The Aztec City Tenochtitlan

“It was like the enchantments in the book of Amadis, simply because of high towers, rues [pyramids] and other buildings, all of masonry, which rose from the water. Some of the soldiers asked if what they saw was not a dream” (Miller, 239) A Spanish soldier, Bernal Diaz del Castillo recorded his initial pay a visit to to Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan was arguably the greatest city of Mesoamerica. It was the capital of the Aztec Empire stretching from the gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, serving over millions of men and women. The city itself was 13 square km and had over 200,000 citizens. Via analyzation of Tenochtitlan’s flourish, we can comprehend the universality of different human civilizations” success and their flourish. We can see the flourish of Tenochtitlan by hunting analyzing their success in infrastructure, agriculture, the complex social, political and economical structure as well as the exclusive religion and the military beliefs and success.

Understanding and analyzing Mesoamerican societies can be a extremely challenging activity, as well as becoming very misleading. Luckily we can much better realize Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire due to the records of the city written by the Spanish conqueror Cortez and his soldiers, several artifacts which includes the remains of the templo mayor and the potential to understand the Aztec language as opposed to earlier Mayan societies permits us to be capable to uncover and recognize some aspects of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire. Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 by the Aztecs on two islands in the middle of lake Texcoco, it gradually became one particular Island as artificial land was built in among the two islands. The Aztecs settled in Tenochtitlan and with their substantial military conquests and achievement came to rule more than millions of men and women. Many factors contributed to their Military achievement, 1 being the alliance they had formed with the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan. By early 1400’s the Aztecs had became the dominant force and were the capital of the vast Aztec empire. Tenochtitlan’s flourish, very same as the flourish of the Aztec empire lasted from the 15th century to 1519 when the Spanish arrived and each came to a sudden decline.

Firstly, to understand Tenochtitlan’s flourish and accomplishment we need to be capable to kind an image of the city and realize how it was made. Tenochtitlan was located in the marshes of lake Texcoco as talked about prior to and covered 13 km of land. A single really unique design of the city had been the big causeways that connected the city to the surrounding farmlands and the shore of the lake. The four major causeways ran north, south, east and west, out of these 4 the 3 operating east, west and north have been produced removable bridges. These three causeways had been removed to let boats pass and then returned to their original kind, the other purpose of these bridges was to limit invaders to only the south causeway which was only put in use when the Spanish conquerors came to the city. The island itself was laid out in a grid pattern with a lot of canals running throughout the city for little boats and canoes. The streets of the city itself have been extremely narrow as Mesoamerica didn’t have cattle or huge animals such as horses or cattle and mostly relied on canoes and small boats for trade, therefore these streets had been meant for travel on foot.

Taking a look at the infrastructure and Architecture of Tenochtitlan we can further understand the flourish and connect the infrastructural advancements made by the Aztecs to those of the classical Romans and ancient Egyptians. Several of Aztec buildings had been enabled to be constructed by the components they created and used. The aztec infrastructural materials consisted of imported components such lime plaster, clay and some sands, local creating components had been wood, nearby soils, straw and a sun dried clay known as adobe. This permitted for many fantastic religious monuments to be built, for local buildings, multi story houses and standard houses. The final results and height of Aztec infrastructure could be observed in the ceremonial precinct of Tenochtitlan with several impressive temples and pyramids. According to a spanish soldier on Cortes” army the central precinct held around 78 separate structures. The success of Tenochtitlan can bessen via the funds solely devoted to the religious, ceremonial precinct. From the walled ceremonial precinct the city spread out into diverse residential quarters, one getting vast palaces for the tlatoque (rulers), double story stone residences for nobles and officials and tiny adobe and reed houses for the reduced class. Other than these quarters the city consisted of enormous marketplaces, storerooms holding sources, closely packed locations of workshops and judicial chambers. The organization, range and structure of the infrastructure in Tenochtitlan aids uncover how Tenochtitlan may have looked and realize how it was comparable to numerous societies of the old globe while they went about items in their personal distinctive manner.

Tenochtitlan’s economy largely relied on the nearby markets and trade and comprehensive farming on chinampas and surrounding places. Markets related to many other societies were a important portion of Tenochtitlan’s economy. Tenochtitlan had a very large market which consisted of a lot of streets for a lot of different products and had been separated by the categories they fit in. Some of these streets had luxury goods such as gold and silver ornaments getting as properly as brass copper tin. Stones, shells, bones and feathers getting sold, other streets had creating materials such as cut and uncut stone, mud bricks, tiles and wood becoming sold. Some of the streets soley had barbershops, whilst others shops for food and drink. Shops for medicine and herbs have been in big numbers. Items for household wants such as firewood, charcoal, earthenware, braziers, bedding and seats were present on seperate streets. All sorts of vegetables, alcohol and syrups have been present on some streets. Some streets just had spun cotton in a fantastic range of colours and other people had pottery of all shapes and sizes. These markets would normally have numerous canals near them for moving goods to peoples households or companies. Porters were also obtainable to take these goods to your desired places, these porters would have modest boats or canoes on which they would transport these goods for money. These markets can be noticed to be very wealthy and comparable to the big markets of classical Rome. This description of Tenochtitlan’s markets was supplied by Hernan Cortes the Spanish conqueror who also adds that practically 60,000 folks traded at these markets daily. These markets permitted for numerous various professions for the Aztecs and permitted for the economy to flourish as properly as the merchants to turn out to be incredibly wealthy. Cortes also described these markets to be quite effectively run, incharge of that were the pochteca (potent merchants) who have been the judges of these markets, they regulated rates and made certain the markets ran smoothly. Many elements have been in play that permitted for such productive markets but all of these elements show that Tenochtitlan was flourishing.

Similar to the markets agriculture was really crucial for Tenochtitlan’s economy as properly as being really crucial to the local people of Tenochtitlan. Due to Tenochtitlan becoming restricted to a small island in the middle of lake Texcoco, the Aztecs had to be quite innovative in the way they cultivated. The Aztecs used chinampas to farm, though the concept of chinampas had been utilized ahead of the Aztecs employed these quite extensively and at a larger scale than ever just before. Chinampas had been agricultural pieces of land built on the lake. 1 finish of the Chinampa would be attached to the mainland and the rest would be in the river bed or lake. The chinampa plot would be constructed by staking out an enclosure 30 m in length and 2.5 m in width, into marshy lakebed in lake Texcoco. Then the location would be filled with mud and decaying vegetation to avoid the roots from becoming waterlogged and the fill would be brought higher than lake level to avoid flooding. The subsequent plot would be constructed a handful of meters would be left for canoes to pass via in order to transport men and women and crops in and out of the area. Willow trees would then be planted about the location as they had deep roots and acted as anchors holding the chinampa in spot. To keep away from flooding of the Chinampas numerous canals, dams and sewage systems had been created. On the Chinampas corn, beans, chilis, amaranth, tomatoes and flowers as they have been utilised in many religious events in extremely huge amounts have been cultivated. This special approach of agriculture allowed a tiny Island in a middle of the lake to execute big scale agriculture while possessing a population of more than 200,000 men and women, as nicely as constructing much more land about the island via this method. This was essential to hold such a big population on such a tiny island.

Very same as classical Rome, Ancient Egypt and almost all effective civilizations or empires until current times, Tenochtitlan had a state religion which had a massive influence on social, political and financial structures as effectively as becoming the driving force for military expansion and in turn producing the Aztec empire so vast. The Aztec religion was a polytheistic religion and the Aztec gods had been divided into three categories, some have been linked with creation, some were warrior gods and some had been associated with rain and the weather. The Aztec religion largely influenced their military conquests as the warrior gods Tonatiuh and Huitzilopochtli promoted military conquest and expansion of the Aztec empire. The Aztecs committed their conquests to these gods and much of the expansion of the Aztec empire came by means of their religious beliefs. In numerous other polytheistic civilizations military conquests were committed to their warrior gods. Yet another Aspect of the Aztec religion that largely impacted the political and social systems and pushed for military expansion was human sacrifice. Human sacrifice was a political policy in tenochtitlan which would be performed atop the temples which would be positioned on pyramid like structures. Templo mayor was at the centre of the ceremonial precinct and was 60 m tall with two twin temples atop. One for the god of war Huitzilopochtli and the other for Tlaloc, the god of rain.

On these temples human sacrifice was a standard event, these humans that had been sacrificed have been normally captives for war which in turn pushed for military conquest and not as routinely slaves who had been sold 3 occasions were sacrificed. Hernan Cortes the Spanish conqueror estimated that at a temple the annual human sacrifices would be about 50 individuals annually. This would have meant that thousands had been sacrificed in the Aztec empire as in Tenochtitlan itself far more than half a dozen temples had been present. This was a really unique portion of the Aztec religion that hasn’t been seen in numerous other societies. Although the Aztec religion is really exclusive and diverse in comparison to the religion of other societies, the religion impacted Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire to become stronger and larger as military conquest was promoted by the state and state religion permitting for much more trade routes, much more sources and more cash was paid by the conquered people’s.

The social and political systems in Tenochtitlan have been closely linked, they were influenced by religion and have been very essential for the stability of the city. The rulers of Tenochtitlan or any Aztec city state were named Tlatoque, despite the fact that tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec empire, each city state had their own tlatoque but they all had to pay a tribute to Tenochtitlan. The tlatoque managed labour and tribute that was to be provided by other Aztec city states to Tenochtitlan. The tlatoque also resolved situations not resolved in reduced courts, he organized military activity and sponsored some religious celebrations as properly as having to handle his personal land. The ruler lived in a big pleasant home, dressed elegantly and had several servants.. There were jugglers and acrobats to hold their households entertained. They gambled on ball games, drank chocolate and smoked gorgeous cigars. They ate tortillas, tamales and sauces of all kinds and flavours, turkey, quail, venison, rabbitt, fish fruit and lobster. The tetecuhtin is the next type of nobility soon after the tlatoque. Trichotin controlled much more restricted areas and activities than the rulers and received the title via good results in war. They could hold political, military or judicial workplace. They owned and controlled agricultural lands. They were heads of houses to which lesser nobles were attached to. The Pipiltin were the kids of rulers and chiefs. They would be attached to the chiefly home they have been born in. The succeeded the ranks of tlaloques and chiefs when their positions opened. Otherwise they would become tribute collectors or live as nobles. the tolteca have been metalworkers, engravers, painters of codices, feather workers formed along with merchants. The toltecas creations were highly esteemed and have been reserved for the nobility. They had their personal residential sections of the city, recognized as the capulli, they had their personal education, deities and sermons whilst preserving unique relation with the state. These had been the larger classes of Tenochtitlan as effectively as some merchants.

The merchant class was divided into their personal hierarchy, the leading were the principal merchants, called fathers and mothers, under this had been slave dealers, below slave dealers had been merchants who worked as spies for the ruler and nobility, below spies had been state agents and at the lowest of merchant hierarchy had been ordinary merchants. The merchant class was an really crucial part of the economy. The pochteca dealt in huge quantities of a wide range of goods on an inter-regional scale. These merchants played important roles in the economy of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire. the macehualtin (commoners) had been the majority of the Aztec population. The macehualtin worked as farmers, fished seas and rivers, specialized in particular crafts, served as soldiers in the Aztec army. The commoners were definitely not as rich as the nobles and lived in single story brick properties, they had couple of garments and their meals consisted of vegetables, chili, tortillas and a little bit of meat. They had been grouped into different capulli(neighbourhoods) primarily based on household ties and lived and owned on this land. The macehualtin worked other people’s farms as effectively as their personal. the mayeque were rural workers, attached to the private lands of their owners(nobles) and could never ever leave. Though mayeque have been paid for the operate they did, they have been comparable to slaves in contemporary understanding of slavery and lived their lives like that. The tlacotin(slaves) had been formed from the macehualtin who had done one thing to turn into tlacotin. These factors integrated punishment for theft, gambling, or not getting able to pay tribute or debts. These slaves generally lived in the cities and had been usually attached to the nobles. A particular person could only turn into a tlacotin if they had acquired the part, kids had been born free of charge. Slaves who weren’t cooperative received public warnings in front of witnesses and sold if they did not cooperate soon after, if they have been sold three occasions they could then be sacrificed. This was usually not the case, as sacrificial slaves normally came from provinces for tribute or war captives. This complicated social and relatively easy and smooth political technique allowed for stability within classes and state stability by means of a simple succession system.

Analyzing the success of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire at its flourish we can learn about universal story of human civilization. Throughout the globe history prior to 16th century course we have learned about several civilizations developing into extremely profitable huge scale empires and cities, even though numerous of the ancient civilizations developed on their own, all these societies had some sort of trade routes within the old world and numerous developed languages which derived from other languages, a lot of developed cultures which were derived from or were inspired by other cultures but the improvement of Mesoamerican societies has no influence from the civilizations of the old planet and largely helps us recognize the universality of human civilizations. The fantastic accomplishment of the Aztec empire and Tenochtitlan came about in a unique way but a massive scale productive society forming shows the universality of the human experience. This can be understood by going back to the neolithic revolution when humans evolved from hunter gatherers to agricultural societies, both Mesoamerica and Afro Eurasia went by means of this approach of settling down and forming appropriate societies. From that each Afro Eurasia had a lot of big scale civilizations and so did Mesoamerica, although the Mesoamerican civilizations are not as properly recognized as the Afro Eurasian but some notable earlier civilizations are the Mayan and Inca. Inspired by earlier civilizations excellent empires then formed, from my example the Aztec empire in the mesoamericans and in Afro Eurasia fantastic empires such as the Han and Roman empire formed. Even though these Empires could not have formed at the very same time or may possibly not have had a lot of similarities in policies, economics or religion, the Roman empire and Han China have been the height of the classical age becoming very vast and profitable empires and the Aztec empire was the height of the Mesoamerican civilizations.

In conclusion by understanding and the flourish of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire we can see the universality of the human knowledge and civilizations. We can see this through the similarities in the Mesoamerican and other civilizations.