.

He or she would then be washed, provided with new clothes (so that he or she would not be wearing clothes belonging to the master), and declared free. Because, in stark contrast to the European colonies, a person could be declared a slave if he or she attempted to prevent the escape of a slave (unless that person were a relative of the master), others would not typically help the master in preventing the slave's escape.

Orozco y Berra also reports that a master could not sell a slave without the slave's consent, unless the slave had been classified as incorrigible by an authority. (Incorrigibility could be determined on the basis of repeated laziness, attempts to run away, or general bad conduct.) Incorrigible slaves were made to wear a wooden collar, affixed by rings at the back.

The collar was not merely a symbol of bad conduct: it was designed to make it harder to run away through a crowd or through narrow spaces. When buying a collared slave, one was informed of how many times that slave had been sold. A slave who was sold four times as incorrigible could be sold to be sacrificed; those slaves commanded a premium in price.

However, if a collared slave managed to present him- or herself in the royal palace or in a temple, he or she would regain liberty.

An Aztec could become a slave as a punishment. A murderer sentenced to death could instead, upon the request of the wife of his victim, be given to her as a slave. A father could sell his son into slavery if the son was declared incorrigible by an authority. Those who did not pay their debts could also be sold as slaves.

People could sell themselves as slaves. They could stay free long enough to enjoy the price of their liberty, about twenty blankets, usually enough for a year; after that time they went to their new master. Usually this was the destiny of gamblers and of old ahuini (courtesans or prostitutes).

Motolinía reports that some captives, future victims of sacrifice, were treated as slaves with all the rights of an Aztec slave until the time of their sacrifice, but it is not clear how they were kept from running away..

An Eagle warrior is closely related to a Jaguar warrior, in the sense that it is another special forces part of the Aztec military.

Like the Jaguar warriors, Eagle warriors wear the hide of their animal, in this case an eagle. Both Jaguar warriors and Eagle warriors were considered to be nobility.

At birth, all Aztec boys had their umbilical cord cut off and dried before being buried on a battlefield. This signified that the boy would grow up to be a warrior. Anyone who was able to fight fought.

School

As one of the parts of their education, all Aztec boys learned about weaponry and warfare at school. However, only the best would progress to become Eagle warriors.

Becoming An Adult

To become an adult, a boy had to capture his first prisoner. Usually, like Jaguar warriors, 4 or 5 prisoners were required to be caught in one battle to earn the title of Eagle warrior.

Fighting

An Aztec warrior would try to break his opponent's leg so he could be easily carried away as a prisoner. Prisoners were an Aztec version of a trophy, although they usually did not last long as they were quickly sacrificed to one of the many Aztec gods.

A Eagle warrior's role was a Scout as well as a foot soldier, unlike the Jaguar

Warriors who were used more as spies. He had a spear as his weapon and could run very long distances at comparatively good speeds. For this reason, he was also used as a messenger to send messages to the Aztec Emperor.

Costume

The costumes of Jaguar warriors and Eagle warriors were worn to signify both courage on the battlefield and physical strength. Their shields were brightly coloured and covered in feathers. On a warrior's legs would be leather strips, an archaic version of greaves.

Weaponry

The warriors would use a number of weapons, including slings, bows, spears and daggers. The better equipped Spaniards (who conquered the Aztecs), led by Hernán Cortés, used Spanish steel swords, cannons and guns.

The Aztec blades were made from obsidian, which was sharper than steel but quickly lost it's edge. The Spaniards wore steel armour, which was heavy and hot. The Aztecs wore a lightweight close-fitting breastplate which suited the Mexican climate better.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors

The Eagle Warriors were featured in the video game expansion pack Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. The expansion pack introduced new civilizations, including the Aztecs. As a stable is not available for the Meso-American civilizations, scout cavalry were replaced by Eagle Warriors, available to both Aztecs and Mayans.

In the game, Eagle Warriors are generally light infantry with unparalleled speed, but poor attack and defense. Eagle Warriors can be created at a Barracks and make good scouts.

The Aztec strategy of war was based on the capture of prisoners by individual warriors, not on working as a group to kill the enemy in battle. By the time the Aztecs came to recognize what warfare meant in European terms, it was too late.

The Aztec army consisted of Eagle warriors and Jaguar knights. Eagle warriors wore eagle feathers and helmets

shaped like eagle heads. They were trained to make surprise raids on a city at dawn and lived in special houses.

Jaguar knights wore jaguar skins and helmets shaped like jaguar heads or pointed hats of jaguar skin. Their job was to discover the weak points of a city, then after the eagles attacked, they would surround a city and close in.

Weaponry

Atlatl: Long range weapon used by Aztec soldiers. Soldiers were able to shoot darts or small spears with this weapon, sometimes even used venom in them.

Quauhololli: One of the most feared weapons by Aztec enemies, the quauololli was a mace made out of heavy stone, and was mostly used to attack in the opponent's head, causing severe damage.

Maquahuitl: "Hungry wood", considered the Aztec weapon by excellence, made out of wood and sharp obsidian knives on its sides. It was the aztec equivalent of a sword. It was the aztecs best weapon Also known as "macana", a deadly blow was capable of cutting a horse's head.

Xiuhichimalli: Shield worn by Moquiuix when he fought Axayacatl, Aztec Tlatoani in the war of Tlatelolco.

Teputzopilli: Wooden lance with sharp obsidian stones in the top.

Micomitl: Aztec arrow quiver.

Yaomitl: A lance, shorter than the average ones used by the Aztec army. It was short because it was meant to be used along with the Atlatl, it had a bone, obsidian or stone top.

He was also the national god of the Aztecs. As well as being a god of war and a sun god, he was also a god of death, young men, warriors, storms, and a guide for journeys. In the Nahua culture, many names have an esoteric meaning,

known only to some. According Laurette Sejourne, in his book "Burning water" (sacred war) in Nahua maps, the South is at the left, and in the South is the paradise of the sun. Also, the souls of the dead warriors return to the earth as butterflies and hummingbirds, so the esoteric meaning of Huitzilopochtli is "the warrior soul from the paradise."

His mother was Coatlicue, his father a ball of feathers (or, alternatively,

Mixcoatl). His sister was Malinalxochi, a beautiful sorceress, who was also his rival. His messenger or impersonator was Paynal.

The legend of Huitzilopochtli is recorded in the Mexicayotl Chronicle. His sister, Coyolxauhqui, tried to kill their mother because she became pregnant in a shameful way (by a ball of feathers). Her fetus, Huitzilopochtli, sprang from her womb and killed Coyolxauhqui, along with many of his 400 brothers and sisters. He then tossed her head into the sky, where it became the moon, so that his mother would be comforted in seeing her daughter in the sky every night.

History and myth

Huitzilopochtli was a tribal god, and a legendary wizard of the Aztecs, and originally was of little importance to the Nahuas, but after the rise of the Aztecs, Tlacaelel reformed their religion and put Huitzilopochtli at the same level as Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca, making him a solar god.

So he replaced Nanahuatzin, the solar god from the Nahua legend, with Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli was said to be in a constant struggle with the darkness, and he needed to replace his blood, hence the major sacrifices.

The Nahuas believed the world would end like the other previous four creations. Every fifty-two years, they feared the world would end. Under Tlacaelel, Aztecs believed that they could give strength to Huitzilopochtli with human blood and thereby postpone the end of the world, at least for another fifty-two years. Ironically, the Aztec empire fell at the end of this cycle.

The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan was dedicated to Huitzlilopochtli and Tlaloc because they were considered equals in power. Father Durán wrote, "These two gods were always meant to be together, since they were considered companions of equal power." (Diego Duran, Book of Gods and Rites)

According to Leon Portilla, in this new vision from Tlacaelel, the warriors that died in battle and women who died in childbirth would go to serve Huitzilopochtli in his palace (in the south, or left).

From a description in the Florentine Codex, Huitzilopochtli was so bright that the warrior souls had to use their shields to protect their eyes. They could only see the god through the arrow holes in their shields, so it was the bravest warrior who could see him best. From time to time, those warriors could return to earth as butterflies.

The Aztec created artificial islands or chinampas on Lake Texcoco, on which they cultivated crops. The Aztec staple foods included maize, beans and squash.

Chinampas were a very efficient system and could provide up to seven crops a year, on the basis of current chinampa yields, it has been estimated that 1 hectare of chinampa would feed 20 individuals, with about 9,000 hectares of chinampa, there was food for 180,000 people.

Much has been said about a lack of proteins in the Aztec diet, to support the arguments on the existence of cannibalism (M. Harner, Am. Ethnol. 4, 117 (1977)), but there is little evidence to support it: a combination of maize and beans provides the full quota of essential amino acids, so there is no need for animal proteins.

The Aztecs had a great diversity of maize strains, with a wide range of amino acid content; also, they cultivated amaranth for its seeds, which have a high protein content. They cultivated chia, also high in protein.

More important is that they had a wider variety of foods. Chilis and tomatoes, prominent to this day, were cultivated.

They harvested acocils, a small and abundant shrimp of Lake Texcoco, also spirulina algae, which was made into a sort of cake that was rich in flavonoids, and they ate insects, such as crickets (chapulines), maguey worms, ants, larvae, etc.

Insects have a higher protein content than meat, and even now they are considered a delicacy in some parts of Mexico. Aztecs also had domestic animals, like turkey and some dog breeds that provided meat, although usually this was reserved for special occasions. Hunting was also another source of meat—deer, wild hogs, ducks etc.

A study by Montellano (Medicina, nutrición y salud aztecas, 1997) shows a mean life of 37 (±3) years for the population of Mesoamerica. Aztecs also used maguey extensively; from it they obtained food, sugar (aguamiel–honey water), drink (pulque), and fibers for ropes and clothing. Use of cotton and jewelry were restricted to the elite.

They also kept beehives and harvested honey. Cocoa grains were used as money but also to make a chocolate drink much like beer. Subjugated cities paid annual tribute in form of luxury goods like feathers and adorned suits.

After the Spanish conquest some foods were outlawed, particularly amaranth because of its central role in religious belief, and there was less diversity of food. This led to chronic malnutrition in the general population.

There was even trade with cities considered enemies. The Purepechas, the only people who defeated the Aztecs, were the main source of copper axes.

The main contribution of the Aztec rule was a system of communications between the conquered cities.

In Mesoamerica, they had no animals for transport, nor wheeled vehicles, so the roads were designed for travel on

foot. Usually these roads were part of the tributes, and travelers had places to rest, eat, and even latrines at regular intervals, every 10 or 15 km. They were constantly watched, so even women could travel alone. Also, couriers (Paynani) were constantly traveling along those ways, keeping the Aztecs informed of events.

The Aztec empire produced the biggest demographic explosion in Mesoamerica: the population grew from an estimated 10 million to 15 million.

The most important official of Tenochtitlan government was often called The Aztec Emperor. The Nahuatl title, Huey Tlatoani (plural huey tlatoque),

translates roughly as "Great Speaker"; the tlatoque ("speakers") were an upper class. This office gradually took on more power with the rise of Tenochtitlan. By the time of Auitzotl "Emperor" is an appropriate analogy, although as in the Holy Roman Empire, the title was not hereditary.

Most of the Aztec empire was forged by one man, Tlacaelel (Nahuatl for "manly heart"), who lived from 1397 to 1487. Although he was offered the opportunity to be tlatoani, he preferred to stay behind the throne.

Nephew of Tlatoani Itzcoatl, and brother of Chimalpopoca and Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina, his title was "Cihuacoatl" (in honor of the goddess, roughly equivalent to "counselor"), but as reported in the Ramírez Codex, "what Tlacaellel ordered, was as soon done".

He gave the Aztec government a new structure, he ordered the burning of most Aztec books (his explanation being that they were full of lies) and he rewrote their history. In addition, Tlacaelel reformed Aztec religion, by putting the tribal god Huitzilopochtli at the same level as the old Nahua gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, and Quetzalcoatl. Tlacaelel thus created a common awareness of history for the Aztecs.

He also created the institution of ritual war (the flowery wars) as a way to have trained warriors, and created the necessity of constant sacrifices to keep the Sun moving. Some writers believe upper classes were aware of this forgery, which would explain the later actions of Moctezuma when he met Hernán Cortés (a.k.a. Cortez). But eventually this institution helped to cause the fall of the Aztec empire.

The people of Tlaxcala were spared conquest, at the price of participating in the flower wars. When Cortés came to know this, he approached them and they became his allies. The Tlaxcaltecas provided thousands of men to support the few hundred Spaniards.

The Aztec strategy of war was based on the capture of prisoners by individual warriors, not on working as a group to kill the enemy in battle. By the time the Aztecs came to recognize what warfare meant in European terms, it was too late.

The Aztec Empire is not completely analogous to the empires of European history.

Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more a system of tribute than a single system of government.

Arnold Toynbee in War and Civilization analogizes it to the Assyrian Empire in this respect.

Although cities under Aztec rule seem to have paid heavy tributes, excavations in the Aztec-ruled provinces show a steady increase in the welfare of common people after they were conquered.

This probably was due to an increase of trade, thanks to better roads and communications, and the tributes were extracted from a broad base. Only the upper classes seem to have suffered economically, and only at first. There appears to have been trade even in things that could be produced locally.

Like in other Aztec places, the most common productive activity was the yarn and textile of cotton blanket.

All the women were taking part in the textile production. In the excavations we find several bobbins and plates to spin in the domestic context (to see photo of the gadgetry of yarn).

Also we excavate hundreds of statuettes of ceramics that were used in domestic rituals, women's representations are the majority. Men also are represented as well as animals, plants and deities (to see photo of statuettes).

Tezcatlipoca or Titlahuacán was especially fearsome, since it was collaborating with serious or lethal illnesses; Xipe-Tótec, Our Gentleman the Impudent one, was a specialist in illnesses of the skin.

The young dead women in his first childbearing were adopted by Coatlicue, the goddess of the Earth and of the Death, and turned in cihuateteo were not rising to the Seventh Sky but they were continuing residing in the First Heaven,

from where they were lowering the Earth, especially in the days 1-Venado in the crossings of ways, to scare the men and to produce illnesses to the children, as facial palsy, members' atrophy, convulsive illnesses and other neurological sufferings.

The youngest cihuateteo were the worst since ensañaban with the smallest and beautiful children, " to steal his beauty from them "

Till when the suffering was something so natural, as a break consequence of a fall suffered during the ascent of a mountain, the Aztecs were relating it to a divine cause, since they knew very well that it was precisely in the most dangerous places of the mountain where there were residing the chaneques and other malignant spirits, expert in pushes and trips.

Often the Aztec patient did not have conscience of having violated any law or religious order, or did not know what well was the deity that it had offended with his behavior, and then the consultation with the doctor or tícitl was including not only the diagnosis and the treatment of the illness, but also the identification of the angry god.

This was very important, because the rites sacrifices and exorcisms were different for the different gods. In addition to the prayers and the religious corresponding ceremonies, the tícil also was using therapeutic natural means, between them principally the herbalist, who between the Aztecs was extraordinarily rich.

Some medicines that are still used today come from the pre-Columbian herbalist, as the infusion of yoloxóchitl for the fevers or that of toloache as abortive, but in the antiquity others were using many with very different indications.

It is probable that inside this traditional wealth other substances could still find some with therapeutic real and effective use, but such a suggestion needs scientific critical and religious studies.

It is said in ancient texts, that one of the premises of the Priest - Doctor was that of impressing and subjugating his patients, so they were doing to themselves to accompany of an extensive scale of strange and mysterious objects that was creating a climate of suggestion, mystery and magic.

Said "Utilería" was coming to herself to compose basically from conches, wings of eagles, skeins of hairs of dead persons, plants of tobacco and of dozens of elements to more showy and mysterious who.

Other of the names of the priest - I medicate, in addition to " Ticitl " it was that of " Tetla - Acuicilique " that was meaning: " Those who extract the stones..."

And the fact is that the first action of the Priest - doctor was that of recognizing with his fingers, the half-naked body of the patient, since a species of place must "locate" the exact place of a point named " The Pleased Arrow " that is to say in the one that had entered the body of the patient a tiny "arrow" with the evil, without nobody could have seen her.

With his innate skill and power of suggestion in many occasions these priests were already practising the so called " Effect Placebo ". That is to say to give the patient something completely innocuously and ineffectively, but that was producing to the patient an effect similar to that of the healing, and that later it has kept on using for the modern medicine.

In many occasions, also they were practising on the patient a series of mysterious massages, when they were turning out to be unable to determine the exact origin of the illness.

The priest was giving the patient a species of drug of the family of the belladonna, by means of which it was becoming possible to sleep to the patient and by means of skilful and suggestive questions inquirirle as he would have suffered " The Evil " to be able then to find a way of treating it.

Any physical or mental evil, it could never be seen and considered to be a natural action, since it was considered that it was sent by " Direct Action of the Gods ".

Healings

When the mysterious " God of the Rains " so-called fearful and reverentially it was getting angry, it could extend miraculously illnesses as the leprosy and the ulcers in any part of the body of any person.

It was said that who were practising " the incest " could be punished, that was coming to be a " Death of Love ".

The most effective remedy that the Brujos-Sanadores were carrying out was to invoke the protection of the " Genius of the Desire ". Later immediately afterwards they were driving the patient to practise a series of mysterious rituals that were consisting of a series of steam baths, together with the prayer of a few mysterious prayers.

Tenochtitlan was connected to the mainland by a series of wide causeways with bridges, known as calzadas. The city was interlaced with a series of canals, so that all sections of the city could be visited either on foot or via canoe.

An aqueduct provided the city with fresh water. Tenochtitlan covered an area of 8 square kilometers. Although the lake was salty, dams built by the Aztecs kept the city surrounded by clear water from the rivers that fed

the lake. Two double aqueducts provided the city with fresh water; this was intended mainly for cleaning and washing.

For drinking, water from mountain springs was preferred. Most of the population liked to bathe twice a day; Moctezuma was reported to take four baths a day. As soap they used the root of a plant called copalxocotl (saponaria americana); to clean their clothes they used the root of metl.

Also, the upper classes and pregnant women enjoyed the temazcalli, which was similar to a sauna bath and is still used in the south of Mexico; this was also popular in other Mesoamerican cultures.

Part of their education was a collection of sayings, called huehuetlatolli ("The sayings of the old"), that represented the Aztecs' ideals.

It included speeches and sayings for every occasion, the

words to salute the birth of children, and to say farewell at death. Fathers admonished their daughters to be very clean, but not to use makeup, because they would look like ahuianis. Mothers admonished their daughters to support their husbands, even if they turn out to be humble peasants. Boys were admonished to be humble, obedient and hard workers.

Boys and girls went to school at age 15. Probably this was one of the first societies that required education for all its members, without regard of sex or social status. There were two types of educational institutions. The telpochcalli or House of the Young, taught history, religion, military fighting arts, and a trade or craft (such as agriculture or handicrafts).

Some of the telpochcalli students were chosen for the army, but most of them returned to their homes. The calmecac, attended mostly by the sons of pillis, was focused on turning out leaders (tlatoque), priests, scholars/teachers (tlatimini), healers (tizitl) and codex painters (tlacuilos). They studied rituals, ancient and contemporary history, literacy, calendrics, some elements of geometry, songs (poetry), and, as at the telpochcalli, military

arts. Each Calpulli was specialized in some handicrafts, and this was an important part of the income of the city. So the teaching of handicraft was very apreciated.

Also, the healers or Tizitl had several specialities. Some were trained to just look and classify medicinal plants, others were training just in the preparation of medicines that were sold in special places (Tlapalli), more than a hundred preparations are known, including deodorants, remedies for smelly feet, dentifric paste etc. Also there were Tizitl specialized in surgery, digestive disease, teeth and nose, skin diseases etc.

Aztec teachers or Tlatimine, propounded a spartan regime of education – cold baths in the morning, hard work, physical punishment, bleeding with maguey thorns and endurance tests – with the purpose of forming a stoical people.

There is contradictory information about whether calmecac was reserved for the sons and daughters of the pillis; some accounts said they could choose where to study. It is possible that the common people preferred the telpochcalli, because a warrior could advance more readily by his military abilities; becoming a priest or a tlacuilo was not a way to rise rapidly from a low station.

Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child raising. They were not taught to read or write. Some of them were educated as midwives and received the full training of a healer and they were called also Tizitl. All women were taught to be involved "in the things of god", there are paintings of women presiding over religious ceremonies, but there are no references to female priests.

There were also two other opportunities for those few who had talent. Some were chosen for the house of song and dance, and others were chosen for the ball game. Both occupations had high status.

Religion

The Coat of Arms of Mexico, from Aztec mythologyMain article: Aztec mythology.

It is important to note that Mexica conceptualizations of the supernatural were different from those of Europeans who encountered them in the context of military subjugation.

The Mexica made reference to at least two manifestations of the supernatural: teotl and teixiptla.

Teotl, which the Spaniards and European scholars routinely mistranslated as "god" or "demon", referred rather to an impersonal force that permeated the world. Teixiptla, by

contrast, denoted the physical representations ("idols", statues and figurines) of the teotl as well as the human cultic activity surrounding this physical representation. The Mexica "gods" themselves had no existence as distinct entities apart from these teixiptla representations of teotl (Boone 1989).

Veneration of Huitzilopochtli (literally, "hummingbird of the south"), the personification of the sun and of war, was central to the religious, social and political practices of the Mexica. Huitzilopochtli attained this central position after the founding of Tenochtitlan and the formation of the Mexica city-state society in the 14th century.

Prior to this, Huitzilopochtli was assocated primarily with hunting, presumably one of the important subsistence activities of the itinerant bands that would eventually become the Mexica.

According to myth, Huitzilopochtli directed the wanderers to found a city on the site where they would see an eagle devouring a snake perched on a fruit-bearing nopal cactus. (It was said that Huitzilopochtli killed his nephew, Cópil, and threw his heart on the lake.

Huitzilopochtli honoured Cópil by causing a cactus to grow over Cópil´s heart.) Legend has it that this is the site on which the Mexicas built their capital city of Tenochtitlan. This legendary vision is pictured on the Coat of Arms of Mexico.

According to their own history, when the Mexicas arrived in the Anahuac valley (Valley of Mexico) around Lake Texcoco, they were considered by the groups living there as uncivilized. The Mexicas borrowed much of their culture from the ancient Toltec whom they seem to have at least partially confused with the more ancient civilization of Teotihuacan.

To the Mexicas, the Toltecs were the originators of all culture; "Toltecayotl" was a synonym for culture. Mexica legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the mythical city of Tollan, which they also identified with the more ancient Teotihuacan.

Aztec human sacrifice, from Codex MendozaMain article: Human sacrifice in Aztec culture

For most people today, and for the European Christians who first met the Aztecs, human sacrifice was and is the most striking feature of Aztec civilization. While human sacrifice was practiced throughout Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, if their own accounts are to be believed, brought this practice to an unprecedented level.

For example, for the reconsecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days, reportedly by Ahuitzotl, the Great Speaker himself.

However, most experts consider these numbers to be vastly overstated. For example, the sheer logistics associated with sacrificing 84,000 victims would be overwhelming. A similar consensus has developed on reports of cannibalism among the Aztecs: although it is possible that instances of ritual cannibalism were a feature of Aztec culture, it is doubtful that the practice was widespread.

In the writings of Bernardino de Sahagún, Aztec "anonymous informants" defended the practice of human sacrifice by asserting that it was not much different than the European way of waging warfare: Europeans killed the warriors in battle, Aztecs killed the warriors after the battle.

Accounts by the Tlaxcalteca, the primary enemy of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish Conquest, show that at least some of them considered it an honor to be sacrificed. In one legend, the warrior Tlahuicole was freed by the Aztecs but eventually returned of his own volition to die in ritual sacrifice. Tlaxcala also practiced the human sacrifice of captured Aztec warriors.

Other: The main deity in the Mexica religion was their sun god and war god, Huitzilopochtli. He directed the Mexicas to found a city on the site where they would see an eagle, devouring (Not all cronicles agree on what was devouring, one mention it was a precious bird, and while Father Duran indicate it was a snake, this is not mentioned in any prehispanic source) perched on a fruit bearing nopal cactus.

According to legend, Huitzilpochtli had to kill his nephew, Cópil and threw his heart on the lake. But, since Cópil was his relative, Huitzilpochtli decided to honour him, and caused cactus to grow over Cópil´s heart which became a sacred place.

Legend has it that this is the site on which the Mexicas built their capital city of Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan was built on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco where modern-day Mexico City is located. This legendary vision is pictured on the Coat of Arms of Mexico.

According to their own history, when the Mexicas arrived in the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco, they were considered by the other groups as the least civilized of all. The Mexicas decided to learn, and they took all they could from other peoples, especially from the ancient Toltec (whom they seem to have partially confused with the more ancient civilization of Teotihuacan).

To the Mexicas, the Toltecs were the originators of all culture; "Toltecayotl" was a synonym for culture. Mexica legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the mythical city of Tollan, which they also identified with the more ancient Teotihuacan.

Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl ("feathered snake" or "plumed serpent"; in Nahuatl: Ketsalkoatl; in Spanish: Quetzalcóatl) is the Nahuatl name for the Feathered-Serpent deity of ancient Mesoamerica, one of the main gods of many Mexican and northern Central American civilizations and also the name given to some Toltec rulers, the most famous being Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl.

The name "Quetzalcoatl" literally means quetzal-bird snake or serpent with feathers (Amphitere) of the Resplendent Quetzal (which implies something divine or precious) in the Nahuatl language. The meaning of his local name in other Mesoamerican languages is similar. The Maya of Mexico knew him as Kukulkán; the Quiché-Maya of Guatemala, as Gukumatz.

The Feathered Serpent deity was important in art and religion in most of Mesoamerica for close to 2,000 years, from the Pre-Classic era until the Spanish conquest. Civilizations worshipping the Feathered Serpent included the Olmec, Mixtec, Toltec, Aztec, who adopted it from the people of Teotihuacan, and the Maya.

"Quetzalcoatl" can be spelled many different ways.

Origins

The cult of the serpent in Mesoamerica is very old; there are representation of snakes with bird-like characteristics as old as the Olmec preclassic (1150-500 BC). The snake represents the earth and vegetation, but it was in

Teotihuacan (around 150 BC) where the snake got the precious feathers of the Quetzal, as seen in the Murals of the city. The most elaborate representations come from the old Quetzalcoatl Temple built around 200 BC, which shows a rattlesnake with the long green feathers of the quetzal.

Teotihuacan was dedicated to Tlaloc, the water god, at the same time Quetzalcoatl, as a snake, was a representation of the fertility of the earth, and it was subordinate to Tlaloc. As the cult evolved, it became independent.

In time Quetzalcoatl was mixed with other gods, and acquired their attributes. Quetzalcoatl is often associated with Ehecatl, the wind god, and represents the forces of nature, and is also associated with the morning star (Venus).

Quetzalcoatl became a representation of the rain, the celestial water and their associated winds, while Tlaloc would be the god of earthly water, the water in lakes, caverns and rivers, and also of vegetation. Eventually Quetzalcoatl was transformed into one of the gods of the creation (Ipalnemohuani).

The Teotihuacan influence took the god to the Mayas, who adopted him as Kukulkán. The Maya regarded him as a being who would transport the gods.

In Xochicalco (700-900 AC), the political class began to claim that they ruled in the name of Quetzalcoatl, and representations of the god became more human. They influenced the Toltec, and the Toltec rulers began to use the name of Quetzalcoatl. The Toltec represented Quetzalcoatl as man, with god-like attributes, and these attributes were also associated with their rulers.

The most famous of those rulers was Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl. Ce Acatl means "one reed" and is the calendaric name of the ruler (923 - 947), whose legends became almost inseparable from accounts of the god. The Toltecs would asociate Quetzalcoatl with their own god, Tezcatlipoca, and make them equals, enemies and twins.

The legends of Ce Acatl told us that he tought his face was ugly, so he let his beard grow to hide it, and eventually he wore a white mask. This legends has been distorted so representations of Quezalcoatl as a white bearded man has became common.

The Nauhas would take the legends of Quetzalcoatl and mix them with their own. Quetzlcoatl would be considered the originator of the arts, poetry and all knowledge. The figure of Ce Acatl, would become inseparable from the image of the god.

The cult

The worship of Quetzalcoatl sometimes included animal sacrifices, and in other traditions Quetzalcoatl was said to oppose human sacrifice.

Mesoamerican priests and kings would sometimes take the name of a deity they were associated with, so Quetzalcoatl and Kukulcan are also the names of historical persons. The reason being that Quetzalcoatl called one man, to whom he gave his rights, privileges, and powers, to administer in his religious duties who took on the name of the Deity, to show that the power had been given to him.

The name was pronounced differently, to denote this man a mortal, in contrast to Quetzalcoatl, Kate-Zal, or Kukulcan the God of wind and waves.

One noted Post-Classic Toltec ruler was named Quetzalcoatl; he may be the same individual as the Kukulcan who invaded Yucatán at about the same time. The Mixtec also recorded a ruler named for the Feathered Serpent. In the 10th century a ruler closely associated with Quetzalcoatl ruled the Toltecs; his name was Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl. This ruler was said to be the son of either the great Chichimeca warrior, Mixcoatl and the Culhuacano woman Chimalman, or of their descendant.

The Toltecs had a dualistic belief system. Quetzalcoatl's opposite was Tezcatlipoca, who supposedly sent Quetzalcoatl into exile. Alternatively, he left willingly on a raft of snakes, promising to return.

When the Aztecs adopted the culture of the Toltecs, they made twin gods of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, opposite and equal; Quetzalcoatl was also called White Tezcatlipoca, to contrast him to the black Tezcatlipoca. Together, they created the world; Tezcatlipoca lost his foot in that process. Because white was the color symbol of Quezalcoatl, it does not means Quezalcoatl was white.

Along with other gods, like Tezcatlipoca, and Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl would be called "Ipalnemohuani", which means "by whom we live", a title reserved for the gods directly involved in the creation. Because the name, Ipalnemohuani is singular, this had lead to speculations that the aztec were becoming monoteist, and all the main gods, were only one. While this interpretation can not be ruled out, is probably an oversimpification of the aztec religion.

The exact significance and attributes of Quetzalcoatl varied somewhat between civilizations and through history. Quetzalcoatl was often considered the god of the morning star, and his twin brother Xolotl was the evening star (Venus).

As the morning star he was known by the title Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, meaning "lord of the star of the dawn." He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize corn to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection. Quetzalcoatl was also the patron of the priests and the title of the Aztec high priest.

Most Mesoamerican beliefs included cycles of worlds. Usually, our current time was considered the fifth world, the previous four having been destroyed by flood, fire and the like. Quetzalcoatl allegedly went to Mictlan, the underworld, and created fifth-world mankind from the bones of the previous races (with the help of Cihuacoatl), using his own blood, from a wound in his phallus, to imbue the bones with new life.

His birth, along with his twin Xolotl, was unusual; it was a virgin birth, to the goddess Coatlicue. Alternatively, he was a son of Xochiquetzal and Mixcoatl.

One Aztec story claims that Quetzalcoatl was seduced by Tezcatlipoca into becoming drunk and sleeping with a celibate priestess, and then burned himself to death out of remorse. His heart became the morning star (see Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli).

The vigesimal or base-20 numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the ordinary decimal numeral system is based on ten).

Twenty is the sum of all fingers and toes on unmutated human hands and feet, and is the product of five and four.