1.
Legend
–
Legend, for its active and passive participants, includes no happenings that are outside the realm of possibility, but may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time, in order to keep fresh and vital. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being believed by the participants. The Brothers Grimm defined legend as folktale historically grounded, a modern folklorists professional definition of legend was proposed by Timothy R. Legend is a loanword from Old French that entered English usage circa 1340. The Old French noun legende derives from the Medieval Latin legenda, in its early English-language usage, the word indicated a narrative of an event. The word legendary was originally a noun meaning a collection or corpus of legends and this word changed to legendry, and legendary became the adjectival form. By 1613, English-speaking Protestants began to use the word when they wished to imply that an event was fictitious, thus, legend gained its modern connotations of undocumented and spurious, which distinguish it from the meaning of chronicle. In 1866, Jacob Grimm described the tale as poetic. Questions of categorising legends, in hopes of compiling a series of categories on the line of the Aarne–Thompson folktale index. Compared to the highly structured folktale, legend is comparatively amorphous, in Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft, Ernst Bernheim asserted that a legend is simply a longstanding rumour. Gordon Allport credited the staying-power of some rumours to the persistent cultural state-of-mind that they embody and capsulise, in the narrow Christian sense, legenda were hagiographical accounts, often collected in a legendary. Hippolyte Delehaye distinguished legend from myth, The legend, on the hand, has, of necessity. It refers imaginary events to some real personage, or it localizes romantic stories in some definite spot, stories that exceed the boundaries of realism are called fables. For example, the talking animal formula of Aesop identifies his brief stories as fables, the parable of the Prodigal Son would be a legend if it were told as having actually happened to a specific son of a historical father. If it included a donkey that gave sage advice to the Prodigal Son it would be a fable, Legend may be transmitted orally, passed on person-to-person, or, in the original sense, through written text. Jacob de Voragines Legenda Aurea or The Golden Legend comprises a series of vitae or instructive biographical narratives and they are presented as lives of the saints, but the profusion of miraculous happenings and above all their uncritical context are characteristics of hagiography. The Legenda was intended to inspire extemporized homilies and sermons appropriate to the saint of the day, the vanishing hitchhiker is the best-known urban legend in America, traceable as far back as 1870, but it is found around the world including in Korea and Russia. In the legend, a girl in a white dress picked up alongside of the road by a passerby
Legend
–
A depiction of the legendary
Rütlischwur.
Legend
–
Holger Danske, a legendary character.
Legend
–
In the painting of
Lady Godiva by
Jules Joseph Lefebvre, the authentic historical person is fully submerged in the legend, presented in an anachronistic high mediaeval setting.
Legend
–
The mediaeval legend of
Genevieve of Brabant connected her to
Treves.
2.
Aztec
–
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. The Nahuatl words aztecatl and aztecah mean people from Aztlan, a place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time. Often the term Aztec refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mēxihcah Tenochcah or Cōlhuah Mexihcah. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization, here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle, Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as achieving remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. Subsequently, the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, the term extends to further ethnic groups associated with the Aztec empire such as the Acolhua and Tepanec and others that were incorporated into the empire. In older usage the term was used about modern Nahuatl speaking ethnic groups. In recent usage these ethnic groups are referred to as the Nahua peoples. Linguistically the term Aztecan is still used about the branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages that includes the Nahuatl language and its closest relatives Pochutec, to the Aztecs themselves the word aztec was not an endonym for any particular ethnic group. Rather it was a term used to refer to several ethnic groups, not all of them Nahuatl speaking. In the Nahuatl language aztecatl means person from Aztlan and this usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term Aztec is still more common. For the same reason the notion of Aztec civilization is best understood as a horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. Particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, the Aztec Empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan that extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance, which was de facto led by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering cities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala, the Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico, dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, in the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico
Aztec
–
The Aztec Pyramid at
St. Cecilia Acatitlan, State of Mexico
Aztec
–
Aztec
wood mask
Aztec
–
Large ceramic statue of an Aztec Eagle Warrior
Aztec
–
Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer —the fire god
Xiuhtecuhtli is in the center
3.
Mexica
–
The Mexica or Mexicas were an indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico, known today as the rulers of the Aztec Empire. The Mexica were a Nahua people who founded their two cities Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco on raised islets in Lake Texcoco around AD1300, after the rise of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Tenochca Mexica assumed a senior position over their two allied cities, Texcoco and Tlacopan. The Mexica are eponymous of the placename Mexico Mēxihco and this area was expanded upon in the wake of the Spanish conquest and administered from the former Aztec capital as New Spain. Like many of the peoples around them, the Mexica spoke Nahuatl, the form of Nahuatl used in the 16th century, when it began to be written in the alphabet brought by the Spanish, is known as Classical Nahuatl. Nahuatl is still today by over 1.5 million people
Mexica
–
Music and dance during a One Flower ceremony, from the
Florentine Codex.
Mexica
–
Huitzilopochtli, the
patron god of the Mexica, as depicted in the
Codex Telleriano-Remensis.
4.
Tenochtitlan
–
Mexico-Tenochtitlan, commonly known as Tenochtitlan was a Mexica located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. Founded on June 20,1325, it became the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century, at its peak it was the largest city in the Pre-Columbian Americas. It subsequently became a cabecera of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, today the ruins of Tenochtitlan are located in Mexico Citys downtown. Tenochtitlan was one of two Nahua āltēpetl on the island, the other being Tlatelolco, traditionally, the name Tenochtitlan was thought to come from Nahuatl tetl and nōchtli and is often thought to mean, Among the prickly pears rocks. However, one attestation in the late 16th-century manuscript known as the Bancroft dialogues suggest the second vowel was short, Tenochtitlan covered an estimated 8 to 13.5 km2, situated on the western side of the shallow Lake Texcoco. At the time of Spanish conquests, Mexico City comprised both Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, the city was connected to the mainland by causeways leading to the north, south, and west. The causeways were interrupted by bridges that allowed canoes and other traffic to pass freely. The bridges could be pulled away, if necessary, to defend the city, the city was interlaced with a series of canals, so that all sections of the city could be visited either on foot or via canoe. Lake Texcoco was the largest of five interconnected lakes, since it formed in an endorheic basin, Lake Texcoco was brackish. During the reign of Moctezuma I, the levee of Nezahualcoyotl was constructed, estimated to be 12 to 16 km in length, the levee was completed circa 1453. The levee kept fresh spring-fed water in the waters around Tenochtitlan and kept the brackish waters beyond the dike, two double aqueducts, each more than 4 km long and made of terracotta, provided the city with fresh water from the springs at Chapultepec. This was intended mainly for cleaning and washing, for drinking, water from mountain springs was preferred. Most of the population liked to bathe twice a day, Moctezuma was said to take four baths a day. According to the context of Aztec culture in literature, the soap that they most likely used was the root of a plant called copalxocotl, and to clean their clothes they used the root of metl. Also, the classes and pregnant women washed themselves in a temazcalli, similar to a sauna bath. This was also popular in other Mesoamerican cultures, and some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream. I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never heard of or seen before. The city was divided into four zones, or campan, each campan was divided into 20 districts, there were three main streets that crossed the city, each leading to one of the three causeways to the mainland of Tepeyac, Ixtapalpa, and Tlacopan
Tenochtitlan
–
Model of the temple district of Tenochtitlan at the
National Museum of Anthropology
Tenochtitlan
–
The Western side of the shallow
Lake Texcoco. Tenochtitlan is the southern part of the main island (under the red line). The northern part is
Tlatelolco
Tenochtitlan
–
The Tlatelolco Marketplace as depicted at
The Field Museum, Chicago.
Tenochtitlan
–
A picture of Tenochtitlan and a model of the
Templo Mayor.
5.
Chicomoztoc
–
Culhuacan was viewed as a prestigious and revered place by the Aztec/Mexica. In Aztec codical writing, the symbol or glyph representing the toponym of Culhuacan took the form of a bent or curved hill, the purported existence of actual underground caves plays a role in New Age Mayanism. In the State of Guanajuato the highest mountain is El Cerro de Culiacán and is surrounded by all the signs that correspond to the measure and chronicles of the legendary Chicomoztoc. In Clive Cusslers novel Lost Empire, Chicomoztoc is discovered to be an island in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, shamanism James E. Brady, Keith M. Prufer. In the Maw of the Earth Monster, Mesoamerican Ritual Cave Use
Chicomoztoc
–
The seven caves of Chicomoztoc, from
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca. The depiction of a 'curved mountain' at the top of this painting is meant as a referent to
Culhuacan.
6.
Acolhua
–
The Acolhua are a Mesoamerican people who arrived in the Valley of Mexico in or around the year 1200 CE. The Acolhua were a culture of the Aztecs as well as the Tepanec, Chalca, Xochimilca. It is likely that the family of the Acolhua were descended from Otomi speakers. Under Techotlalatzins grandson, Nezahualcoyotl, the Acolhua allied with the Mexica in the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Acolhua capital, Texcoco, became a cultural center of the resultant Aztec Empire
Acolhua
–
Ethécatl, the Acolhua God of Wind,
Musée du quai Branly
7.
Tlaxcala (Nahua state)
–
Tlaxcala was a pre-Columbian city and state in central Mexico. The Tlaxcalans arrived in Central Mexico during the Late Postclassic and they first settled near Texcoco in the valley of Mexico, between the settlement of Cohuatlinchan and the shore of Lake Texcoco. After some years the Tlaxcallans were driven out of the valley of Mexico and moved to the east, over the subsequent years, the Tlaxcallan state expanded with the foundations of Ocotelulco and Tizatlán. The fourth major settlement, Quiahuiztlan, was founded by members of the Tlaxcallan group that had remained in the valley of Mexico. Ancient Tlaxcala was a republic ruled by a council of between 50 and 200 chief political officials and these officials gained their positions through service to the state, usually in warfare, and as a result came from both the noble and commoner classes. Tlaxcala was never conquered by the Aztec empire, but was engaged in a state of perpetual war, as a result of their alliance with the Spaniards, Tlaxcala had hidalgo privileged status within Spanish colonial Mexico. After the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan and the rest of Mexico, Tlaxcala was allowed to survive and preserve its pre-Columbian culture. In addition, as a reward to the Tlaxcalans unyielding loyalty to the Spanish, conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo describes the first battle between the Spanish force and the Tlaxcalteca as surprisingly difficult. Xicohtencatl the Younger was later condemned by the Tlaxcaltecan ruling council, due to protracted warfare between the Aztecs and the Tlaxcala, the Tlaxcala were eager to exact revenge, and soon became loyal allies of the Spanish. Even after the Spanish were expelled from Tenochtitlan, the Tlaxcala continued to support their conquest, Tlaxcala also assisted the Spanish in the conquest of Guatemala. Following the Spanish Conquest, Tlaxcala was divided into four fiefdoms by the Spanish corregidor Gómez de Santillán in 1545 and these fiefdoms were Ocotelolco, Quiahuiztlan, Tepeticpac, and Tizatlan. At this time, four houses or lineages emerged and claimed hereditary rights to each fiefdom. During the colonial period, the Tlaxcalan people were regarded as being of higher status, however, the indigenous population who had been living in Tlaxcala were reduced to a small minority. It was painted by Tlaxcalteca artists under Spanish supervision, crónica Mexicayotl was written by Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, in Nahuatl and Spanish, in the last decades of the 16th century. Mexico, Manuel Orozco y Berra, Leyenda, fargher, Lane F. Richard E. Blanton and Verenice Y. Egalitarian Ideology and Political Power in Prehispanic Central Mexico, The Case of Tlaxcallan, xicotencatl, rethinking an indigenous Mexican hero, Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl, UNAM. Land and Succession in the Indigenous Noble Houses of Sixteenth-Century Tlaxcala, invading Guatemala, Spanish, Nahua, and Maya Accounts of the Conquest Wars. University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, Pennsylvania State University Press, Spanish language description of the historiography of Tlaxcala Article in Sciencemag about archeological findings at Tizatlan
Tlaxcala (Nahua state)
–
Glyph
Tlaxcala (Nahua state)
–
Tlaxcala during the conquest
Tlaxcala (Nahua state)
–
A Map of Tlaxcala: The top-right hand sector is
Tizatlan, the bottom-right hand sector
Quiahuiztlan, the top-left hand sector
Ocotelolco, and the bottom-left hand sector
Tepeticpac. The river, Atzompa, crosses the city from North to South (left to right, the map being oriented along an East-West axis). From Alfredo Chavero, Pintures Jeroglificas, Mexico 1901.
Tlaxcala (Nahua state)
–
Tlaxcaltec â allies accompany
Hernán Cortés during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire, 1519, from the
History of Tlaxcala.
8.
Tepanec
–
The Tepanecs or Tepaneca are a Mesoamerican people who arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the late 12th or early 13th centuries. The Tepanec were a culture of the Aztecs as well as the Acolhua and others—these tribes spoke the Nahuatl language and shared the same general pantheon. Reputedly welcomed to the Valley of Mexico by the semi-legendary Chichimeca ruler Xolotl, under their tlatoani, Acolnahuacatl, the Tepanec took over Azcapotzalco from the indigenous inhabitants. In the early 14th century, Tezozomoc brought the Tepanec to their height of power, at that point they controlled all of the Valley of Mexico as well as parts of the Toluca. Native sources say that Tezozomoc lived to the age of over 100 and was legendary for his generalship and statesmanship, the death of Tezozomoc in 1426 brought his sons Tayatzin and Maxtla to the throne, with Maxtla most likely poisoning Tayatzin. In 1428, Maxtla was overthrown by the nascent Aztec Triple Alliance, which included the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan, with the rise of the Aztec empire, Tlacopan became the predominant Tepanec city, although both Tenochtitlan and Texcoco eclipsed Tlacopan in size and prestige
Tepanec
–
Territory dominated by tepanecs.
Tepanec
–
Glyph denoting Tepanecs
9.
Aztec codices
–
Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture, the pre-Columbian codices mostly do not in fact use the codex form and are, or originally were, long folded sheets. They also differ from European books in that they mostly consist of images and pictograms, the colonial era codices not only contain Aztec pictograms, but also Classical Nahuatl, Spanish, and occasionally Latin. Some are entirely in Nahuatl without pictorial content, although there are very few surviving pre-conquest codices, the tlacuilo tradition endured the transition to colonial culture, scholars now have access to a body of around 500 colonial-era codices. Colonial-era Nahuatl language documentation is the texts of the New Philology. The Codex Borbonicus is a written by Aztec priests around the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Like all pre-Columbian Aztec codices, it was pictorial in nature. Codex Bornobicus is held at the Library of the National Assembly of France, the Boturini Codex was painted by an unknown Aztec author some time between 1530 and 1541, roughly a decade after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Pictorial in nature, it tells the story of the legendary Aztec journey from Aztlán to the Valley of Mexico, rather than employing separate pages, the author used one long sheet of amatl, or fig bark, accordion-folded into 21½ pages. There is a rip in the middle of the 22nd page, unlike many other Aztec codices, the drawings are not colored, but rather merely outlined with black ink. Also known as Tira de la Peregrinación, it is named one of its first European owners. It is now held in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, the Codex Mendoza is a pictorial document, with Spanish annotations and commentary, composed circa 1541. It is divided into three sections, a history of each Aztec ruler and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by each province. It is held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the Florentine Codex is a set of 12 books created under the supervision of Bernardino de Sahagún between approximately 1540 and 1585. It is a copy of original materials which are now lost. Perhaps more than any source, the Florentine Codex has been the major source of Aztec life in the years before the Spanish conquest. Anderson published English translations of the Nahuatl text of the books in separate volumes. A full color, facsimile copy of the codex was published in three bound volumes in 1979
Aztec codices
–
Detail of first page from the
Boturini Codex, depicting the departure from
Aztlán.
Aztec codices
–
Codex Féjervary-Mayer (Lacambalam 2014)
Aztec codices
–
Part of the first page of
Codex Mendoza, depicting the founding of
Tenochtitlan.
Aztec codices
–
Section of page 34 (folio 496) of Codex Osuna showing the glyphs for
Texcoco,
Tenochtitlan, and
Tlacopán.
10.
Huitzilopochtli
–
In the Aztec religion, Huitzilopochtli, is a Mesoamerican deity of war, sun, human sacrifice and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the god of the Mexicas, also known as Aztecs. Many in the pantheon of deities of the Aztecs were inclined to have a fondness for an aspect of warfare. However, Huitzilopochtli was known as the god of war in ancient Mexico. Since he was the god of the Mexica, he was credited with both the victories and defeats that the Mexica people had on the battlefield. The people had to make sacrifices to him to protect the Aztec from infinite night and it is important to remember that the defeat of their patron deity meant the defeat of his people. This is one of the reasons why they were concerned with providing exquisite tribute. Not only was it important for him to survive his battles and he wielded Xiuhcoatl as a weapon, associating him with fire. The name literally means something like Hummingbird South or Hummingbird Left, in the tlaxotecuyotl, a hymn sung in reverence to Huitzilopotchtli, he is referred to as, the Dart-Hurler, the divine hurler, and a terror to the Mixteca. There are a handful of origin mythologies describing the deity’s beginnings, one story tells of the cosmic creation and Huitzilopochtli’s role. According to this legend, he was the smallest son of parents being the creator couple Tonacatecutli and Tonacacihuatl while his brothers were Quetzalcoatl. His mother and father instructed him and Quetzalcoatl to bring order to the world. And so, together they made fire, the first male and female humans, created the Earth, another origin story tells of a fierce goddess, Coatlicue, being impregnated as she was sweeping by a ball of feathers on Mount Coatepec. Her other children, who were fully grown, were the four hundred male Centzonuitznaua. These children, angered by the manner by which their mother became impregnated, conspired to kill her, Huitzilopochtli burst forth from his mother’s womb in full armor and fully grown. He attacked his brothers and sister, defending his mother by beheading his sister. He also chased after his brothers, who fled from him, Huitzilopochtli is seen as the sun in mythology, while his many male siblings are perceived as the stars and his sister as the moon. In the Aztec worldview, this is the reason why the Sun is constantly chasing the Moon and it is also why it was so important to provide tribute and thus sustenance for Huitzilopochtli, and thus the sun
Huitzilopochtli
–
Huitzilopochtli, as depicted in the
Codex Telleriano-Remensis
Huitzilopochtli
–
Huitzilopochtli in human form in the
Codex Telleriano-Remensis
Huitzilopochtli
–
The Aztec emperor
Chimalpopoca in Huitzilopochtli costume, from the
Codex Xolotl
Huitzilopochtli
–
An imaginative European depiction of an Aztec shrine. The idol of Huitzilopochtli is seated in the background. (1602)
11.
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Alexander von Humboldt (by
Joseph Stieler, 1843)
Alexander von Humboldt
–
The Tegel Palace (or Humboldt Palace), where Alexander von Humboldt and
Wilhelm von Humboldt lived for several years.
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Geography of Plants, 1805.
12.
William H. Prescott
–
William Hickling Prescott was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian. Despite suffering from serious visual impairment, which at times prevented him from reading or writing for himself and he is also noted for his eidetic memory. After an extensive period of study, during which he contributed to academic journals, Prescott specialized in late Renaissance Spain. During his lifetime, he was upheld as one of the greatest living American intellectuals, Prescott has become one of the most widely translated American historians, and was an important figure in the development of history as a rigorous academic discipline. Historians admire Prescott for his exhaustive, careful, and systematic use of archives, his accurate recreation of sequences of events, his balanced judgments and his lively writing style. He was primarily focused on political and military affairs, largely ignoring economic, social, intellectual, instead, he wrote narrative history, subsuming unstated causal forces in his driving storyline. William H. Prescott was born in Salem, Massachusetts on May 4,1796 and his parents were William Prescott, Jr. a lawyer, and his wife, née Catherine Greene Hickling. His grandfather William Prescott served as a colonel during the American Revolutionary War, Prescott began formal schooling at the age of seven, studying under Mr. Jacob Knapp. The family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1808, where his fathers earnings substantially increased and his studies continued under Dr. John Gardiner, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church. As a young man, Prescott frequented the Boston Athenæum, which at the held the 10, 000-volume private library of John Quincy Adams. In 1832, Prescott became a trustee of the library, a position he held for 15 years, Prescott enrolled at Harvard College as a second year student in August 1811, at the age of 15. He was not considered academically distinguished, despite showing promise in Latin, Prescotts eyesight degenerated after being hit in the eye with a crust of bread during a food fight as a student, and it remained weak and unstable throughout the rest of his life. Prescott was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society as a senior, which he considered a personal honor. After a short period of illness, he embarked on an extended tour of Europe. Prescott first traveled to the island of São Miguel in the Azores, after two weeks, he left for the cooler climate of London, where he stayed with the distinguished surgeon Astley Cooper and the oculist William Adams. Prescott first used a noctograph while staying with Adams, the became a permanent feature of his life. He visited Hampton Court Palace with future American president John Quincy Adams, at the time a diplomat in London, in August 1816, Prescott traveled to Paris, but later moved on to Italy, where he spent the winter. He returned to Paris in early 1817, where he chanced to meet the American Hispanist George Ticknor, Prescott spent some time in Cambridge, where he saw the manuscripts of Isaac Newtons works, and returned to the United States in the same year
William H. Prescott
–
Prescott c. 1850–1859
William H. Prescott
–
A bronze statue of Prescott's grandfather
William Prescott in
Charlestown,
Massachusetts
William H. Prescott
–
Title pages of the History of Ferdinand and Isabella, 1838 edition
William H. Prescott
–
Daguerreotype portrait of Prescott by M.B. Brady, c. 1848–1850
13.
Human migration
–
Human migration is the movement by people from one place to another with the intentions of settling, permanently in the new location. The movement is often long distances and from one country to another, but internal migration is also possible, indeed. Migration may be individuals, family units or in large groups, nomadic movements are normally not regarded as migrations as there is no intention to settle in the new place and because the movement is generally seasonal. Only a few people have retained this form of lifestyle in modern times. Many estimates of statistics in worldwide migration patterns exist, the World Bank has published its Migration and Remittances Factbook annually since 2008. The International Organisation for Migration has published a yearly World Migration Report since 1999, the United Nations Statistics Division also keeps a database on worldwide migration. Recent advances in research on migration via the Internet promise better understanding of migration patterns, substantial internal migration can also take place within a country, either seasonal human migration, or shifts of population into cities or out of cities. Studies of worldwide migration patterns, however, tend to limit their scope to international migration, the World Banks Migration and Remittances Factbook of 2011 lists the following estimates for the year 2010, total number of immigrants,215.8 million or 3. 2% of world population. In 2013, the percentage of international migrants worldwide increased by 33% with 59% of migrants targeting developed regions, almost half of these migrants are women, which is one of the most significant migrant-pattern changes in the last half century. Women migrate alone or with their members and community. Even though female migration is largely viewed as rather than independent migration, emerging studies argue complex. The World Banks report estimates that, as of 2010,16.3 million or 7. 6% of migrants qualified as refugees. At the end of 2012, approximately 15.4 million people were refugees, structurally, there is substantial South-South and North-North migration, i. e. most emigrants from high-income O. E. C. D. Countries migrate to other countries, and a substantial part of emigrants from developing countries migrate to other developing countries. Between 2000 and 2013 the average rate of change of the migrant population in the developing regions slightly exceeded that of the developed regions. Remittances, i. e. funds transferred by migrant workers to their home country, the top ten remittance recipients in 2010 were 1. China, Mexico, Philippines, France, Germany, Bangladesh, Belgium, Spain, the Global Commission on International Migration, launched in 2003, published a report in 2005. International migration challenges at the level are addressed through the Global Forum on Migration and Development
Human migration
–
Net migration rates for 2011: positive (blue), negative (orange), stable (green), and no data (gray)
14.
Crab Nebula
–
The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus. The now-current name is due to William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, corresponding to a bright supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054, the nebula was observed later by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a supernova explosion. At an apparent magnitude of 8.4, comparable to that of Saturns moon Titan, it is not visible to the naked eye, the nebula lies in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of about 2.0 kiloparsecs from Earth. It has a diameter of 3.4 parsecs, corresponding to an apparent diameter of some 7 arcminutes, and is expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometres per second, or 0. 5% of the speed of light. At the center of the lies the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star 28–30 kilometres across with a spin rate of 30.2 times per second. At X-ray and gamma ray energies above 30 keV, the Crab Nebula is generally the strongest persistent source in the sky, the nebulas radiation allows for the detailed studying of celestial bodies that occult it. The inner part of the nebula is a much smaller pulsar wind nebula that appears as a shell surrounding the pulsar, for the Crab Nebula, the divisions are superficial but remain meaningful to researchers and their lines of study. Modern understanding that the Crab Nebula was created by a supernova dates to 1921 and this eventually led to the conclusion that the creation of the Crab Nebula corresponds to the bright SN1054 supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in AD1054. There is also a 13th-century Japanese reference to this guest star in Meigetsuki, the Crab Nebula was first identified in 1731 by John Bevis. The nebula was independently rediscovered in 1758 by Charles Messier as he was observing a bright comet and it is in searching in vain for the comet that Charles Messier found the Crab nebula, which he at first thought to be Halleys comet. After some observation, noticing that the object that he was observing was not moving across the sky, Messier then realised the usefulness of compiling a catalogue of celestial objects of a cloudy nature, but fixed in the sky, to avoid incorrectly cataloguing them as comets. After several observations, he concluded that it was composed of a group of stars. The 3rd Earl of Rosse observed the nebula at Birr Castle in 1844 using a 36-inch telescope and he observed it again later, in 1848, using a 72-inch telescope and could not confirm the supposed resemblance, but the name stuck nevertheless. In 1913, when Vesto Slipher registered his spectroscopy study of the sky, in the early twentieth century, the analysis of early photographs of the nebula taken several years apart revealed that it was expanding. Tracing the expansion back revealed that the nebula must have become visible on Earth about 900 years ago, historical records revealed that a new star bright enough to be seen in the daytime had been recorded in the same part of the sky by Chinese astronomers in 1054. Changes in the cloud, suggesting its small extent, were discovered by Carl Lampland in 1921 and that same year, John Charles Duncan demonstrated that the remnant is expanding, while Knut Lundmark noted its proximity to the guest star of 1054.5 by July. The supernova was visible to the eye for about two years after its first observation
Crab Nebula
–
Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image assembled from 24 individual
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000
Crab Nebula
–
Reproduction of the first depiction of the nebula by Lord Rosse (1844) (colour-inverted to appear white-on-black)
Crab Nebula
–
Image combining optical data from
Hubble (in red) and
X-ray images from
Chandra X-ray Observatory (in blue).
Crab Nebula
–
Hubble image of a small region of the Crab Nebula, showing
Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities in its intricate filamentary structure.
15.
City-state
–
A city-state is a sovereign state that consists of a city and its dependent territories. A great deal of consensus exists that the term applies to Singapore, Monaco. A number of small states share similar characteristics, and therefore are sometimes also cited as modern city-states. Occasionally, other states with high population densities, such as San Marino, are also cited. Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a degree of autonomy, and are sometimes considered city-states. Hong Kong and Macau, along with independent members of the United Arab Emirates, most notably Dubai, scholars have classed the Viking colonial cities in medieval Ireland, most importantly Dublin, as city-states. In Cyprus, the Phoenician settlement of Kition was a city-state that existed from around 800 BC until the end of the 4th century BC. The success of regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy and Greece. However, such small political entities often survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states, thus they inevitably gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation-state. In the history of Mainland Southeast Asia, aristocratic groups, Buddhist leaders, the system existed until the 19th century when colonization by European powers, and Thailands resulted in the adoption of the modern concept of statehood. In the Holy Roman Empire the Free Imperial Cities enjoyed a considerable autonomy, some, like the three Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, pooled their economic relations with foreign powers and were able to wield considerable diplomatic clout. Under Habsburg rule the city of Fiume had the status of a Corpus separatum, a later city-state, though lacking sovereignty, was West Berlin, being a state legally not belonging to any other state, but ruled by the Western Allies. They allowed – notwithstanding their overlordship as occupant powers – its internal organisation as one state simultaneously being a city, though West Berlin maintained close ties to the West German Federal Republic of Germany, it was legally never part of it. But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received, the war, and especially conscription, was nevertheless often unpopular in the city, sparking the deadly New York Draft Riots. The neighboring City of Brooklyn, in contrast, was staunchly Unionist, the Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 under the terms of Article 100 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Its territory of 28 km2 comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy, the Shanghai International Settlement was an international zone with its own legal system, postal service, and currency. The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors
City-state
–
Monaco, an example of a city-state.
City-state
–
The
Republic of Ragusa, a maritime city-state, was based in the
walled city of
Dubrovnik.
City-state
–
Overview of Singapore's financial district
16.
Tecpatl
–
In the Aztec culture, a tecpatl was a flint or obsidian knife with a lanceolate figure and double-edged blade, with elongated ends. Both ends could be rounded or pointed, but other designs were made with an attached to a handle. It can be represented with the top half red, reminiscent of the color of blood, in representations of human sacrifice and the rest white, indicating the color of the flint blade. It was the sign of the day, the twentieth day of the month of the Aztec calendar. The Tecpatl knife was used for human sacrifice by the Aztecs. Although it may have only limited use on the battlefield. Tecpatl, is one of the most complex iconographic symbols of Aztec mythology and this knife expresses multiple meanings that carry a complex view of the world which are closely associated with the notions of origin and human sacrifice. The Tecpatl was born in the height of heaven shaped as a knife, and was thrown down by his brother, and it was destined to descend from heaven to earth. It falls in Chicomoztoc primary array of peoples, fragmenting into 1600 pieces, and from those fragments a thousand and six hundred gods emerge and these gods emerging from the Seven Caves are the Centzonmimixcoa. Then they went into a cave, and upon entering, their mother gave birth to five more Mimixcoa. In the version of the Legend of the Five Suns, Tecpatl becomes temporal marker of the birth of the Centzonmimixcoa, according to Bernardino de Sahagún and Diego Durán they present the homology between this myth and ritual. When the other women looked at what was in it, it was a flint and iron were sandeel, meanwhile, Duran tells his priests sought a child cot and put into it a flint knife with which they sacrificed the one they called the son of Cihuacoatl. In the version where the Centzonmimixcoa are born from the Tecpatl, in the version that is temporary marker Tecpatl birth, the mother is Iztac Chalchiuhtlicue, and in rites the mother of Tecpatl is Cihuacoatl. In Aztec mythology, the tecpatl was sometimes drawn as a flint blade, sharpened with some notches on the edge. Tecpatl was associated with Northern cardinal point, the dark place of eternal stillness and rest of the dead. The ancient Anahuac, considered the Tecpatl as a symbol of Xiuhtecuhtli tletl and it also relates to Ehecatl, since in the codices its represented by high winds, meaning that the air cuts like razor, so it represented xopantla, the time of high winds. The image of the tecpatl was a symbol and therefore ruled agricultural events. Their patron gods were, Chalchiuhtotolin and Tezcatlipoca, in the trecena of Ce Tecpatl, the gods were Tonatiuh and Mictlantecuhtli
Tecpatl
–
Técpatl (18th month of the
Aztec calendar) (Image from the
Codex Magliabechiano)
Tecpatl
–
Xipe Totec, carrying a bloody tecpatl. (
Codex Borgia)
Tecpatl
–
Sacrifice of a war captive (Image based on the
Codex Magliabechiano)
Tecpatl
–
Representations of the tecpatl in the sun stone
17.
Tepaneca
–
The Tepanecs or Tepaneca are a Mesoamerican people who arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the late 12th or early 13th centuries. The Tepanec were a culture of the Aztecs as well as the Acolhua and others—these tribes spoke the Nahuatl language and shared the same general pantheon. Reputedly welcomed to the Valley of Mexico by the semi-legendary Chichimeca ruler Xolotl, under their tlatoani, Acolnahuacatl, the Tepanec took over Azcapotzalco from the indigenous inhabitants. In the early 14th century, Tezozomoc brought the Tepanec to their height of power, at that point they controlled all of the Valley of Mexico as well as parts of the Toluca. Native sources say that Tezozomoc lived to the age of over 100 and was legendary for his generalship and statesmanship, the death of Tezozomoc in 1426 brought his sons Tayatzin and Maxtla to the throne, with Maxtla most likely poisoning Tayatzin. In 1428, Maxtla was overthrown by the nascent Aztec Triple Alliance, which included the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan, with the rise of the Aztec empire, Tlacopan became the predominant Tepanec city, although both Tenochtitlan and Texcoco eclipsed Tlacopan in size and prestige
Tepaneca
–
Territory dominated by tepanecs.
Tepaneca
–
Glyph denoting Tepanecs
18.
Azcapotzalco
–
Azcapotzalco is one of the 16 municipalities into which Mexicos Mexico City is divided. Azcapotzalco is in the part of Mexico City. The town began in the era and was the seat of the Tepanec dominion until the Aztec Triple Alliance overthrew it. After that it was a farming area becoming part of the Federal District of Mexico City in the mid-19th century. In the 20th century the area was engulfed by the urban sprawl of Mexico City, today it is 100% urbanized and is a center of industry. The municipality of Azcapotzalco is in the Valley of Mexico with its eastern half on the lakebed of the former Lake Texcoco, the historic center is on the former shoreline of this lake. The average altitude is 2240 meters above sea level and it has a semi moist temperate climate with an average temperature of 15C. As the municipality is 100% urbanized, there are no ecological reserves and it is divided into 2,723 city blocks. There are 54 parks which have no wild vegetation but rather planted species such as willow, cedar and these parks cover 100.51 hectares, which is 2. 9% of the entire municipality. The most important of these are the Parque Tezozómoc and Alameda Norte, Parque Tezozomoc was inaugurated in 1982 designed as a scaled replica of the Valley of Basin of Mexico in the pre-Hispanic era. The Alamedia Norte park is next to the Ferrería station and it has a pond which was used as an ice rink and playing field but was rehabilitated in the 2000s. Sports facilities cover about 67 hectares of the municipality with 70 fields and these include the Deportivo Renovacion Nacional, Deportivo Reynosa, Centro Deportivo Ferrocarrilero and the Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez. Deportivo Reynosa used to host one of Mexico City’s temporary “artificial beaches” consisting of pools and a sand area, the municipality has cemeteries which are counted as green spaces, especially San Isidro because of its large size. There is little water with the exception of the Río de los Remedios which is primarily used for drainage of wastewater. The lowering of water tables in the valley has led to large cracks developing in areas of the municipality which has caused damage to infrastructure, the municipality is flat with inclines of between zero and five percent with no prominent elevations. Because of its flatness, flooding is a problem in heavy rain, especially in such as Santiago Ahuizotla, Nueva Santa María, San Pedro Xalpa. Sixty five percent of the municipality is occupied by about 500 industries which use toxic substances, there are hundreds of km of underground gas lines. Nine communities have been classified as high risk because they are surrounded by industries, there are 250 chemical producers mostly concentrated in Colonia Industrial Vallejo which make ethanol, cyanide compounds, phosphates, organic solvents and more
Azcapotzalco
–
Azcapotzalco
Azcapotzalco
–
Scene from Parque Tezozomoc
Azcapotzalco
–
Plaza Hidalgo in the historic center of Azcapotzalco
Azcapotzalco
–
The Casa de Cultura in the historic center of Azcapotzalco
19.
Boroughs of the Mexican Federal District
–
Mexico City is divided into sixteen mayoralties, which have regulatory powers and are not fully autonomous in their internal administration. As of 2000, the citizens within a mayoralty elect by plurality a head of government, as of 2016, mexico City recorded an official 2010 census tally of 8,851,080 inhabitants. The municipalities are subdivided into neighborhoods and in cases in the southernmost municipalities, also into towns. Mexico City as a whole is bordered directly by the municipalities, going clockwise
Boroughs of the Mexican Federal District
20.
Mexican Federal District
–
Mexico City, or City of Mexico, is the capital and most populous city of Mexico. As an alpha global city, Mexico City is one of the most important financial centers in the Americas and it is located in the Valley of Mexico, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres. The city consists of sixteen municipalities, the 2009 estimated population for the city proper was approximately 8.84 million people, with a land area of 1,485 square kilometres. The Greater Mexico City has a domestic product of US$411 billion in 2011. The city was responsible for generating 15. 8% of Mexicos Gross Domestic Product, as a stand-alone country, in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America—five times as large as Costa Ricas and about the same size as Perus. Mexico’s capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by Amerindians, the other being Quito. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, Mexico City served as the political, administrative and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the district was created in 1824. Ever since, the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution has controlled both of them, in recent years, the local government has passed a wave of liberal policies, such as abortion on request, a limited form of euthanasia, no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage. On January 29,2016, it ceased to be called the Federal District and is now in transition to become the countrys 32nd federal entity, giving it a level of autonomy comparable to that of a state. Because of a clause in the Mexican Constitution, however, as the seat of the powers of the federation, it can never become a state, the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was founded by the Mexica people in 1325. According to legend, the Mexicas principal god, Huitzilopochtli indicated the site where they were to build their home by presenting an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco, when the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire had reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. After landing in Veracruz, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés advanced upon Tenochtitlan with the aid of many of the native peoples. Cortés put Moctezuma under house arrest, hoping to rule through him, the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone, and they elected a new king, Cuitláhuac, but he soon died, the next king was Cuauhtémoc. Cortés began a siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521, for three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of smallpox brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island, the Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlan during the final siege of the conquest. Cortés first settled in Coyoacán, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site to erase all traces of the old order and he did not establish a territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown
Mexican Federal District
–
From above
Torre Latinoamericana,
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral,
Anillo Periférico,
World Trade Center Mexico City,
Angel of Independence,
Chapultepec Castle,
St. Regis Hotel Tower and
Torre Mayor, Skyline of
Paseo de la Reforma and
Palacio de Bellas Artes.
Mexican Federal District
–
Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital.
Mexican Federal District
–
The ruins of the
Templo Mayor.
Mexican Federal District
–
The
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral was built by the Spaniards over the ruins of the main Aztec temple.
21.
Oto-Manguean languages
–
Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, Oto-Manguean is widely viewed as a proven language family. However, this status has recently challenged. Some Oto-Manguean languages are moribund or highly endangered, for example, Ixcatec and Matlatzinca each has fewer than 250 speakers, most of whom are elderly. Other languages particularly of the Manguean branch which was spoken outside of Mexico have become extinct, these include the Chiapanec language, others such as Subtiaba, which was most closely related to Mephaa, have been extinct longer and are only known from early 20th century descriptions. The Oto-Manguean language family is the most diverse and most geographically widespread language family represented in Mesoamerica, the internal diversity is comparable with that of Indo-European, and the Proto-Oto-Manguean language is estimated to have been spoken some time before 2000 BCE. However Oto-Manguean also stands out from the language families of Mesoamerica in several features. It is the language family in North America, Mesoamerica. It also stands out by having a more analytic structure than other Mesoamerican languages. Another typical trait of Oto-Manguean is that its members almost all show VSO in basic order of clausal constituents, a genetic relationship between Zapotecan and Mixtecan was first proposed by Manuel Orozco y Berra in 1864, he also included Cuicatec, Chocho and Amuzgo in his grouping. In 1865 Pimentel added Mazatec, Popoloca, Chatino and Chinantec – he also posed a separate group of Pame, Otomi and Mazahua, in 1920 Walther Lehmann included the Chiapanec–Mangue languages and correctly established the major subgroupings of the Oaxacan group. And in 1926 Schmidt coined the name Otomi–Mangue for a group consisting of the Oto-Pamean languages, the Oto-Pamean group and the Main Oaxacan group were not joined together into one family until Sapirs classification in 1929, where it was included in the Hokam family. From the 1950s on reconstructive work began to be done on individual Oto-Manguean language groups, in 1981 William Merrifield published a reconstruction of the kinship terminologies of each of the Oto-Manguean branches and of Proto-Oto-Manguean. Unpublished reconstructions of Proto-Oto-Manguean grammar have also made by Terrence Kaufman. Campbell and Poser writing in 2008 concluded that Tlapanec-Subtiaba proved not to belong to Hokan as postulated by Sapir, nonetheless a few studies have retained the inclusion in Hokan, particularly Joseph Greenbergs widely rejected 1987 classification, as well as its derivative works by Merritt Ruhlen. Writing in 1988, Leonardo Manrique still listed Tlapanec-Mangue as an isolated family, Swadesh and Rensch included the Huave language as a separate branch within Oto-Manguean, but this inclusion has proved untenable as most of the cognates were loan-words from Zapotec. Huave is now considered an isolate and they call for a redoubling of the effort to document and reconstruct several important branches that have received little attention, principally Mixtecan, Popolocan and Oto-Pamean. Brown evaluates evidence assembled in support of Oto-Manguean and he points out that vocabulary reconstructed for Proto-Oto-Manguean is not supported by regular sound correspondences
Oto-Manguean languages
–
The Oto-Manguean languages within Mexico. The extinct Manguean languages of Central America are not included.
22.
Mesoamerican chronology
–
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods, the Paleo-Indian, the Archaic, the Preclassic or Formative, the Classic, and the Postclassic. However, this applies to other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations as well. 3500-2000 BCE During the Archaic Era agriculture was developed in the region, Late in this era, use of pottery and loom weaving became common, and class divisions began to appear. Many of the technologies of Mesoamerica in terms of stone-grinding, drilling. 1800 BCE–200 CE During the Preclassic Era, or Formative Period, large-scale ceremonial architecture, writing, cities, the Olmec civilization developed and flourished at such sites as La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. 200–1000 CE The Classic Era was dominated by numerous independent city-states in the Maya region and also featured the beginnings of political unity in central Mexico, regional differences between cultures grew more manifest. The city-state of Monte Albán dominated the Valley of Oaxaca until the late Classic, highly sophisticated arts such as stuccowork, architecture, sculptural reliefs, mural painting, pottery, and lapidary developed and spread during the Classic era. In the Maya region, numerous city states such as Tikal, Calakmul, Copán, Palenque, Uxmal, Cobá, each of these polities was generally independent, although they often formed alliances and sometimes became vassal states of each other. The main conflict during this period was between Tikal and Calakmul, who fought a series of wars over the course of more than half a millennium, each of these states declined during the Terminal Classic and were eventually abandoned. This is sometimes seen as a period of increased chaos and warfare, the Postclassic is often viewed as a period of cultural decline. However, it was a time of technological advancement in architecture, engineering, metallurgy came into use for jewelry and some tools, with new alloys and techniques being developed in a few centuries. The Postclassic was a period of rapid movement and population growth — especially in Central Mexico post-1200 —, for instance, in Yucatán, dual rulership apparently replaced the more theocratic governments of Classic times, whilst oligarchic councils operated in much of Central Mexico. Likewise, it appears that the wealthy pochteca and military orders became more powerful than was apparently the case in Classic times and this afforded some Mesoamericans a degree of social mobility. The Toltec for a time dominated central Mexico in the 11th–13th century, the northern Maya were for a time united under Mayapan, and Oaxaca was briefly united by Mixtec rulers in the 11th–12th centuries. The Aztec Empire arose in the early 15th century and appeared to be on a path to asserting dominance over the Valley of Mexico region not seen since Teotihuacan. Spain was the first European power to contact Mesoamerica, however, and its conquistadores, by the 15th century, the Mayan revival in Yucatán and southern Guatemala and the flourishing of Aztec imperialism evidently enabled a renaissance of fine arts and science. Examples include the Pueblan-Mexica style in pottery, codex illumination, and goldwork, the flourishing of Nahua poetry, arguably, the Post-Classic continued until the conquest of the last independent native state of Mesoamerica, Tayasal, in 1697. Mesoamerican civilization was a network of different cultures
Mesoamerican chronology
–
Vessel from the Capacha culture, found in Acatitan, Colima.
Mesoamerican chronology
–
A typical Pre-Classic figurine from central Mexico, similar to the "pretty ladies" of the
Tlatilco culture.
Mesoamerican chronology
–
Olmec head, La Venta
Mesoamerican chronology
–
Middle Formative, Olmec style, Kneeling lord with incised toad on his head, 900–500 BCE, in the
Princeton University Art Museum
23.
Valley of Mexico
–
The Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several civilizations, including Teotihuacan, the Toltec. The ancient Aztec term Anahuac and the phrase Basin of Mexico are both used at times to refer to the Valley of Mexico, the Basin of Mexico became a well known site that epitomized the scene of early Classic Mesoamerican cultural development as well. The Valley of Mexico is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, the valley contains most of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, as well as parts of the State of Mexico, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala and Puebla. The Valley of Mexico can be subdivided into four basins, but the largest and this section of the valley in particular is colloquially referred to as the Valley of Mexico. The valley has an altitude of 2,200 meters above sea level and is surrounded by mountains. It is a valley with no natural outlet for water to flow. Within this vulnerable watershed all the fishes were extinct by the end of the 20th century. Hydrologically, the valley has three features, the first feature is the lakebeds of five now-extinct lakes, which are located in the southernmost and largest of the four sub-basins. The other two features are piedmont, and the mountainsides that collect the precipitation that eventually flows to the lake area and these last two are found in all four of the sub-basins of the valley. Today, the Valley drains through a series of canals to the Tula River, and eventually the Pánuco River. Seismic activity is frequent here, and the valley is considered an earthquake prone zone, the valley has been inhabited for at least 12,000 years, attracting humans with its mild climate, abundant game and ability to support large-scale agriculture. Civilizations that have arisen in this include the Teotihuacan the Toltec Empire. When the Spaniards arrived in the Valley of Mexico, it had one of the highest population concentrations in the world with one million people. After the Conquest, the Spaniards rebuilt the largest and most dominant city here, Tenochtitlan, although violence and disease significantly lowered the population of the valley after the Conquest, by 1900 it was again over one million people. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen an explosion of population in the valley along with the growth of industry, since 1900, the population has doubled every fifteen years. Today, around 21 million people live in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area which extends throughout almost all of the valley into the states of Mexico, the growth of a major urban, industrial centre in an enclosed basin has created significant air and water quality issues for the valley. Wind patterns and thermal inversions trap contaminants in the valley, over-extraction of ground water has caused new flooding problems for the city as it sinks below the historic lake floor
Valley of Mexico
–
A 19th century painting of the Valley of Mexico.
Valley of Mexico
–
A mammoth jaw excavated at
Tocuila
Valley of Mexico
–
Modern day
Cuicuilco
Valley of Mexico
–
Ceramic art recovered from
Tlatilco,
circa 1300 - 800 BCE
24.
Squatting
–
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential—that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. Author Robert Neuwirth suggested in 2004 that there were one billion squatters globally and he forecasts there will be two billion by 2030 and three billion by 2050. Yet, according to Kesia Reeve, squatting is largely absent from policy and academic debate and is rarely conceptualised, as a problem, as a symptom, Squatting can be related to political movements, such as anarchist, autonomist, or socialist. It can be a means to conserve buildings or to provide housing, while these settlements may, in time, grow to become both legalised and indistinguishable from normal residential neighbourhoods, they start off as squats with minimal basic infrastructure. Thus, there is no sewage system, drinking water must be bought from vendors or carried from a nearby tap, besides being residences, some squats are used as social centres or host give-away shops, pirate radio stations or cafés. In Spanish-speaking countries, squatters receive several names, such as okupas in Spain, Chile or Argentina, Squatting by necessity is in itself a political issue, therefore also a statement or rather a response to the political system causing it. During the period of recession and increased housing foreclosures in the 2000s, squatting became far more prevalent in Western. In some cases, need-based and politically motivated squatting go hand in hand, conservational – i. e. preserving monuments because the authorities have let them decay Political – e. g. Property law and the state have traditionally favored the property owner, however, in many cases where squatters had de facto ownership, laws have been changed to legitimize their status. Anarchist Colin Ward comments, Squatting is the oldest mode of tenure in the world and this is as true of the Queen with her 176,000 acres as it is of the 54 percent of householders in Britain who are owner-occupiers. They are all the recipients of stolen land, for to regard our planet as a commodity offends every conceivable principle of natural rights. U. K. police official Sue Williams, for example, has stated that Squatting is linked to Anti-Social Behaviour and can cause a great deal of nuisance, in some cases there may also be criminal activities involved. The public attitude toward squatting varies, depending on legal aspects, socioeconomic conditions, in particular, while squatting of municipal buildings may be treated leniently, squatting of private property often leads to strong negative reaction on the part of the public and authorities. Adverse possession is a method of acquiring title to property through possession for a period under certain conditions. Countries where this principle exists include England and the United States, however, some non-common law jurisdictions have laws similar to adverse possession. For example, Louisiana has a doctrine called acquisitive prescription. There are large communities in Kenya, such as Kibera in Nairobi. An estimated 1,000 people live in the Grande Hotel Beira in Mozambique, the Zabbaleen settlement and the City of the Dead are both well-known squatter communities in Cairo
Squatting
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Street dwellers in Mumbai
Squatting
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The international squatters' symbol
Squatting
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Squatter's symbol found in
Málaga,
Spain
Squatting
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The Chien Rouge (Red Dog) in
Lausanne, a squat held in the old hospital
25.
Lake Texcoco
–
Lake Texcoco was a natural lake within the Anáhuac or Valley of Mexico. Lake Texcoco is best known as where the Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, efforts to control flooding by the Spanish led to most of the lake being drained. The entire lake basin is now almost completely occupied by Mexico City, in the Pleistocene era, the lake occupied an even greater area. There were several paleo-lakes that would connect each other from time to time. At the north in the community of San Miguel Tocuilla there is a great paleontological field. The disarticulated remains of seven mammoths dated between 10,220 ±75 and 12,615 ±95 years were found, suggesting human presence, agriculture around the lake began about 7,000 years ago, with humans following the patterns of periodic inundations of the lake. On the northeast side of the lake, between 1700 and 1250 BC, several villages appear, by 1250 BC, the identifying signs of the Tlatilco culture, including more complex settlements and a stratified social structure, are seen around the lake. By roughly 800 BC, Cuicuilco had eclipsed the Tlatilco cultural centers and was the power in the Valley of Mexico during the next 200 years. The Xitle volcano destroyed Cuicuilco around AD30, a destruction that may have given rise to Teotihuacan, none of these predominated and they coexisted more or less in peace for several centuries. This time was described as a Golden age in Aztec chronicles, by the year 1300, however, the Tepanec from Azcapotzalco were beginning to dominate the area. If Tenochtitlan was the city of the Aztec Empire, and Mexico City the capital of Mexico, then Lake Texcoco is the Lake of the capitals. According to a story, the Mexica wandered in the deserts of modern Mexico for 100 years before they came to the thick forests of the place now called the Valley of Mexico. Tenochtitlan was founded on an islet in the part of the lake in the year 1325. Around it, the Aztecs created an artificial island using a system similar to the creation of chinampas. To overcome the problems of drinking water, the Aztecs built a system of dams to separate the salty waters of the lake from the water of the effluents. It also permitted them to control the level of the lake, the city also had an inner system of channels that helped to control the water. During Cortéss siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the dams were destroyed, the Valley of Mexico is a basin with an average elevation of 2,236 metres above mean sea level located in the southern highlands of Mexicos central altiplano. Lake Texcoco formerly extended over a portion of the southern half of the basin
Lake Texcoco
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Monument to Enrico Martinez in Mexico City
Lake Texcoco
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Tenochtitlan's location on Lake Texcoco, circa 1519.
26.
Codex Boturini
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Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture, the pre-Columbian codices mostly do not in fact use the codex form and are, or originally were, long folded sheets. They also differ from European books in that they mostly consist of images and pictograms, the colonial era codices not only contain Aztec pictograms, but also Classical Nahuatl, Spanish, and occasionally Latin. Some are entirely in Nahuatl without pictorial content, although there are very few surviving pre-conquest codices, the tlacuilo tradition endured the transition to colonial culture, scholars now have access to a body of around 500 colonial-era codices. Colonial-era Nahuatl language documentation is the texts of the New Philology. The Codex Borbonicus is a written by Aztec priests around the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Like all pre-Columbian Aztec codices, it was pictorial in nature. Codex Bornobicus is held at the Library of the National Assembly of France, the Boturini Codex was painted by an unknown Aztec author some time between 1530 and 1541, roughly a decade after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Pictorial in nature, it tells the story of the legendary Aztec journey from Aztlán to the Valley of Mexico, rather than employing separate pages, the author used one long sheet of amatl, or fig bark, accordion-folded into 21½ pages. There is a rip in the middle of the 22nd page, unlike many other Aztec codices, the drawings are not colored, but rather merely outlined with black ink. Also known as Tira de la Peregrinación, it is named one of its first European owners. It is now held in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, the Codex Mendoza is a pictorial document, with Spanish annotations and commentary, composed circa 1541. It is divided into three sections, a history of each Aztec ruler and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by each province. It is held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the Florentine Codex is a set of 12 books created under the supervision of Bernardino de Sahagún between approximately 1540 and 1585. It is a copy of original materials which are now lost. Perhaps more than any source, the Florentine Codex has been the major source of Aztec life in the years before the Spanish conquest. Anderson published English translations of the Nahuatl text of the books in separate volumes. A full color, facsimile copy of the codex was published in three bound volumes in 1979
Codex Boturini
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Detail of first page from the
Boturini Codex, depicting the departure from
Aztlán.
Codex Boturini
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Codex Féjervary-Mayer (Lacambalam 2014)
Codex Boturini
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Part of the first page of
Codex Mendoza, depicting the founding of
Tenochtitlan.
Codex Boturini
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Section of page 34 (folio 496) of Codex Osuna showing the glyphs for
Texcoco,
Tenochtitlan, and
Tlacopán.
27.
Quivira
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Quivira is a place named by explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold which he never found. The location of Quivira is believed by most authorities to be in central Kansas near present-day Lyons extending northeastern to Salina, the Quivirans were the forebears of the modern day Wichita Indians and Caddoan tribes, such as the Pawnee or Arikara. In 1539, the Spaniard, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, led an expedition north from Mexico to search for wealth. Instead of wealth, he found farming peoples living in an array of communities and villages in what are today Arizona and these were the Apache, Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Rio Grande Pueblo Indians of today. Hearing of this, Coronado led his army of more than one thousand Spaniards, the Turk was his guide to Quivira. On his journey, Coronado traversed the panhandle of Texas and he found two groups of Indians, the Querechos and the Teyas. He was heading southeast when the Teyas told him that the Turk was taking him the wrong direction and it appears the Turk was luring the Spaniards away from New Mexico with tales of wealth in Quivira, hoping perhaps that they would get lost in the vastness of the Plains. Coronado sent most of his army back to New Mexico. With 30 mounted Spaniards, priests, Indian followers, the Turk, after a march of more than thirty days, he found a large river, probably the Arkansas, and soon met several Indians hunting buffalo. Coronado found Quivira “well settled. The land itself being very fat and black and being well watered by the rivulets and springs. I found prunes like those of Spain, and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries. ”It was, he said, Coronado spent 25 days in Quivira and traveled about 65 miles from one end of the country to the other. He found nothing more than straw-thatched villages of up to two hundred houses each and fields of corn, beans, and squash and he found no gold, other than a single small piece which he reasoned had come into the natives hands from a member of his own expedition. Both men and women were nearly naked and they “were large people of good build” many of the men being over six feet tall. They seemed like giants compared to the Spaniards, Coronado was escorted to a farther boundary of Quivira, an area called Tabas, where the neighboring land of Harahey began. He summoned the Lord of Harahey who, with two hundred followers, came to meet the Spanish, the Harahey Indians were all naked—with bows and some sort of things on their heads, and their privy parts slightly covered. It was the sort of place. And of about the size as Quivira. Before leaving Quivira, Coronado ordered the Turk strangled, the Coronado expedition had failed in its quest for gold
Quivira
–
A painting by
Frederic Remington of Coronado and his army on the march.
Quivira
–
The Coronado Expedition 1540–1542
Quivira
–
Coronado found the Teyas Indians in Blanco Canyon, east of present day
Lubbock, Texas. The Querechos lived on the flat
Llano Estacado above the canyon.
Quivira
–
A sketch of a
Wichita Indian village in the 19th century. The beehive shaped grass-thatched houses surrounded by corn fields are characteristic and appear similar to those described by Coronado in 1541.
28.
Moctezuma I
–
Moctezuma I, also known as Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina, Huehuemotecuhzoma or Montezuma I, was the second Aztec emperor and fifth king of Tenochtitlan. During his reign, the Aztec Empire was consolidated, major expansion was undertaken, Moctezuma was the son of emperor Huitzilihuitl and queen Miahuaxihuitl. He was a brother of Chimalpopoca, Tlacaelel I, and Huehue Zaca, and the father of Atotoztli II and their sons would be the next three tlatoque of Tenochtitlan. Moctezuma took power in 1440, after the death of his half-uncle Itzcoatl, as tlatoani, Moctezuma solidified the alliance with two neighboring states, Tlacopan and Texcoco. In this skillfully crafted Triple Alliance, 4/5ths of a conquered territory would be divided between Texcoco and the Aztecs, with the remaining 1/5 given to Tlacopan. In about 1458, Moctezuma led an expedition into Mixtec territory against the city-state of Coixtlahuaca, despite the support of contingents of Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco warriors, traditional enemies of the Aztecs, the Mixtecs were defeated. While most of the chieftains were allowed to retain their positions. He took many girls from Coixtlahuaca and had ten harems all to himself and he stole three of them from his dead brother Zaca. Similar campaigns were conducted against Cosamaloapan, Ahuilizapan, and Cuetlachtlan, list of Tenochtitlan rulers Moctezuma II Montezuma I
Moctezuma I
–
Moctezuma I in the
Codex Mendoza.
Moctezuma I
–
Map showing the expansion of the Aztec empire showing the areas conquered by the Aztec rulers. The conquests of Moctezuma is marked by the colour pink.
29.
Nayarit
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Nayarit, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic and it is located in Western Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Sinaloa to the northwest, Durango to the north, Zacatecas to the northeast, to the west, Nayarit has a significant share of coastline on the Pacific Ocean, including the islands of Marías and Marietas. The beaches of San Blas and the so-called Riviera Nayarit are popular with tourists, beside tourism, the economy of the state is based mainly on agriculture and fishing. Home to Uto-Aztecan indigenous peoples such as the Huichol and Cora, Spanish governance was made difficult by indigenous rebellions and by the inhospitable terrain of the Sierra del Nayar. The last independent Cora communities were subjugated in 1722, the states name recalls the Coras label for themselves, Náayerite, commemorating Nayar, a resistance leader. Encountered on the western coast by the Spanish invaders in 1500, hernándo was the first known European to enter into the area now known as Nayarit, which claimed for Spain as part of the colony of Nueva Galicia. As the Spaniards invaded the area, led by Nuño de Guzman, their brutality caused the inhabitants to revolt. After almost two centuries of resistance, the last independent Cora communities were incorporated into the administration by force in 1722. Then followed intense missionary efforts by Jesuit friars, in the colonial period, the port of San Blas was one of the most important trade ports on the American Pacific coast. Galleons transporting goods from Manila, the Philippines arrived here before the rise of the port of Acapulco, today, the town still boasts colonial architecture from the its heyday, such as the aduana, contaduria and the fortress that protected the port against pirates. In Nayarit, the struggle for independence from Spain was initiated by the priest José María Mercado, with the first independent constitution of 1824, Nayarit was a part of Jalisco state. During the second half of the 19th century, Nayarit was one of the most turbulent territories in Mexico, the population was in open revolt, demanding access to land. Nayarit was one of the last territories admitted as a state of the Mexican federation, Nayarit covers 27,815 square kilometers, making it one of the smaller states in Mexico. Nayarit is located between latitude lines 23°05 north and 20°36 south and longitude lines 103°43 east and 105°46 west and its terrain is broken up by the western ends of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Its highest mountains are, San Juan, Sanguangüey, El Ceboruco, Nayarit has two volcanoes, Ceboruco and Sangangüey. In the northeast are broad, tropical plains watered by the Río Grande de Santiago, the main state rivers are the Río Grande de Santiago, San Pedro, Acaponeta, Ameca and Las Cañas. The Río Grande de Santiago is the largest river in Nayarit, the Santiago and its tributaries are of major importance for agricultural irrigation
Nayarit
–
The colonial contaduría (accounting offices) in the old port town of
San Blas.
Nayarit
–
Flag
Nayarit
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Sayulita off Nayarit's Pacific coast, a former fishing village now mostly given over to tourism, part of the area now marketed as "La
Riviera Nayarita " or "Nuevo Vallarta"
Nayarit
–
Flora and fauna of Nayarit
30.
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
–
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma is a prominent Mexican archaeologist. From 1978 to 1982 he directed excavations at the Templo Mayor and he has excavated at archaeological sites in both the Maya area and in central Mexico. In addition to the Templo Mayor project, Matos has directed major projects at the sites of Tula. He has also made important contributions to the study of the history of archaeology in Mexico, Matos Moctezuma was director of the Templo Mayor project from 1978 to 1982. This was one of the most important archaeological projects in the world, several seasons of excavations uncovered the construction history of this central temple of the Aztec Empire. Numerous rich offerings were located around the temple area and this project overturned scholarly understanding of Aztec religion, empire, and ideology. Matos Moctezuma oversaw the creation of the Templo Mayor Museum in which these spectacular finds are displayed in lavish exhibits,1987 saw the creation of the Urban Archaeology Program in which excavations in downtown Mexico City were expanded beyond the immediate site of the Templo Mayor. Eduardo Matos Moctezuma has published nearly 500 works during his career and his books include technical archaeological reports, interpretive works on archaeological finds, scholarly studies in the history of archaeology, exhibit catalogs, and collections of chapters. In addition to his work at the Templo Mayor and its museum, for the National Institute of Anthropology and History, he has directed the Department of Pre-Hispanic Monuments, the Archaeology Council, and the National Museum of Anthropology and History. Eduardo Matos Moctezuma has worked to explain archaeology and Aztec civilization to the public lectures, writings. Professor Matos has received honors and awards, both in Mexico and in other countries. The most notable is election to the Colegio Nacional, a group of the top scholars. He has been distinguished as a Chevalier dans lOrdre des Palmes Académiques, Chevalier de lOrdre National du Mérite and he has also received Venezuelas Andrés Bello Award, Harvard Universitys Henry B. Nicholson Medal and a doctorate in science by the University of Colorado. He was awarded the National Science and Arts Prize in 2007, Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo The Great Temple of the Aztecs. Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo Life and Death in the Templo Mayor, translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano. Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo Excavaciones en la catedral y el sagrario metropolitanos, instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City. Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo and Felipe Solis The Aztec Calendar and Other Solar Monuments, Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo and Felipe R. Solís Olguín Aztecs
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
–
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma speaking on the
Aztec emperor Moctezuma at the
British Museum in September 2009.
listen)) is the legendary ancestral home of the Aztec peoples. Aztecah is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan". The place Aztlan is mentioned in several ethnohistorical sources dating from the colonial period, and each of them give different lists of the different tribal groups who participated in the migration from Aztlan to central Mexico, but the Mexica who went on to found Mexico-Tenochtitlan are mentioned in all of the accounts. Historians have speculated about the possible location of Aztlan and tend to place it either in northwestern Mexico or the southwest US, although there are doubts about whether the place is purely mythical or represents a historical reality.
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