Aztec

Company

In the beginning, the tribal structure of the Aztec ones, when they were only one chichimèque tribe , extremely simple and was based on the existence of clans. At the time of the Spanish conquest, on the other hand, the company was laminating itself.

At the top of the social pyramid, one found the “tecuhtli” (“lords”), that the Spanish chroniclers generally called “cacic” (a term whom they had borrowed from the language of the natives of the Caribbean). Elected in theory with administrative offices, military or religious, they were generally indicated by Tlatoani (see below) within the same family. To ensure the often high expenses of their function, they profited from the incomes of the grounds which were allotted to them and received moreover a share of the tributes taken on the people of the empire. As the Aztec State was primarily militarist, the most prestigious loads were soldiers. Only could aspire to it those which had been distinguished with the combat. At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, this group was in the process of becoming a hereditary “nobility”: their children automatically formed part of the “pilli” (sing. “pipiltin”). Besides in the beginning, the word means simply “child” in Nahuatl. For this reason, they had access to the best schools, called Calmecac. As these schools trained the priests, the pilli thus formed also large religious hierarchy, even if the priesthood were accessible to the members from the lower classes. Let us note that a pipiltin could lose its position, if it were not distinguished at all with the war.

“macehualtin” (sing. “macehualli”), i.e. the common people formed large population. Grouped in “calpulli” (the basic social unit), they cultivated the ground. The grounds belonged collectively to the calpulli and each family received a piece in usufruct from them. As they achieved a military service, there was a certain social mobility: the warrior who was distinguished with the combat by making four prisoners could rise in the social hierarchy. The warlike prowesses gave for example the right to carry such or such type of clothing (see image opposite). The appropriate dress indeed made it possible to distinguish the place from an individual in the social hierarchy: if all wear same clothing, namely a cape or coat called “tilmatli”, that of the macehualtin was out of fibers of maguey, whereas the pilli carried a cotton cape. The tilmatli of the pilli went down to the ankles, whereas that of the macehualtin went down only to the knee.

Below the macehualtin, existed a category of displaced called “mayeque”, which did not belong to any calpulli and cultivated the grounds of the lords. A macehual which did not fill its obligations was likely to regress in this category.

slavery existed at the Aztec ones. Certain slaves, captured with the war, were intended to be sacrificed. The others, called “tlatlacotin”, could the being become for various reasons: to have made an offense, or because they had been sold themselves or had been sold by their parents, at the time of a famine for example. They seem to be well treated. They could marry and their children were free.

There was a particular category, that of the merchants called “pochteca”, who provided Tenochtitlan in exotic products. They formed caravans and left for remote forwardings until the Isthme Tehuantepec. they lived their own districts, married inside the group and had their own courts. Often being used as spies, they also had to fight in the remote hostile regions where they ventured. Their social position was ambiguous. The character semi-soldier of their activities conferred welfare benefits to them compared to the macehualtin: they had certainly the right to carry jewels out of gold and clothing luxurious at the time of their festivals, but apart from these exceptional circumstances, they were to preserve a humble attitude not to run up against the pilli.

Aztec economy

In the Aztec company, the trade was extremely developed. A circulation of goods between the producing highlands of Corn, Bean S… and the tropical coastal lowlands much richer and which provided the Cacao, cotton, the feathers of birds for the ornaments, etc, gave place to the activities of a specialized class of merchants, the pochteca . This commercial circulation doubled the circulation of the same products in the form of the tribute at the Aztec State. In a famous letter with Charles Quint, Hernan Cortez described the immense markets of Tenochtitlan. On these markets, each product took place given of sale. The sale was carried out at piece-rates or measurement. The market days were non-working. Special courts, controlled by the merchants, sliced the conflicts between salesmen and purchasers and the chief of the merchants fixed the price of the goods. He was interdict to sell the products apart from the places on the market. The tradesmen enjoyed great political and economic privileges. But they were badly judged if they made display of richness and glory. One awaited them a “humble” behavior and sometimes the goods of the rich tradesmen were confiscated by the State. The merchants were exempted personal service and participation in public works organized by the State. If one compares this situation with that which reigned at Incas, one realizes that at the latter the production was more strictly organized by the central capacity and that this centralized economy hardly left place to the development of a class of merchants.

State

Tlatoani

The word “tlatoani”, which designates the Aztec sovereign, can be translated by “that which speaks” (about the verb Nahuatl “tlatoa” (“to speak”). Étymologiquement, one could bring it closer to " Dictator ". To indicate it, the Spaniards, who try to adapt this function to their European references, employ the word “emperor”. When it is represented in the indigenous manuscripts, one distinguishes it inter alia by the volute which is released from its mouth and which indicates the word. The day before the Spanish conquest, its capacity had become semi-divine but it was chosen by a great council. It was to fill its duties towards the gods and to protect the Aztec people. The cihuacoatl and the high-ranking dignitaries were its intimate advisers. It had in load all that related to the businesses external to the city. (With Texcoco, the tlatoani reigned without cihuacoatl but was surrounded by four councils: government and justice, finances, wars and music).

Cihuacóatl

The Cihuacóatl, whose name means “female contortionist literally” and who represents the divinity of the same name, was the second character of the Aztec State after Tlatoani. Its role was limited to the sphere of the city. Tlacaelel is the most famous character to have exerted this function. He was the main thing adviser of the emperors Itzcoatl, Moctezuma I {{er}} (his/her brother) and Axayacatl.

Tlacocan (place of the word)

Tlacocan, or the Great Council , was consulted before any important decision and could refuse up to three times a proposal of the emperor. Its members were designated by the sovereign or were recruited by co-optation.

High-ranking dignitaries

One found there the chiefs of the army with in the first places the Tlacateccatl (“which order the warriors”) and the Tlacochocalcatl (“appointed at the house of the small swaths”).

Civils servant

Less important than the precedents, they dealt with the various administrative tasks concerning the police force, the attics and stores where the tribute piled up. The Uey calpixqui (that Spanish translated by “large majordomo”) was used at the same time of prefect of the capital and Minister for Finance.

Religion

The gods, according to the beliefs in force in Mexico at the time Aztec (14th century of our era), successively created several worlds, each time destroyed. The first, formed under a Sun of escarboucles (Another name of the ruby, hones invaluable of a bright red), disappeared in torrential cataracts; the few human beings which survived became fish. The second world, made up under a Sun of fire, was destroyed by blowpipe flames, and the men were changed into various animals. The third world, born under a black Sun, was absorbed following an earthquake, and the men were devoured by the wild beasts. The fourth world, appeared under the Sun of the air, was completed by the metamorphosis of the men in ouistitis. Lastly, a fifth world was created, which knew the universal Flood: only a man and a woman managed to gain the top of the mountain and avoided the extermination; they repopulated the ground; the ground such as was to know it and work it the Aztec people.

The Aztec religion comprised a great number of gods, in particular for all the natural phenomena, like the daily life. One can quote in particular:

Coatlicue : “that which wears a skirt of snakes” is the mother of Huitzilopochtli, and the goddess of the ground and the fertility.
Huitzilopochtli : god of the sun and the war, tribal divinity of the Aztec ones. Does the name Huitzilopochtli come from uitzilin, “hummingbird”, and of opochtli, “left”, which wants to say “warlike dead to the combat”, because the Aztec ones believed that the warrior transformed himself with dead into hummingbird and that left (?) was the direction of the south, stay of deaths.
Coyolxauhqui : goddess of the moon.
Quetzalcoatl : god of the wind and the vegetation (plumed serpent), one of the four creative gods.
Tezcatlipoca : god of the night and death, guard of the slaves, it gave to Aztec the habit human sacrifices. He dedicates a savage hatred with Quetzalcoatl.
Mictlantecuhtli : god of the Aztec hells, sovereign of the kingdom of dead (Mictlan), represented by a skeleton with the protuberant teeth.
Chicomecoatl : its name means " seven serpents". Goddess of corn, it protects harvests.
Xipe Totec : god of spring flowering. The Aztec ones allotted the capacity to him to cure the diseases of the eyes.
Chalchiuhtlicue : goddess of the water and partner of Tlaloc.
Centzon Huitznaua : four hundred brothers of Huitzilopochtli.
Tlaloc : god of the rain, the vegetation and of the peasants, it is similar to Chac, Maya god.
Tonantzin : goddess mother.
Xiuhtecuhtli : god of fire. The Xiuhtecuhtli, oldest of the gods, has the capacity to act on the opposites: it is the light in darkness, heat in the cold, the male principle in the female elements, the life in death.
Mixcoatl : " snake of the nuages" , god of the Milky Way, venerated by the hunters of the Scandinavian plains.

History

Origins of Mexicas and the foundation of Tenochtitlán

In less than 200 years, humble wandering people driven out by more powerful than him, became the Master of the valley of Mexico City and his surroundings. They allotted their success to Huitzilopochtli and adored to tell the glorious epopee of their long wandering in the desert. L'" empire" that they built quickly and the tender of the nations occupying this territory found their legitimacy in the fact that Tenochcas (another name to indicate the Aztec ones) were according to themselves the elected people of the sun to direct the " monde".

Many tribes (in particular the Toltèques), which populated the plates of the center had the same origin, Chicomoztoc (" place of the seven cavernes" in nahuatl) from where they would have left the ones after the others. The Aztec ones would have also come from this cave but they would have left Aztlán, quoted mysterious built as a preliminary on an island which gave its name to these people, probably located at what corresponds to the North-West of current Mexico. Their departure seems to be done in the year 1-knife of flint (1116). Guided by Huitzilopochtli, they will wander during several generations before being fixed on banks of the lake Texcoco, with Chapultepec. Established in Chapultepec, the Aztec ones fell under the domination from the Colhuacas. They were not long in revolting and saved their life while taking refuge in the marshy zones of the lake. According to the legend, in a place indicated by Huitzilopochtli, a rock carrying a cactus where was held perched an eagle eating a snake, they founded their capital Tenochtitlán, the year 2-house (1325).

Aztec empire

Geography

Tenochtitlán, their capital, was located on an island in the middle of the Lac Texcoco.

Aztec emperors

Two sovereigns of Texcoco could keep its influence at the third city of Triple Alliance which became the intellectual capital of the empire: Nezahualcoyotl, guard of arts and sciences and Nezahualpilli, which applied the ideals of his/her Nezahualcoyotl father.

Chronology of the Spanish conquest

October 12th, 1492: Christophe Colomb reaches the the Bahamas.

1511 : the storm throws a caravel on the coasts of the Yucatán. One of the survivors, Aguilar, will be released from Aztec by Hernán the Cortes eight years later. The second, Guerrero, wife a Maya aristocrat and is integrated.

1517 : Three ships under the command of Corodoba are pushed back by the Mayas of Yucatán and Campeche. Learning the arrival from strange visitors, the emperor Moctezuma, who fears the return of Quetzalcoatl, makes place watchtowers along the coasts.

1518 : Grijalva skirts the coasts of the Yucatán and the Gulf of Mexico until Tuxpan where it receives a friendly reception.

February 10th, 1519: the Cortes leaves Cuba with 11 ships and nearly 400 men. It finds Aguilar on the coast of Yucatán, with Veracruz, and is combined in Totonaques. Local dignitaries make gift with the Spaniards of young slaves. Among them is young girl of noble origin speaking a Maya and nahuatl, the " Malinche " who will be used as interpreter in the Cortes, and of which it will have a child. For the first time the Cortes hears of the Aztec richnesses.

April 1519: the Cortes receives calpixque which makes him gift in the name of Moctezuma, of vivres, cotton clothing of feathers, of jewels. These emissary brought back to Moctezuma descriptions of the newcomers, plunging the tlatoani in indecision.

September 2nd, 1519: the Cortes makes scuttle the ships to cross short to any desire of escape to its men, then it leaves the coastal area. After a short resistance, the Tlaxcaltèques and their mercenaries Otomi are combined to the Spaniards. They move all worms the central valley.

In Tlaxcala, the Cortes receives new emissary of Moctezuma which try to dissuade it to go in their capital. Arrived at Cholula, allied city of Aztec, the Cortes learn there that its inhabitants conspire against him: it makes massacre thousands of men and women and destroy the idols.

November 1519: Moctezuma, indicator that neither its present nor the incantations stop the Spanish projection, tries to flee. The priests oblige it to remain. Believing itself in the article of dead it makes even a speech of good-byes as a public.

November 8th, 1519: In the small hour, the Spaniards engage on the roadway on the basis of Iztapalapan. The Cortes is accommodated by Motecuzoma and of many dignitaries. The Spaniards settle then in the old palate of Axayacatl.

Of November 1519 in June 1520: Moctezuma is prisoner of its guests and must frequently alleviate the anger of the people and the dignitaries. The Spaniards gradually oppose the worships gods and seize gold while their Tlaxcaltèques allies plunder jade and the invaluable feathers.

At the time of an absence of the Cortes, its men benefit from a religious ceremony to massacre the many noble ones. The people raise themselves and the return of the Cortes, which utilizes Moctezuma to calm crowd, does not make it possible to alleviate the situation. Moctezuma is lapidated (other sources will affirm that he succumbed to stabs carried by the Spaniards with the barks). June, Cuitlahuac succeeds Moctezuma.

June 30th, 1520: Galvanized by the death of Moctezuma and very superiors of number, the Aztec ones are raised. Attacked of all shares, the Spaniards and their allies flee with large pains by undergoing heavy losses. It is the Noche Triste .

During 10 months, the Cortes gathers its forces before launching them in a bloody battle. It insulates the capital, crosses fitted and aqueduct. The famine, the lack of food and drinking water (the water of the lake is salted) and the variola brought of Cuba will be right of the Aztec ones. Cuitlahuac is victim of the epidemic.

August 13rd, 1521 ( 1-snake of the year 3-house ): After 75 days of seat, the last Aztec sovereign, Cuauhtémoc, goes to the Cortes. It will be hung a few years afterwards under pretext of plot.

then Begins a long work of destruction… Forty years after the arrival of the Spaniards, the conquest of the Aztec empire is completed and the worship of the gods of Aztec mythology starts to be erased in the spirits. The Aztec ones become prone Spanish adore Christ and on the ruins of the temples and the palates rises a new city, Mexico City.

Causes of the defeat

a technological inequality: armours of steel, arquebuses, guns, cavalry for Spanish vis-a-vis flint and obsidian weapons, shields and decorated light protections of feathers.

a tactical inequality: the Conquistadors are for a great part of them veterans of the Guerres of Italy. They have an excellent tactical control, in spite of their ignorance of the ground and their low number (compensated partly by their allies Totonaques, Tlaxcaltèques, Otomi, dissatisfied with the Mexica domination).

the Spaniards fight to eliminate the enemy from the combat (in a temporary or final way), whereas the Aztec ones try to make prisoners for future sacrifices for the gods.

variola, transported disease of Europe to America by the Spaniards.

the initial indecision of Moctezuma which believed to attend the return of Quetzalcoatl. Moctezuma, haunted by the antique prophecy and ill omen, prepared to deliver its empire. It will not cease hesitating over the action to be taken.

the factor of surprised and fear. In front of the enemy and their new technologies, the various Amerindian people of the continent faced a new domination. The noise of the thunder between the hands, the conquistadores controlled crowd is delirious about it. In front of the destruction of the holy places, the profanation of the worships and the elimination of the various idols, the absence of divine answer did nothing but accentuate the capacity of Spanish and the fear of conquered.

Aztec military organization

Aztec army

The Aztec ones were very large warriors, and the soldiers saw their social status rising when they were distinguished with the combat and went up in rank.

To enter to the Knight-eagles was one of the most honorary distinctions. These men carried caps coloured, decorated with feathers with eagle and costumes which emphasized their military pace. Not being obstructed by heavy armours, they moved promptly. They constituted the light and fast troops thus Aztec army, which leaped on the enemy. However, they were extremely handicapped at the time of the engagements against the Europeans equipped with armours and metal weapons.

Other warriors, the Knight-jaguars carried caps to the effigy of the jaguar and clothing imitating the fur of this animal, selected as totem by these warriors because it was about wildest of predatory of the jungle of Central America. This unit undoubtedly acted as heavy infantry and was used to attack the principal enemy body. She was certainly favoured in the engagements against the light troops taken by surprised or enough foolish attacking it.

At the time of the engagements, they made use of an obsidian blade bludgeon, the Macana. Although not having the thrust force of the metal weapons, the macana could be sharp like a razor blade. But its princiaple utility was to make prisoners.

Macehualtins were a basic infantry which could evolve to the denomination of knight-jaguar after having captured several enemies and to be itself illustrated with the combat.

Warlike principles

The Aztec ones fought to conquer more grounds and to make prisoners. Indeed, they practiced the sacrifices human, so the Aztec ones needed victims. This is why they left in war against the peripheral people the empire. Their tactic was simple: to carry out fast and effective raids in the goal to do an utmost of prisoners but, in its desires of expansion, the Aztec empire engaged in long wars in enemy territories. It thus needed resistant and determined warriors.

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