The People of Aztlan

In 1502, the Mexica or Aztec greeted a new leader, known in history as Moctezuma II.  The population of his new kingdom numbered, by some estimates, as high as ten million people.  This was much larger than what could be found in Europe or Asia.  Between the expanse and wealth of the capital, Tenochtitlán amazed and shocked visitors – including a group of Europeans at the front of an approaching invasion force.  Despite the achievements of the Olmec and the Toltec before them, the Aztec represented the epitome of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilization.  However, a storm was approaching and Moctezuma II would watch the last vestiges of his civilization disappear. 

The Aztec won control of the region as a wandering band of mercenaries hailing from a place called Aztlan, somewhere to the north that others have speculated is the modern-day American Southwest.  The Mexica spoke Nahuatl, the language of the preceding Toltecs which could have been their ticket into the region.  The warlike, ferocious warriors set up their capital in the middle of Lake Texcoco, called Tenochtitlán.  From this aquatic base of operations, the Aztec created a powerful kingdom that rivaled anything else in the world.  Prior to Cortés, the city covered some five square miles and had a population 150,000, larger than Seville and Paris at the time.

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Aztec government and society had grown increasingly stratified, the ruler had grown more powerful and the usage of human sacrifice had been greatly expanded.  The Aztec religion was made up of many gods, each having a Hindu-like dual persona of both a masculine and feminine variety.  Gods such as Quetzalcoatl, the ancient god of civilization, and Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, are some of the more recognizable deities.  While it was a polytheistic faith, the Aztec had their own Akhenaten, the Egyptian pharaoh who sought to promote a single god, by the name of Nezhualcoyotl. 

The Aztec had an amazing agricultural set up.  The largest amount of food stemmed from conquered territories but they had also a string of artificial islands called chinampas.  These were man-made, floating islands, seventeen feet long and between one hundred and three hundred feet wide, upon which food was grown to feed the civilization.  Dikes were used to separate the freshwater of the chinampas and the brackish waters beyond.  The fading traces of these practices can be found in the Mexico City suburb of Xochimilco.  Beyond agriculture, a special merchant class called the pochteca operated daily markets that were highly regulated by inspectors. 

In 1519, Hernán Cortés led some six hundred men to Mexico, made allies with the many native tribes the Aztec managed to tick off over the years and descended upon Tenochtitlán.  Legend has it that the conquistador burned his ships so that his men should be well motivated.  While Moctezuma II originally thought he could handle the new arrivals, Cortés proved more aggressive than the emperor foresaw.  While the Aztec put up a monumental struggle for survival, the Spaniards proved too much.  Cortés had Moctezuma arrested and later killed while a combination of war, starvation and disease brought the capital city to its knees by 1521.   An Aztec poet wrote, upon the fall of Tenochtitlán, “We are crushed to the ground, we lie in ruins.  There is nothing but grief and suffering in Mexico and Tlatelolco, where once we saw beauty and valor.” 

There is so much to learn about our neighbors to the south but sadly, many of our students lack a basic understanding of the Aztec culture, history and impact.  All around us we see civilizations struggling and clinging to relevance.  Some stand at the precipice, such as Syria, while others grow stronger and more powerful every day, like India and China.  The one thing that history teaches us is that what is now is only temporary, transient.  It is difficult to say whether the rough economic waters of the developed world are a prelude to anything or whether this too shall pass.  Either way, it would not be a bad idea to learn from history.  I’ve heard it’s worked before.