The Aztecs: Building an Empire - Part 3

Remember at the end of the last blog where I said this would be about the Aztec's society and social structures? That part's true. Remember how I said it would be more entertaining than it sounds? Well... I'll give it my all. Keep in mind the purpose of this blog: to better remember what I read for when I teach it sometime down the line. You can read about it all here. I taught about the Aztecs in my second round of student teaching to a bunch of surprisingly eager to listen grade eights (my class was one of those 'advanced learner ones' so I can't take credit for it). Unfortunately, the problem with students that actually listen is they tend to ask a great number of questions. Soon I began to realize that I had the answers to maybe about half of them. My solution was to write down any question I couldn't answer, look it up, and return the next day and tell them - something my mentor teacher approved of. For the first week or so that was all well and good, but after a while it started to look pretty rough when I was writing down multiple questions a day. If you go to that well one too many times they'll start to believe you're just getting your stuff from the textbook with no additional knowledge. Naturally, that's exactly what I was doing, but I was not eager to express that to my students. So the point of this rambling is to say that a lot of this I will have to teach, so I better remember my stuff. The curriculum doesn't just centre around warfare, after all.

If Tenochtitlan's defenses fell, I'm sure they could
scare them away with their unpleasant art.

Anyways. I'm kind of jumping right in here, but one of the first reasons why Tenochtitlan survived as long as it did was the geography of the city itself. It had three main causeways that would connect to the central island, the main hub of the city. Each causeway was a bridge "as broad as a horseman's lance", in the words of Cortes. This made the island a defensive juggernaut. Similar to the idea of the three-hundred Spartans (movie or reality) plugging up the one entrance, it allowed them to funnel their enemies into these three defensible positions. It's hard to take a city by boats (arrows will drop a great number before they reach the shore) and a thin line of troops is never a way to storm a fortification. I mean, anyone who has ever played Starcraft knows this stuff by heart.

The city was also able to sustain prolonged sieges. Often, the attacker will surround the city if they refuse to leave, and essentially starve them into attacking. If you wait long enough and cut off the supply chains, they really don't have a lot of choice. However, in Tenochtitlan, they were perhaps not entirely self sustaining but at least able to provide a good amount of food for their troops right from within their borders. This was due to their chinampas, a form of farming that made their city in a lot of ways similar to Venice. Canals went in between buildings and farms, irrigating the crops and providing streets that can be crossed by bridges or canoes. The actual farmland itself is raised as to not flood the crops. They were made by piling up pounds and pounds of vegetation and mud until it formed a mound higher off the ground than the rest, allowing the dirt on the top to be used for seeding. It's a pretty ingenious way of farming that is apparently still used in an area near Mexico City. Between the farming and the influx of food sent to them from their tributaries (which you'll see is a heck of a lot) it supported as high as 200,000-300,000 people.

An Aztec eagle warrior. It is
rumoured that they were
actually just people.

So what about these tributaries? It wasn't just raw might that took them over, but a little bit of planning as well. Under the Aztecs employ were a number of long-distance traders, men who would travel to far-away cities and exchange goods to bring back to Tenochtitlan. In addition to that, they also served as somewhat of a spy; they would scout out the area, see how large of a population is within the city, and check for weak spots that can be exploited. Sometime later the Aztecs would come, and demand payment in one of two ways: gold, goods and so on, or their very lives on the sacrificial temples. Either way, the Aztecs didn't mind. They were able to take these places because pretty well every man was a warrior in some regard - even priests were trained in battle. It started at an early age, too. Their schooling wasn't far from a military academy, teaching combat and eventually having them shadow warriors, telling the children that "[their] mission is to give the sun the blood of enemies to drink, and to feed Tlaltecuhti, the earth, with their bodies". Yesterday at my girlfriend's school they called the parents of a number of children for cheering on a fight. The times they are a changin'.

All told, these tributaries brought in a tremendous number of goods. Somehow their ledgers managed to survive over all these years, and each year it was reported that Tenochtitlan received "7,000 tons of maize and 4,000 tons each of beans, chia seed, and grain amaranth, and no fewer than 2,000,000[!!!!!] cotton cloaks, as well as war costumes, shields, feather headdresses and luxury products, such as amber, unobtainable in the central highlands." No matter how astronomically high these numbers are, my first question is still 'what's with all the cloaks?'.

A depiction of the sacrifices with a god overlooking the
ceremony. Four of the five figures pictured
are having just a great time.

So lets say they didn't give up their weekly supply of cloaks and Tenochtitlan comes knocking. Typically what they're looking for is bringing sacrifices back to their temples to appease their absolutely terrifying gods (see the picture of the monstrosity on the left). Those were actually so important that you would rise up the ranks in Aztec society depending on how many captives you brought back alive. I mean, yes, they would be brought back alive just to be killed shortly after, but it's a ceremonial death and that means a heck of a lot more. It seems the whole process would have been way more efficient if they had only considered bringing mini-temples along with them and simply sacrificing the citizens of rival towns right in their homes. Come on, Aztecs - efficiency!

The sacrifices themselves were gruesome even by ritual murder ceremony standards (which are pretty gruesome already). The most common one would be stretching someone out across a stone and cracking their chest open with a knife. Then you reach in and pull the heart out (without touching the edges or it makes a buzzing sound). Another method was the victim would fight an Aztec warrior armed with a club without the usual spiky pieces of obsidian lodged in there, meaning it would take a little while longer but they still didn't really have much of a shot. The last one (and the worst) was when they did the first one with the stretching and the heart removal and all but only after throwing them in a fire, removing them, and throwing them back in a few times. If all this is bothering you somewhat, well, know that the whole cannibalism thing probably didn't happen too often. Just on special occasions.

The Aztecs: Building an Empire - Part 2

Teotihuacan is destroyed. In the big empty power crater it leaves behind, a group of relatively peaceful city states takes over in its wake. This is where the first mention of the Aztecs come into play.

According to their records (in which it's pretty much only their records as they had a nasty habit of burning a lot of the old books to make sure it's all up to date with the pro-Aztec propaganda machine) they came from a wonderful island called Aztlan. Supposedly an island to the west, they decided to leave their ancestral home and settle in central Mexico. Now, you have to take this with a grain of salt; Aztlan could very well have been some island to the west somewhere, but it's fairly likely that they created the place as a means to make their whole coming to Mexico more imposing. If you say you're from some mystical land, it lends credence to a "blessed by the gods" impression. That being said, it's hard to overlook the fact that maybe they just came from an island in the west. Anyways. They've arrived.

A monument to the founding of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City. It
shows the moment the eagle omen is seen, as the man
on the left is clearly saying "well, finally."

The problem is they didn't really have anywhere to go. They were pretty well the equivalent of the homeless of today - you wish them the best and hope they land on their feet, but for the most part they're making you feel uncomfortable as you pass by them. Perhaps the better word for them would be drifters. They would stay in a few places until the more powerful residents (the city states) decided to get rid of them and send them packing. It wasn't until they found a most beautiful swamp containing an eagle resting on a cactus with a snake in it's mouth - an omen, apparently - that they finally found their home. If I learned anything, it's that a cactus can exist in a swamp. Interesting side note: there is a band called Swamp Cactus. I'm sure they're great.

Originally the Aztecs founded two cities: Tenochtitlan in the south and Tlateloco in the north. However, the swamps drained and eventually the two were merged into one large city.  According to their written history, and bear in mind they're not going to speak ill of themselves, the Aztecs were proficient farmers, allowing them to settle quite nicely into their home and put up their "Swamp, Sweet Swamp" welcome mat. What allowed them to thrive, however, was their battle prowess. Again... this might be similar to a high school kid saying he can "bench 350 back when he was training," as this is coming from their own records, so take it as you will. They must have at the very least had something going for them though, as they were hired as mercenaries for the Tepanec, a group of people not far from their location, under the leader Tezozomoc. They would raid other places on their behalf and got a pleasant share of the loot to sustain themselves. It was a proper working relationship in which no one was left with any major grievances - save for the looted, of course.

Cortes, the man who conquered the Aztecs: his best
weapons were disease, a strong fashion sense, and weapons.

Unfortunately for the Aztecs, Tezozomoc died, the reins falling to his son Maxtlatzin. Now, Max (can I call him Max?) wasn't as friendly with the Aztecs as his father, and decided that they had their fun together but it was time to split apart and... promptly eliminate the Aztecs. It was not an amicable break-up. This proved to be a costly mistake; under the leadership of Itzcoatl, the Aztecs rallied and defeated their former employers. Suddenly Tenochtitlan and the Aztecs seem a force to be reckoned with as they take what they please from the city and burn all their books. The disposal of the literature was an idea from Itzcoatl to promote the idea of Aztec glory, and any book that didn't contain that concept was a book that wasn't meant to be read.

Now that they have a foothold, it was important to believe (and to make their citizenship believe) that the Aztecs were destined for greatness; the gods' chosen people. To further increase their power, they entered into what was later to be called the Triple Alliance. The might of Tenochtitlan was at the forefront with the allies of Texcoco and Tlacopan, two cities not far from their own. From there they waged war with the dominant powers in the north, Heuxotzingo and Tlaxcala, for the purpose of tribute, power, and above all, sacrifices. Tenochtitlan grew to be a massive empire, filled with a colossal number of people, unimaginable levels of tribute flowing in, and enough sacrifices to satisfy what can only be really, really bloodthirsty gods.

But all that couldn't last forever. We all know how the Aztecs fell from power; Cortez comes in with all his weaponry (and all his diseases) and before long they're out the door. In part three, even though it seems to be going backwards a little bit, I'll be talking all about the goings on of Tenochtitlan itself. I assure you it's more interesting than it sounds.

The Aztecs: Building an Empire - Part 1

I'm back!

My last post was in long ago October. Shame on me. Fiction and Malcolm Gladwell have taken up my reading schedule, temporarily pushing history to the backseat. But never fear! I've returned to tackle an old enemy: the complicated and frustrating history of the Aztecs. No longer will I be confused by the differences between Tenochtitlan and Teotihuacan, Huexotzingo and Huaxteca, or Tlacopan and Tlaxcala. Or, the fact that there are two rulers by the name of Motecuhzoma - or as it's sometimes spelled, Montezuma. Moctezuma is also correct, too...

Who am I kidding? I'm confused already.

The Aztecs were an early attempt of this blog, trying to sort through wikipedia pages while in an overheated university classroom, battling the twin evils of boredom and asbestos. I made the mistake of trying to sum up an extensive history with a wide assortment of complicated (but frustratingly similar) names in one short blog while having very little information to draw from. You can view that travesty of writing here.

This time we're going to take it one step at a time, starting with the people who got the ball rolling. Likely the first group to really settle down and become a civilization (with proper communities, art, language, etc.) were the Olmecs. I could bore you with the details, but what you really need to know is they built the foundation for much of Mexico's pre Spanish-induced annihilation. Cultures and traditions get shared and passed down the line, and whoever is in power typically spreads it the furthest. The Olmecs were prominent, and thus set the tone for much of how early Mexico looked at the time and right up until the Spanish.

Here, a man is holding a baby were-jaguar.
Adding this character into Teen Wolf must
have really been jumping the shark.

One key similarity was they were big into the anthropomorphic animal god thing, particularly "were-jaguars". Many of their statures featured intensely creepy were-jaguar children. What makes it even creepier is just how little we know about why they were there. Type "were-jaguar" into google and you'll mostly find stories about Teen Wolf's fourth season introduction of one of these creatures.

They were also into burying their dead in pyramids (not quite the Egyptian type, but pretty well the Egyptian type) and creating giant, nine foot tall sculpted heads of their rulers. implying they likely had a strong hierarchy system much the same as the later Aztecs. Their diets weren't that far off, either - they enjoyed fish, corn, dogs (before that was uncool) and of course, they had a tendency to indulge in eating one of their neighbours every so often, likely for religious rituals or the fantastic taste. Considering it was also likely they ate frogs that are known to cause a hallucinogenic effect, it paints a strange picture for what was going on at the time.

Just a bunch of half-man, half-jaguar babies eating people while high on frogs. Book your flight to Mexico today!

The temple in the back is an ancient version of The Ritz.

Somewhere in 150-600 A.D. the Olmecs have splintered off into a great number of city states and hit a golden age. Cities were flourishing, populations grew rapidly, and major powers began to rise. The most prominent of which was Teotihuacan (not to be confused with the later major power, Tenochtitlan, the only city in pre-conquest Mexico to ever even come close to reaching the power and magnitude of the former). A sign of their power was the construction of major temples dedicated to the sun and the moon, as well as the serpent god Quetzalcoatl, the creator god. The temples were incredible; massive structures in a city that at its height held between 125,000-200,000 people. The size and scope of the city spread massive cultural and military influence across the whole of central Mexico, in what I'm sure inspired countless others to be ritually sacrificed and thrown underneath the temples amongst jewels and feathers.

This poor fella made the mistake of messing with
Quetzalcoatl. Sure, take a shot at Xipe Totec. Just not
Quetzalcoatl. Never Quetzalcoatl.

Death and the gods were really the driving cultural forces. My personal favourite is Xipe Totec, meaning "Our Lord the Flayed One" - perhaps the coolest name for something that was the strong and powerful deity of "the annual renewal of vegetation with the onset of the rainy season." Man, I can't wait to hear what they called their death or fire gods. This all seems par for the course, though. Rather unsettling images and poetry seemed to be a mainstay in their culture; plenty of snakes, terrifying faces on their temples, dark omens and human sacrifices... just check out the words of this one song:

And they called it Teotihuacan
because it was the place
where the lords were buried.
Thus they said:
"When we die, 
truly we die not,
because we will live, we will rise, 
we will continue living, we will awaken.
This will make us happy."

Well, at least they'll have zombies to fight the were-jaguars.

So here we are, a thriving civilization. How could this ever fall apart? Well, the funny thing is, all we really know is it gets invaded. As to who takes the credit, we don't really know. Sometime around 600 A.D. 75% of the population in the city gets wiped out, most of their buildings burned or desecrated, and they lose their cultural relevance almost entirely. From there, a power vacuum is created and a great number of city states rise up and vie for power in the wake of the fall of Teotihuacan. Oddly enough, a relative peace comes through for a little while. But at a time of cannibalism and sacrifices, it's sure to be short lived. So bring on the Aztecs!