The departure of Andrés Manuel López Obrador The Mexican government has not stopped the flow of historical claims and requests for forgiveness addressed to Spain for the “wrongs caused” by the conquest led by Hernán Cortés. His successor, the elected president Claudia Sheinbaumadmitted in a statement that the decision not to invite King Felipe VI to the inauguration is based on his refusal to respond to a letter in which the monarch had to apologize for the “abuses” of certain events that occurred ago some time. five centuries. A renewed impulse which generated a diplomatic crisis between the two countries: neither Pedro Sanchez no member of its executive will participate in the ceremony either “as a sign of protest” against an “unacceptable and inexplicable” decision.
What has gone most unnoticed is the historical slippage, beyond the debates on the relevance of the assertions or on their halo of presentism, that Sheinbaum committed with regard to the founding of Tenochtitlan. According to his writings, the origins of the city, capital of the Mexican empire which fell into the hands of Cortés and his indigenous allies on August 13, 1521, are found “two centuries ago”, trying to link them to independence from Mexico.
However, the history of Tenochtilan dates back centuries before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. During the so-called Initial Postclassic period (900-1200 AD), political and military instability reigned in this region of Mesoamerica. The Toltecs of Tulawhich used short, curved wooden batons as a light and effective weapon, managed to expand south to what is now Costa Rica and north to the deserts. Its culture declined after the abandonment of the capital in 1179 AD due to the arrival of nomadic groups from the drier regions of the north, the chichimecas or barbarians in the Nahuatl language, who played a key role in the expansion of the bow and arrow.
Hernán Cortés’s entry into Mexico.
His power will be replaced in the 13th century by tepanecswith its epicenter in the city of Azcapotzalco, which subjugated the main neighboring colonies and imposed its own military governors, sons of the leader of the moment, and the obligation to pay tribute. At that time, the Mexica had already undertaken a migratory odyssey from the legendary city of Aztlan, where they already worshiped Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war.
“As in the case of many other Mesoamerican peoples, the origin of the Mexica lies somewhere between the mythical and the uncertain, or the undoubtedly mythical” explain Antonio Espino Lopezprofessor of modern history at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and one of the great experts on the Spanish conquest of America, in his essential work win or die (Wake up Ferro).
The consecration of pagan temples and the first mass in Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
Wikimedia Commons
“After having traveled the territory in search of a settlement, it is more than possible that the Mexicas devoted themselves to the tasks of the mercenaries and they obtained the rejection of some, but also the recognition of others, like the lord of Culhuacan, who allowed them to settle in an unsanitary place, Tizapan, and later allowed them to go to the markets of the city center . Soon the Mexicas linked up with the Culhuas and the Mexica-Culhuas emerged, the so-called Aztecs,” the historian adds.
Around 1323, the Mexica moved back to the lakes of Mexico’s central valley, where they settled in a strategic, if seemingly inhospitable, location on a group of islands between the rival cities of Azcapotzalco and Tetzoco. Tenochtitlan was built in 1325according to traditional stories, such as Mexican Chronicle (1598) by Hernando de Alvarado Tezozómoc. Mythical accounts indicate that Huitzilopochtli’s conception allowed them to have their own city, the name of which responded to an omen from the head of the Aztec pantheon: Tenochtitlan means “the place of the cactus on the stone” or “the place of the wild cactus”.
The city faced various challenges, both logistical and political, and met with considerable success. A century later, in 1427, the Mexica-Culhuas of Tenochtitlan rebelled against their lords, taking advantage of the death of chief Tepanec and the open internal war between their descendants and began their first expansion. Directed by Izcoatl, tlatoani who succeeded in centralizing political, religious and military power in his person, Tenochtitlan integrated the Triple Alliance with its neighbors of Tetzcoco and Tlacopan, to whom it will eventually impose its pre-eminence on the battlefield.
The victory of the Mexica gave rise to the emergence and hegemony of the Mexica Empire over the basin of Mexico which, at the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés, would extend over some 200,000 square kilometers and would have been inhabited by between 5 and 6 million people. Its capital was larger than any that then existed in the Iberian Peninsula. —more than 150,000 inhabitants— and there were dozens of canals that connected the different islands.
‘Screen of the conquest of Mexico and the very famous and faithful city of Mexico’.
Prado Museum
The houses, made of stone or painted white, had two floors and an upper terrace. In the center of the city were ceremonial pyramids —The main one, 35 meters high, was crowned with two twin temples dedicated to Tláloc, god of rain and fertility, and to Huitzilopochtli.— and the Templo Mayor, consisting of 78 buildings including oratories, schools and other facilities. There were also dark images, like this one tsompantli or a huge stage built with 136,000 human skullsaccording to the calculations of two conquerors, the product of the sacrifices made.
In 1519, the tlatoani The best known was Moctezuma, who had in his court a zoo for all kinds of birds with ponds for waterfowl and viewpoints for observing them. Other hidden rooms cages with pumas, jaguars or wolves and jars with venomous snakes that fed on the viscera of the sacrificed. The splendor and growth of the city were such that, as Espino López recalls, “Tenochtitlan eventually joined its twin city, Tlatelolco, to form the great Mexican metropolis as Cortés knew it: Mexico-Tenochtitlan.”
