1.
Aztec Triple Alliance
–
The Aztec Empire, or the Triple Alliance, began as an alliance of three Nahua altepetl city-states, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. The Triple Alliance was formed from the faction in a civil war fought between the city of Azcapotzalco and its former tributary provinces. Despite the initial conception of the empire as an alliance of three self-governed city-states, Tenochtitlan quickly became dominant militarily. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, the lands of the Alliance were effectively ruled from Tenochtitlan, the alliance waged wars of conquest and expanded rapidly after its formation. Aztec rule has been described by scholars as hegemonic or indirect, the Aztecs left rulers of conquered cities in power so long as they agreed to pay semi-annual tribute to the Alliance, as well as supply military forces when needed for the Aztec war efforts. In return, the imperial authority offered protection and political stability, the state religion of the empire was polytheistic, worshiping a diverse pantheon that included dozens of deities. Many had officially recognized cults large enough so that the deity was represented in the temple precinct of the capital Tenochtitlan. The imperial cult, specifically, was that of Huitzilopochtli, the distinctive warlike patron god of the Mexica, peoples in conquered provinces were allowed to retain and freely continue their own religious traditions, so long as they added the imperial god Huitzilopochtli to their local pantheons. The word Aztec in modern usage would not have used by the people themselves. The name comes from a Nahuatl word meaning people from Aztlan, for the purpose of this article, Aztec refers only to those cities that constituted or were subject to the Triple Alliance. For the broader use of the term, see the article on Aztec civilization, Nahua peoples descended from Chichimec peoples who migrated to central Mexico from the north in the early 13th century. According to the pictographic codices in which the Aztecs recorded their history, Early migrants settled the Basin of Mexico and surrounding lands by establishing a series of independent city-states. These early Nahua cities were ruled by petty kings called tlahtohqueh, most of the existing settlements, which had been established by other indigenous peoples before the Nahua migration, were assimilated into Nahua culture. These early city-states fought various small-scale wars with other, but due to shifting alliances. The Mexica were the last of Aztlan migrants to arrive in Central Mexico and they entered the Basin of Mexico around the year 1250 AD, and by then most of the good agricultural land had already been claimed. The Mexica persuaded the king of Culhuacan to allow them to settle in a relatively infertile patch of land called Chapultepec, the Mexica served as hired mercenaries for Culhuacan. After they served Culhuacan in battle, the appointed one of his daughters to rule over the Mexica. According to mythological native accounts, the Mexica instead sacrificed her by flaying her skin, when the king of Culhuacan learned of this, he attacked and used his army to drive the Mexica from Tizaapan by force
Aztec Triple Alliance
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Jaguar Warrior, from the
Codex Magliabechiano.
Aztec Triple Alliance
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State emblems
Aztec Triple Alliance
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Codex Azcatitlan depicting the Spanish army, with Cortez and Malinche in front
Aztec Triple Alliance
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Cristóbal de Olid led Spanish soldiers with
Tlaxcalan allies in the conquests of Jalisco and Colima of West Mexico.
2.
Codex Mendoza
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The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, created fourteen years after the 1521 Spanish conquest of Mexico with the intent that it be seen by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. The codex is named after Don Antonio de Mendoza, then the viceroy of New Spain and it is also known as the Codex Mendocino and La colección Mendoza, and has been held at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University since 1659. It was removed from public exhibition on 23 December 2011, the Bodleian Library holds four other Mesoamerican codices, Codex Bodley, Codex Laud, Codex Selden and the Selden Roll. The Codex Mendoza was hurriedly created in Mexico City, to be sent by ship to Spain, the fleet was attacked by French privateers, and the codex, along with the rest of the booty, taken to France. There it came into the possession of André Thévet, cosmographer to King Henry II of France, Thévet wrote his name in five places on the codex, twice with the date 1553. It was later bought by the Englishman Richard Hakluyt for 20 French francs, some time after 1616 it was passed to Samuel Purchase, then to his son, and then to John Selden. It lists the reign of ruler and the towns conquered by them. Section II,39 pages, provides a list of the towns conquered by the Triple Alliance, Section III,16 pages, is a pictorial depiction of the daily life of the Aztecs. However, there is a section, Section IV,20 pages, is an encoded accounting of the value of both the cargo of the ship and assets in the new colony. Berdan, Frances F. Anawalt, Patricia Rieff, a description of the Codex Review of The Essential Codex Mendoza Details of public exhibition
Codex Mendoza
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The first page of Codex Mendoza.
Codex Mendoza
–
Folio 2 recto Founding of
Tenochtitlan.
Codex Mendoza
–
Folio 4 verso Conquests of
Chimalpopoca.
3.
Ahuitzotl
–
Ahuitzotl was the eighth Aztec ruler, the Hueyi Tlatoani of the city of Tenochtitlan, son of princess Atotoztli II. He was responsible for much of the expansion of the Mexica domain and he took power as tlatoani in the year 7 Rabbit, after the death of his predecessor and brother, Tizoc. His sons were kings Chimalpilli II and Cuauhtémoc and he also had one daughter and he conquered the Mixtec, Zapotec, and other peoples from Pacific Coast of Mexico down to the western part of Guatemala. Ahuizotl also supervised a major rebuilding of Tenochtitlan on a scale including the expansion of the Great Pyramid or Templo Mayor in the year 8 Reed. He presided over the introduction of the great-tailed grackle into the Valley of Mexico, Ahuizotl died in the year 10 Rabbit and was succeeded by his nephew, Moctezuma II. Ahuizotl took his name from the animal ahuizotl, which the Aztecs considered to be a creature in its own right rather than a mere mythical representation of the king. On 3 August 2007, Mexican archaeologists announced discovery of what is believed to be the tomb of Ahuizotl beneath a sculpture of Tlaltecuhtli near the Zócalo in Mexico City, the Aztecs. revised ed. Thames and Hudson, New York. Hassig, Ross Aztec Warfare, Imperial Expansion and Political Control, the Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors, Archaeology of Mesoamerica
Ahuitzotl
–
Ahuitzotl in the
Codex Mendoza
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
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Model of the temple district of Tenochtitlan at the
National Museum of Anthropology
Tenochtitlan
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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
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The Tlatelolco Marketplace as depicted at
The Field Museum, Chicago.
Tenochtitlan
–
A picture of Tenochtitlan and a model of the
Templo Mayor.
5.
Teotlalco
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Teotlalco was a Nahua princess of Ecatepec and Aztec empress—the Queen of Tenochtitlan. She married Emperor Moctezuma II of Tenochtitlan, the first contact between Indigenous civilizations of Mesoamerica and Europeans took place during his reign, and he was killed. Teotlalco was Moctezumas principal wife and mother of Doña Isabel Moctezuma and her grandchild was Leonor Cortés Moctezuma. List of Tenochtitlan rulers Tlapalizquixochtzin Aztec emperors family tree
Teotlalco
–
Teotlalco's husband,
Moctezuma II
6.
Tlapalizquixochtzin
–
Tlapalizquixochtzin was an Aztec noblewoman and Queen regnant of the Aztec city of Ecatepec. She was also a Queen consort or Empress of Tenochtitlan and she was born as a Princess – daughter of Prince Matlaccoatzin and thus a granddaughter of the King Chimalpilli I and sister of Princess Tlacuilolxochtzin. Tlapalizquixochtzin married Aztec emperor Moctezuma II and their daughter was Doña Francisca de Moctezuma. Her nephew was King Diego de Alvarado Huanitzin, list of Tenochtitlan rulers Teotlalco Azcasuch Aztec emperors family tree
Tlapalizquixochtzin
–
Moctezuma II, husband of Tlapalizquixochtzin
7.
Isabel Moctezuma
–
Doña Isabel Moctezuma was a daughter of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II. She was the consort of the Aztec emperors Cuitláhuac and Cuauhtémoc, after the Spanish conquest, Doña Isabel was recognized as Moctezumas legitimate heir, and became one of the Mexican Indians granted an encomienda. Among the others were her half-sister Marina Moctezuma, and Juan Sánchez, Doña Isabel was married to three Aztec emperors and three Spaniards and widowed five times. She had an out of wedlock, Leonor Cortés Moctezuma. Her sons founded a line of Spanish nobility, the title of Duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo still exists. Doña Isabels mother was Princess Teotlalco and her name was Tecuichtzin. Teotlalco was Moctezumas principal wife and, thus, among Moctezumas daughters Tecuichpotzin had primacy, as a small child, Tecuichpotzin was married to Atlixcatzin, who died by 1520. After her father was killed, either by his own people or the Spanish, Cuitláhuac died of smallpox after only sixty days of rule and Cuauhtémoc became emperor and married Tecuichpotzin. She was only about eleven or twelve years old at the time of her third marriage, when the Aztecs revolted and expelled Cortés and his army from Tenochtitlan, Tecuichpotzin was left behind in the city by the Spanish. Aztec leaders quickly married her to Cuitláhuac, the new emperor, Cortés returned in 1521 with a large group of Spaniards and Indian allies, mostly from Tlaxcala, to attack Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs, their numbers and morale depleted by an epidemic, were defeated. Cuauhtémoc and his attempted to flee Tenochtitlan by boat. On surrendering, Cuauhtémoc asked the Spanish to respect the ladies of his court, in 1525, Cortés executed Cuauhtemoc and Tecuichpotzin was widowed for the third time. Cortés valued Tecuichpotzin as a symbol of what he wished to portray as the continuity of rule between the Aztecs and the Spanish. She was instructed in Christianity, converted to Catholicism, probably in 1526, and baptized as Isabel, every indication is that Doña Isabel, the former Aztec princess Tecuichpotzin, was devout in her new religion. She gave generously in alms to the Augustinians, to the point that she was asked to stop, Isabel’s education as a Christian did not include teaching her to read and she remained illiterate. Cortés arranged the marriage of Doña Isabel to his close colleague Alonso de Grado in June 1526, part of the marriage arrangement was the granting of a large encomienda to Doña Isabel. The encomienda consisted of the city of Tacuba west of Tenochitlan and was the largest encomienda in the Valley of Mexico, the encomienda of Doña Isabel endured for centuries
Isabel Moctezuma
–
Genealogy of Tecuichpoch
8.
Axayacatl
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Axayacatl was the sixth tlatoani of the altepetl of Tenochtitlan and ruler of the Aztec Triple Alliance. Axayacatl was a son of the princess Atotoztli II and her cousin and he was a grandson of the Emperors Moctezuma I and Itzcoatl. He was a descendant of the king Cuauhtototzin and he was a successor of Moctezuma and his brothers were Emperors Tixoc and Ahuitzotl and his sister was the Queen Chalchiuhnenetzin. He was an uncle of the Emperor Cuauhtémoc and father of Emperors Moctezuma II and it is also important that the Great Sun Stone, also known as the Aztec Calendar, was carved under his leadership. In the year 1475 there was an earthquake that destroyed many homes in Temochtitlán. Using as a pretext the insulting behavior of a few Tlatelolcan citizens, Axayacatl invaded his neighbor, killed its ruler, Moquihuix, the Tlatelolcans lost any voice they had in forming Aztec policy. In spite of his age, he fell gravely ill in 1480, passing away a mere year later, in 1481. List of Tenochtitlan rulers Davies, Nigel, the Aztec Empire, The Toltec Resurgence. Aztec Warfare, Imperial Expansion and Political Control, the Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors, Archaeology of Mesoamerica
Axayacatl
–
Axayacatl as depicted in the
Codex Azcatitlan
9.
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
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Large ceramic statue of an Aztec Eagle Warrior
Aztec
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Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer —the fire god
Xiuhtecuhtli is in the center
10.
Aztec society
–
Politically, the society was organized into independent city-states, called altepetls, composed of smaller divisions, which were again usually composed of one or more extended kinship groups. Economically the society was dependent on agriculture, and also to an extent on warfare. Other economically important factors were commerce, long distance and local, in the middle of the first millennium CE, the first waves of tribes speaking the forefather language of the Nahuan languages migrated south into Mesoamerica. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers and arrived in a region that was populated by complex societies at a highly advanced technological level. They held on to their language, many of their religious systems, Aztec society was not isolated from the larger Mesoamerican context, and in fact, most aspects of it were similar in structure to what existed in the surrounding societies. The definition of the term Aztec which will be applied here is that of Michael E. Smith, the sources for information about Aztec society are primarily documents written in the Spanish language in the first century after the Spanish conquest. This understanding entails a social stratification that is built from the bottom – up, family and lineage were the basic units of Aztec society. Ones lineage determined ones social standing, and noble lineages were traced back to the mythical past, prestigious lineages also traced their kin back through ruling dynasties, preferably ones with a Toltec heritage. The extended family group was also the social unit and living patterns were largely determined by family ties. Lineage was traced through both the maternal and paternal lines, although with a preference for paternal lineage, the calpulli was a political unit composed of several interrelated family groups. The exact nature of the calpulli is not completely understood and it has variously described as a kind of clan, a town, a ward. In Nahuatl another word for calpulli was tlaxilacalli – a partition of houses, the calpulli was ruled by a local chief, to whom its members were normally related. He provided the members with lands for cultivation or with access to non-agricultural occupations in exchange for tribute. The calpulli also ran a temple where the adoration of the deity of the calpulli was performed, in some Aztec citystates calpullis were specialised in a trade, which was practiced by all of its members, and these calpullis functioned something like a medieval trade guild. This was the case in Otompan and in Texcoco and Tlatelolco, other calpullis were composed of immigrant groups from other areas of Mesoamerica who settled together. There is evidence that Tenochtitlan had calpullis composed of Otomis, Mixtecs and Tlapanecs, the altepetl was a citystate composed of several calpullis and ruled by a tlatoani. The altepetl was the unit that held sway over a territory and defended. The tlatoani was the head of the most influential calpulli, often because of having the most prestigious lineage, altepetl states would normally strive towards dominating neighboring altepetl through warfare
Aztec society
–
Aztec civilization
11.
Aztec religion
–
The Aztec religion is the Mesoamerican religion of the Aztecs. Like other Mesoamerican religions, it had elements of human sacrifice in connection with a number of religious festivals which were held according to patterns of the Aztec calendar. Aztec cosmology divides the world into thirteen heavens and nine earthly layers or netherworlds each level associated with a set of deities. The concept of Teotl is central to the Aztecs, the term is often translated as god, but may have held more abstract aspects of divinity or supernatural energy akin to the Polynesian concept of Mana. The many gods of the Aztecs can be grouped into complexes related to different themes, other deities, for example Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, had roots in earlier civilizations of Mesoamerica and were worshiped by many cultures and by many names. Some gods embodied aspects of nature, a large group of gods were related to pulque, drunkenness, excess, fun and games. Other gods were associated with specific trades, many gods had multiple aspects with different names, where each name highlighted a specific function or trait of the god. Occasionally, two gods were conflated into one, and quite often deities transformed into one another within a single story. Aztec images sometimes combined attributes of several divinities, nicholson classed the gods into three groups according to their conceptual meaning in general Mesoamerican religion. The first group he calls the Celestial creativity – Divine Paternalism group, the second, the earth-mother gods, the third group, the War-Sacrifice-Sanguinary Nourishment group contained such gods as Ome Tochtli, Huitzilopochtli, Mictlantecutli and Mixcoatl. Instead of Nicholsons subtle classification in the following a more impressionist classification is presented, on the state level, religion was controlled by the Tlatoani and the high priests governing the main temples in the ceremonial precinct of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. For example, on the feast of Huey Tozoztli, the ruler himself ascended Mt. Tlaloc, throughout society, each level had their own rituals and deities and played their part in the larger rituals of the community. On the feast of Ochpaniztli, all participated in sweeping the streets. Huixachtlan, lit on the chest of a person by the high priests. The Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan was the head of the cult of Huitzilopochtli and he had special priestly duties in different rituals on the state level. However, the Aztec religious organization was not entirely under his authority, under these religious heads were many tiers of priests, priestesses, novices, nuns and monks who ran the cults of the various gods and goddesses. Sahagun reports that the priests had a strict training, and had to live very austere and ethical lives involving prolonged vigils, fasts. For instance, they often had to bleed themselves and undertake prescribed self-mortifications in the buildup to sacrificial rites, additionally, Sahagun refers to classes of religious specialists not affiliated with the established priesthood
Aztec religion
–
Tezcatlipoca depicted in the
Codex Borgia.
Aztec religion
–
Aztec civilization
Aztec religion
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Xipe Totec "Our flayed lord" wearing a human skin depicted in the
Codex Borgia.
Aztec religion
–
Xochipilli wearing a deerskin as depicted in the
Codex Borgia.
12.
Aztec mythology
–
Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking groups living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures, according to legend, the various groups who were to become the Aztecs arrived from the north into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake of destination is clear – it is the heart of modern Mexico City –, there are different accounts of their origin. In the myth the ancestors of the Mexica/Aztec came from a place in the north called Aztlan, other accounts cite their origin in Chicomoztoc, the place of the seven caves, or at Tamoanchan. The Mexica/Aztec were said to be guided by their god Huitzilopochtli, at an island in Lake Texcoco, they saw an eagle holding a rattlesnake in its talons, perched on a nopal cactus. This vision fulfilled a prophecy telling them that they should found their new home on that spot, the Aztecs built their city of Tenochtitlan on that site, building a great artificial island, which today is in the center of Mexico City. This legendary vision is pictured on the Coat of Arms of Mexico, to the Aztec, the Toltec were the originators of all culture, Toltecayotl was a synonym for culture. Aztec legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the city of Tollan. Because the Aztec adopted and combined several traditions with their own earlier traditions, coatlicue was the mother of Centzon Huitznahua, her sons, and Coyolxauhqui, her daughter. She found a ball filled with feathers and placed it in her waistband and her other children became suspicious as to the identity of the father and vowed to kill their mother. She gave birth on Mount Coatepec, pursued by her children, but the newborn Huitzilopochtli defeated most of his brothers and he also killed his half-sister Coyolxauhqui by tearing out her heart using a Xiuhcoatl and throwing her body down the mountain. Our age, the age, or fifth creation, began in the ancient city of Teotihuacan. According to the myth, all the gods had gathered to sacrifice themselves, although the world and the sun had already been created, it would only be through their sacrifice that the sun would be set into motion and time as well as history could begin. The handsomest and strongest of the gods, Tecuciztecatl, was supposed to sacrifice himself but when it time to self-immolate. Instead, Nanahuatl the smallest and humblest of the gods, who was covered in boils, sacrificed himself first. The sun was set into motion with his sacrifice and time began, humiliated by Nanahuatls sacrifice, Tecuciztecatl too leaped into the fire and became the moon. Water deities Tlaloc, rain god Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of water, lakes, rivers, seas, streams, horizontal waters, storms, Xipe-Totec, god of force, lord of the seasons and rebirth, ruler of the East. Quetzalcoatl, god of the life, the light and wisdom, lord of the winds, Huitzilopochtli, god of the war, lord of the sun and fire, ruler of the South
Aztec mythology
–
Mictlantecuhtli (left), god of death, the lord of the
Underworld and
Quetzalcoatl (right), god of wisdom, life, knowledge, morning star, patron of the winds and light, the lord of the
West. Together they symbolize life and death.
13.
Aztec calendar
–
The Aztec or Mexica calendar is the calendar system that was used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica, the calendar consisted of a 365-day calendar cycle called xiuhpohualli and a 260-day ritual cycle called tonalpohualli. These two cycles formed a 52-year century, sometimes called the calendar round. The xiuhpohualli is considered to be the calendar, since it is based on the sun. The tonalpohualli consists of a cycle of 260 days, each day signified by a combination of a number from 1 to 13 and this cycle of number and day signs would continue similarly until the 20th week, which would start on 1 Rabbit, and end on 13 Flower. It would take a full 260 days for the two cycles to realign and repeat the sequence back on 1 Crocodile, the set of day signs used in central Mexico is identical to that used by Mixtecs, and to a lesser degree similar to those of other Mesoamerican calendars. Each of the day signs also bears an association with one of the four cardinal directions, there is some variation in the way the day signs were drawn or carved. Those here were taken from the Codex Magliabechiano, wind and Rain are represented by images of their associated gods, Ehecatl and Tlaloc. Other marks on the stone showed the current world and also the worlds before this one, each world was called a sun, and each sun had its own species of inhabitants. The Aztecs believed that they were in the sun and like all of the suns before them they would also eventually perish due to their own imperfections. The 260 days of the calendar were grouped into twenty periods of thirteen days each. Scholars usually refer to these weeks as trecenas, using a Spanish term derived from trece thirteen. The original Nahuatl term is not known, each trecena is named according to the calendar date of the first day of the thirteen days in that trecena. In addition, each of the twenty trecenas in the 260-day cycle had its own deity, In ancient times the year was composed of eighteen months. The days of the year were counted twenty by twenty, Diego Durán Xiuhpohualli is the Aztec year count. One year consists of 360 named days and 5 nameless and these extra days are thought to be unlucky. The year was broken into 18 periods of twenty days each, the Aztec word for moon is metztli but whatever name was used for these periods is unknown. Through Spanish usage, the 20-day period of the Aztec calendar has become known as a veintena
Aztec calendar
–
The Aztec
Sun Stone, also called the Aztec Calendar Stone, on display at the
National Museum of Anthropology,
Mexico City.
Aztec calendar
–
Aztec Empire
Aztec calendar
–
Ātl
Aztec calendar
–
1. MAR 01 - MAR 20
14.
Aztec medicine
–
The Aztec medicine concerns the body of knowledge, belief and a ritual surrounding human health and sickness, as observed among the Nahuatl-speaking peoples in the Aztec realm of central Mexico. The Aztecs knew of and used an extensive inventory consisting of hundreds of different medicinal herbs, elements of traditional medicinal practices and beliefs are still found among modern-day Nahua communities, often intermixed with European or other later influences. Establishing a treatment for any given ailment depended first upon determining the nature of its cause, disease had an ambivalent or dualistic aspect, representing an imbalanced state but at the same time its presence could indicate the existence of a communion with the supernatural world. Aztec use of entheogens Mesoamerican medicine Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel, handbook to Life in the Aztec World. Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, verdadera medicina, cirugía y astrologia en tres libros dividida. Pestilence and Headcolds, Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico
Aztec medicine
–
Drawing accompanying text in Book XII of the 16th-century
Florentine Codex (compiled 1540–1585), showing
Nahua of conquest-era central Mexico suffering from smallpox.
15.
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
–
Human sacrifice was a religious practice of the pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, as well as other Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Maya and the Zapotec. The extent of such practices is debated by modern scholars, for example, Bernal Díazs The Conquest of New Spain includes eyewitness accounts of human sacrifices, as well as descriptions of the remains of sacrificial victims. In addition, there are a number of accounts of human sacrifices written by Spanish friars. The literary accounts have been supported by archeological research, a wide variety of explanations and interpretations of the Aztec practice of human sacrifice have been proposed by modern scholars. Most scholars of Pre-Columbian civilization see human sacrifice among the Aztecs as a part of the cultural tradition of human sacrifice in Mesoamerica. The practice of sacrifice was widespread in the Mesoamerican and in the South American cultures during the Inca Empire. Like all other known pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica, the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice, the extant sources describe how the Aztecs sacrificed human victims on each of their eighteen festivities, one festivity for each of their 20-day months. It is unknown if the Aztecs engaged in human sacrifice before they reached the Anahuac valley and started absorbing other cultural influences. The first human sacrifice reported in the sources was the sacrifice and skinning of the daughter of the king Cóxcox of Culhuacán, several ethnohistorical sources state that under the guidance of Tlacaelel, the importance of human sacrifice in Aztec history grew. The Aztecs would perform a series of rituals on nearby tribesmen, sacrifice them using an obsidian knife and they would end the sacrificing when he had finished drinking and he was no longer thirsty. This ritual would go on for a whole weekend so as to please the gods, Sacrifice was a common theme in Mesoamerican cultures. In the Aztec Legend of the Five Suns, all the gods sacrificed themselves so that mankind could live. Some years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a body of Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, the Aztec priests defended themselves as follows, Life is because of the gods, with their sacrifice they gave us life. What the Aztec priests were referring to was a central Mesoamerican belief, everything on earth is tonacayotl—spiritual flesh-hood. All things—earth, crops, moon, stars and people—spring from the severed or buried bodies, fingers, humanity itself is macehualli, those deserved and brought back to life through penance. A strong sense of indebtedness was connected with this worldview, indeed, nextlahualli was a commonly used metaphor for human sacrifice, and, as Bernardino de Sahagún reported, it was said that the victim was someone who gave his service. Human sacrifice was in this sense the highest level of an entire panoply of offerings through which the Aztecs sought to repay their debt to the gods. Even the stage for human sacrifice, the massive temple-pyramids, was a mound, crammed with treasures, grains, soil and human
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
–
Human sacrifice as shown in the
Codex Magliabechiano, Folio 70. Heart-extraction was viewed as a means of liberating the istli and reuniting it with the Sun: the victim's transformed heart flies Sun-ward on a trail of blood.
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
–
Aztec civilization
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
–
Victim of sacrificial gladiatorial combat, from
Codex Magliabechiano. Note that he is tied to a large stone and his
macuahuitl (sword/club) is covered with what appears to be feathers instead of obsidian.
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
–
A ceremonial offering of Aztec sacrificial knife blades tecpatlixquahua
[tekpat͡ɬiʃˈkawa] at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
16.
Templo Mayor
–
The Templo Mayor was one of the main temples of the Aztecs in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Its architectural style belongs to the late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica, the spire in the center of the adjacent image was devoted to Quetzalcoatl in his form as the wind god, Ehecatl. The Great Temple devoted to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, measuring approximately 100 by 80 m at its base, construction of the first temple began sometime after 1325, and it was rebuilt six times. The temple was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521 to make way for the new cathedral, today, the archeological site lies just to the northeast of the Zocalo, or main plaza of Mexico City, in the block between Seminario and Justo Sierra streets. The site is part of the Historic Center of Mexico City, after the destruction of Tenochtitlan, the Templo Mayor, like most of the rest of the city, was taken apart and covered over by the new Spanish colonial city. The Temple’s exact location was forgotten, although by the 20th-century scholars had an idea where to look for it. This was based on the work done at the end of the 19th century. Leopoldo Batres did some work at the end of the 19th century under the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral because at this time. In the first decades of the 20th century, Manuel Gamio found part of the southwest corner of the temple, however, it did not generate great public interest in excavating further because the zone was an upper-class residential area. In 1933, Emilio Cuevas found part of a staircase and beam, in 1948, Hugo Moedano and Elma Estrada Balmori excavated a platform containing serpent heads and offerings. In 1966, Eduardo Contreras and Jorge Angula excavated a chest containing offerings that was first explored by Gamio, the push to fully excavate the site did not come until late in the 20th century. On 21 February 1978, workers for the company were digging at a place in the city then popularly known as the island of the dogs. It was so named because it was elevated over the rest of the neighborhood. Just over two meters down, the diggers struck a pre-Hispanic monolith and this stone turned out to be a huge disk of over 3.25 meters in diameter,30 centimeters thick and weighing 8.5 metric tons. The relief on the stone was later determined to be Coyolxauhqui, Huitzilopochtlis sister, from 1978 to 1982, specialists directed by archeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma worked on the project to excavate the Temple. Initial excavations found many of the artifacts were in good enough condition to study. Efforts coalesced into the Templo Mayor Project, which was authorized by presidential decree, to excavate,13 buildings in this area had to be demolished. Nine of these were built in the 1930s and four dated from the 19th century and these objects are housed in the Templo Mayor Museum
Templo Mayor
–
Scale model of the twin Great Temple of Tenochtitlan
Templo Mayor
–
View of the Templo Mayor and the surrounding buildings.
Templo Mayor
–
Disk depicting a dismembered
Coyolxauhqui which was found during construction in 1978
Templo Mayor
–
Scale model of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan showing the various stages as it was enlarged over time.
17.
History of the Aztecs
–
The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, derive their names from the word Mexica, the capital of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan. During the empire, the city was built on an island in Lake Texcoco. Modern-day Mexico City was constructed on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the Spanish colonisation of the Americas reached the mainland during the reign of Huey Tlatoani Moctezuma II. In 1521, Hernán Cortés, along with an army of other Native Americans, conquered the Aztecs through germ warfare, siege warfare, psychological warfare. From 1376 until 1427, the Mexica were a tributary of Azcapotzalco, the Aztec rulers Acamapichtli, Huitzilihuitl and Chimalpopoca were, in fact, vassals of Tezozomoc, the Tepanec ruler of Azcapotzalco. When Tezozomoc died in 1425, his son Maxtla ascended to the throne of Azcapotzalco, matla sought to tighten Azcapotzalcos grip on the nearby city-states in the Valley of Mexico. In the process, Chimalpopoca, tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, was assassinated by Maxtlas agents while Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco was forced into exile, in the Valley of Mexico, there existed numerous city-states, including Chalco, Xochimilco, Tlacopan, Culhuacan, and Atzcapotzalco. The most powerful were Culhuacan on the shore of Lake Texcoco and Azcapotzalco on the west shore. As a result, when the Mexica arrived in the Valley of Mexico as a semi-nomadic tribe, in roughly 1248, they first settled on Chapultepec, a hill on the west shore of Lake Texcoco, the site of numerous springs. In time, the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco ousted the Mexica from Chapultepec, there they married and assimilated into Culhuacan culture. In 1323, they asked the new ruler of Culhuacan, Achicometl, for his daughter, unknown to the king, the Mexica actually planned to sacrifice her. The Mexica believed that by doing this the princess would join the gods as a deity, as the story goes, during a festival dinner, a priest came out wearing her flayed skin as part of the ritual. Upon seeing this, the king and the people of Culhuacan were horrified and expelled the Mexica. Forced to flee, in 1325 they went to an island on the west side of Lake Texcoco where they began to build their city Tenochtitlan. It is said that the Aztec god, Huitzlipochtli, instructed the Aztecs to found their city at the location where they saw an eagle, on a cactus, the Aztecs, apparently, saw this vision on the small island where Tenochtitlan was founded. Another Mexica group settled on the side of this island. Originally, this was an independent Mexica kingdom, but eventually it was absorbed by Tenochtitlan, the famous marketplace described by Hernán Cortés and Bernal Diaz del Castillo was actually located in Tlatelolco
History of the Aztecs
–
Aztec civilization
18.
Aztec warfare
–
The Aztec state was centered on political expansion and dominance of and exaction of tribute from other city states, and warfare was the basic dynamic force in Aztec politics. Thus, only specifically chosen men served in the military, the sacrifice of war captives was an important part of many of the Aztec religious festivals. Warfare was thus the driving force of both the Aztec economy and religion. There were two main objectives in Aztec warfare, the first objective was political, the subjugation of enemy city states in order to exact tribute and expand Aztec political hegemony. The second objective was religious and socioeconomic, the taking of captives to be sacrificed in religious ceremonies and these dual objectives also influenced the kind of warfare practiced by the Aztecs. Warriors were essential to Aztec life and culture, at birth, an Aztec boy would receive two symbols of being a warrior. A shield would be placed in his hand, and an arrow would be placed in his right. After a short ceremony the newly born boys umbilical cord, shield and these parts would symbol the rise of a warrior. Each shield and arrow would be specifically for that boy and would resemble his family. These birth rituals show the importance of culture to the Aztecs. As for girls, at birth their umbilical cord would be buried usually under the family fireplace, since all boys starting at age 15 were trained to become warriors Aztec society as a whole had no standing army. Therefore, warriors would be drafted to a campaign through a Tequital, outside of battle, many warriors were farmers and tradesmen. They would learn their trade from their father, warriors would be married by their early twenties and would be a vital part of Aztec daily life. They would work a certain trade usually passed on through family status, warriors would be lower class citizens, that when called upon would engage in battle. Being a warrior did, however, present a way to move up in Aztec society, the warriors life was a chance to change ones social status. If they were successful as a warrior they would be presented with gifts, if they reached the rank of Eagle or Jaguar warrior they would be considered as nobles. They would also become full-time warriors working for the city-state to protect merchants and they resembled the police force of Aztec society. Aztec culture valued appearance, and appearance defined people within society, warriors had a very distinct appearance
Aztec warfare
–
Head of an Aztec warrior with a "temillotl" top knot,
Museo de América, Madrid, Spain
Aztec warfare
–
Aztec warriors as depicted in the
Codex Mendoza
Aztec warfare
–
Ceramic statue depicting an
Eagle Warrior
Aztec warfare
–
A page from the Codex Mendoza depicting an Aztec warrior priest and Aztec priest rising through the ranks of their orders
19.
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.
20.
Aztec writing
–
Aztec or Nahuatl writing is a pictographic and ideographic pre-Columbian writing system with significant number of logograms and syllabic signs which was used in central Mexico by the Nahua people. The majority of the Aztec codices were burned either by Aztec tlatoani, remaining Aztec codices such as Codex Mendoza, Codex Borbonicus, and Codex Osuna were written on deer hide and plant fiber. The Aztec writing system is adopted from writing systems used in Central Mexico, mixtec writing is also thought to descend from the Zapotec. The first Oaxacan inscriptions are thought to encode Zapotec, partially because of numerical suffixes characteristic of the Zapotec languages, Aztec was pictographic and ideographic proto-writing, augmented by phonetic rebuses. It also contained syllabic signs and logograms, there was no alphabet, but puns also contributed to recording sounds of the Aztec language. While some scholars have understood the system to not be considered a writing system. There are conventional signs for syllables and logograms which act as signs or for their rebus content. Logosyllabic writing appears on painted and carved artifacts, such as the Tizoc Stone. However, instances of phonetic characters often appear within a significant artistic, in native manuscripts, the sequence of historical events are indicted by a line of footprints leading from one place or scene to another. The concepts of motion and walking were indicated by a trail of footprints, a glyph could be used as a rebus to represent a different word with the same sound or similar pronunciation. This is especially evident in the glyphs of town names, for example, the glyph for Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, was represented by combining two pictograms, stone and cactus. Aztec Glyphs do not have a set reading order, as do Mayan hieroglyphs, as such, they may be read in any direction which forms the correct sound values in the context of the glyph. However, there is an internal reading order in that any sign will be followed by the sign for the following sound in the word being written. They do not jumble up the sounds in a word, the Aztec numerical system was vigesimal. They indicated quantities up to twenty by the number of dots. A flag was used to indicate twenty, repeating it for quantities up to four hundred, while a sign like a fir tree, meaning numerous as hairs, signified four hundred. The next unit, eight thousand, was indicated by an incense bag, aztecs embraced the widespread manner of presenting history cartographically. A cartographic map would hold an elaborately detailed history recording events, the maps were painted to be reading sequence, so that time is established by the movement of the narrative through the map and by the succession of individual maps
Aztec writing
–
Aztec
21.
Aztec Empire
–
The Aztec Empire, or the Triple Alliance, began as an alliance of three Nahua altepetl city-states, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. The Triple Alliance was formed from the faction in a civil war fought between the city of Azcapotzalco and its former tributary provinces. Despite the initial conception of the empire as an alliance of three self-governed city-states, Tenochtitlan quickly became dominant militarily. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, the lands of the Alliance were effectively ruled from Tenochtitlan, the alliance waged wars of conquest and expanded rapidly after its formation. Aztec rule has been described by scholars as hegemonic or indirect, the Aztecs left rulers of conquered cities in power so long as they agreed to pay semi-annual tribute to the Alliance, as well as supply military forces when needed for the Aztec war efforts. In return, the imperial authority offered protection and political stability, the state religion of the empire was polytheistic, worshiping a diverse pantheon that included dozens of deities. Many had officially recognized cults large enough so that the deity was represented in the temple precinct of the capital Tenochtitlan. The imperial cult, specifically, was that of Huitzilopochtli, the distinctive warlike patron god of the Mexica, peoples in conquered provinces were allowed to retain and freely continue their own religious traditions, so long as they added the imperial god Huitzilopochtli to their local pantheons. The word Aztec in modern usage would not have used by the people themselves. The name comes from a Nahuatl word meaning people from Aztlan, for the purpose of this article, Aztec refers only to those cities that constituted or were subject to the Triple Alliance. For the broader use of the term, see the article on Aztec civilization, Nahua peoples descended from Chichimec peoples who migrated to central Mexico from the north in the early 13th century. According to the pictographic codices in which the Aztecs recorded their history, Early migrants settled the Basin of Mexico and surrounding lands by establishing a series of independent city-states. These early Nahua cities were ruled by petty kings called tlahtohqueh, most of the existing settlements, which had been established by other indigenous peoples before the Nahua migration, were assimilated into Nahua culture. These early city-states fought various small-scale wars with other, but due to shifting alliances. The Mexica were the last of Aztlan migrants to arrive in Central Mexico and they entered the Basin of Mexico around the year 1250 AD, and by then most of the good agricultural land had already been claimed. The Mexica persuaded the king of Culhuacan to allow them to settle in a relatively infertile patch of land called Chapultepec, the Mexica served as hired mercenaries for Culhuacan. After they served Culhuacan in battle, the appointed one of his daughters to rule over the Mexica. According to mythological native accounts, the Mexica instead sacrificed her by flaying her skin, when the king of Culhuacan learned of this, he attacked and used his army to drive the Mexica from Tizaapan by force
Aztec Empire
–
Jaguar Warrior, from the
Codex Magliabechiano.
Aztec Empire
–
State emblems
Aztec Empire
–
Codex Azcatitlan depicting the Spanish army, with Cortez and Malinche in front
Aztec Empire
–
Cristóbal de Olid led Spanish soldiers with
Tlaxcalan allies in the conquests of Jalisco and Colima of West Mexico.
22.
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.
23.
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
–
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, in fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme, learning strategy. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices, in their advance, the allies were tricked and ambushed several times by the people they encountered. When Cortés left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, Alvarado allowed a significant Aztec feast to be celebrated in Tenochtitlan and on the pattern of the earlier massacre in Cholula, closed off the square and massacred the celebrating Aztec noblemen. The biography of Cortés by Francisco López de Gómara contains a description of the massacre, the Alvarado massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan precipitated rebellion by the population of the city. When the captured emperor Motecuhzoma II, now seen as a puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm the outraged populace. Cortés had returned to Tenochtitlan and his men fled the city during the Noche Triste in June,1520. The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on August 13,1521 to a civilization that had wiped out by famine. This made it easier to conquer the remaining Aztecs, the fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish overseas empire, with New Spain, which later became Mexico, a major component. The Spanish conquerors could and did write accounts that narrated the conquest from the first landfalls in Mexico to the victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on August 13,1521. Indigenous accounts are from particular native viewpoints and as the events had a impact on their polity. All accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases, in general, Spanish accounts do not credit their indigenous allies support. Individual conquerors accounts exaggerate that individuals contribution to the conquest, downplaying other conquerors, indigenous allies accounts stress their loyalty to the Spanish and their particular aid as being key to the Spanish victory. Their accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors accounts contained in petitions for rewards and these were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe. Interestingly, Cortéss right-hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, two letters to Cortés about Alvarados campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors. Rather than it being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were, the account was used by eighteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his descriptions of the history of Mexico. On the indigenous side, the allies of Cortés, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the Spanish Crown in the conquest, the most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
–
Conquest of Mexico by
Cortés, oil on canvas.
Spanish: Conquista de México por Cortés
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
–
Coat of arms of Villa Rica, Veracruz. First town council founded by Spaniards. Tile mosaic located in
Mexico City.
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
–
Cortés scuttling fleet off Veracruz coast
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
–
Palacio de Gobierno,
Tlaxcala city: Murals - Discussions between Tlaxcalans and Hernán Cortés.
24.
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, in fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme, learning strategy. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices, in their advance, the allies were tricked and ambushed several times by the people they encountered. When Cortés left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, Alvarado allowed a significant Aztec feast to be celebrated in Tenochtitlan and on the pattern of the earlier massacre in Cholula, closed off the square and massacred the celebrating Aztec noblemen. The biography of Cortés by Francisco López de Gómara contains a description of the massacre, the Alvarado massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan precipitated rebellion by the population of the city. When the captured emperor Motecuhzoma II, now seen as a puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm the outraged populace. Cortés had returned to Tenochtitlan and his men fled the city during the Noche Triste in June,1520. The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on August 13,1521 to a civilization that had wiped out by famine. This made it easier to conquer the remaining Aztecs, the fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish overseas empire, with New Spain, which later became Mexico, a major component. The Spanish conquerors could and did write accounts that narrated the conquest from the first landfalls in Mexico to the victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on August 13,1521. Indigenous accounts are from particular native viewpoints and as the events had a impact on their polity. All accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases, in general, Spanish accounts do not credit their indigenous allies support. Individual conquerors accounts exaggerate that individuals contribution to the conquest, downplaying other conquerors, indigenous allies accounts stress their loyalty to the Spanish and their particular aid as being key to the Spanish victory. Their accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors accounts contained in petitions for rewards and these were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe. Interestingly, Cortéss right-hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, two letters to Cortés about Alvarados campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors. Rather than it being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were, the account was used by eighteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his descriptions of the history of Mexico. On the indigenous side, the allies of Cortés, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the Spanish Crown in the conquest, the most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Conquest of Mexico by
Cortés, oil on canvas.
Spanish: Conquista de México por Cortés
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Coat of arms of Villa Rica, Veracruz. First town council founded by Spaniards. Tile mosaic located in
Mexico City.
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Cortés scuttling fleet off Veracruz coast
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Palacio de Gobierno,
Tlaxcala city: Murals - Discussions between Tlaxcalans and Hernán Cortés.
25.
Conquistador
–
Conquistadors /kɒŋˈkɪstəˌdɔːrz/ is a term used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish Empire or the Portuguese Empire in a general sense. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Asia, conquering territory and they colonized much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Portugal established a route to China in the early 16th century, sending ships via the southern coast of Africa, human infections gained worldwide transmission vectors for the first time, from Africa and Eurasia to the Americas and vice versa. The spread of diseases, including smallpox, flu and typhus. In the 16th century perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered American ports, by the late 16th century silver imports from America provided one-fifth of Spains total budget. The conquistadors were professional warriors, using European tactics, firearms and their units would often specialize in forms of combat that required long periods of training that were too costly for informal groups. Their armies were composed of Iberian and other European soldiers. Native allied troops were largely equipped with armament and armour that varied geographically. Some groups consisted of men without military experience, Catholic clergy which helped with administrative duties. These native forces often included African slaves and Native Americans and they not only fought in the battlefield but served as interpreters, informants, servants, teachers, physicians, and scribes. India Catalina and Malintzin were Native American women slaves who worked for the Spaniards, Castilian law prohibited foreigners and non-Catholics from settling in the New World. However, not all conquistadors were Castilian, many foreigners Hispanicised their names and/or converted to Catholicism to serve the Castilian Crown. For example, Ioánnis Fokás was a Castilian of Greek origin who discovered the strait that bears his name between Vancouver Island and Washington State in 1592, german-born Nikolaus Federmann, Hispanicised as Nicolás de Federmán, was a conquistador in Venezuela and Colombia. The origin of people in mixed expeditions was not always distinguished. Castilian law banned Spanish women from travelling to America unless they were married and accompanied by a husband, women who travelled thus include María de Escobar, María Estrada, Marina Vélez de Ortega, Marina de la Caballería, Francisca de Valenzuela, Catalina de Salazar. Some conquistadors married Native American women or had illegitimate children, European young men enlisted in the army because it was one way out of poverty. Catholic priests instructed the soldiers in mathematics, writing, theology, Latin, Greek, and history, Kings army officers taught military arts. An uneducated young recruit could become a leader, elected by their fellow professional soldiers
Conquistador
–
Conquistadors and their native
Tlaxcalan allies enter Tenochtitlan
Conquistador
–
The surrender of
Granada in 1492. The last
Moorish sultan of Granada,
Muhammad XII, before
Ferdinand and Isabella.
Conquistador
–
Christopher Columbus 's first landing in the Americas in 1492
Conquistador
–
Hernando De Soto and Spanish Conquistadores seeing the Mississippi River for the first time.
26.
Soconusco
–
Soconusco is a region in the southwest corner of the state of Chiapas in Mexico along its border with Guatemala. It is a strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is the southernmost part of the Chiapas coast extending south from the Ulapa River to the Suchiate River, distinguished by its history and economic production. Extensive coffee cultivation quickly made Soconusco one of the most successful German colonies, fincas were erected in the Chiapaneco jungle and given German names such as Hamburgo, Bremen, Lübeck, Agrovia, Bismarck, Prussia and Hanover. This area has experienced a boom-and-bust economy with well-studied migration patterns of agricultural workers, after exporting cacao to central Mexico for thousands of years, the first modern crop for export was coffee, introduced by foreign immigrants in the late 19th century. Since then other crops such as fruits, flowers and more have been introduced. The most recent addition is the rambutan, a southeast Asian fruit, Soconusco is geographically isolated from the political and economic center of Mexico, and it is relatively little known among the rest of the Mexican population. Geographically, it is part of the Chiapas coast, but it has had a political, cultural and economic identity from the rest of Chiapas since Mesoamerican times. The name is derived from the Nahuatl “Xoconochco” as noted in the Mendoza Codex, the Mayan name for the area was Zaklohpakab. The earliest population of Soconusco region were the coastal Chantuto peoples and this was the oldest Mesoamerican culture discovered to date. In what is now the municipality of Mazatán, another culture arose, the culture is called Mokaya and it is dated to about 4,000 years ago when cacao and ballcourts appear. It is thought that migrations out of this area east gave rise to the Olmec civilization, a later, but also important Mesoamerican culture, was centered on the site of Izapa, considered the most important on the Chiapas coast. It dates to about 1500 BC and is classified as Mixe-Zoque, the site was important for about 1000 years as a civil and religious structure. While most of its ruins now consist of mounds, its importance lies in the information which has been gathered from its steles. Izapa is considered to be where the Mesoamerican ceremonial 260-day calendar was developed, before the Aztecs, the area was a restless tribute region of Tehuantepec, with the dominant ethnicity being Mame. Tapachultec language was an old language in the area became extinct in 1930s. In 1486, Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl conquered it, the area was required to send cotton clothing, bird feathers, jaguar skins. However, rebellions against the Aztecs continued with Moctezuma Xocoyotzin sending troops to pacify the area in 1502 and 1505, the first Spanish arrived to the area in 1522
Soconusco
–
Aztec glyph for the Xoconochco (Soconusco) region
Soconusco
–
Soconusco Region, Chiapas State
Soconusco
–
Sculpted stone cross made by indigenous hands from the Soconusco region. On display in the Regional Museum in Tuxtla Gutierrez
Soconusco
–
Colonial era lion sculpture from the region on display at the
Regional Museum of Anthropology and History of Chiapas
27.
Chiapas
–
Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 122 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutiérrez, other important population centers in Chiapas include Ocosingo, Tapachula, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán and Arriaga. Chiapas has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the south, in general, Chiapas has a humid, tropical climate. In the north, in the area bordering Tabasco, near Teapa, in the past, natural vegetation at this region was lowland, tall perennial rainforest, but this vegetation has been destroyed almost completely to give way to agriculture and ranching. Rainfall decreases moving towards the Pacific Ocean, but it is abundant enough to allow the farming of bananas. Chiapas is home to the ancient Mayan ruins of Palenque, Yaxchilán, Bonampak and it is also home to one of the largest indigenous populations in the country with twelve federally recognized ethnicities. Much of the history is centered on the subjugation of these peoples with occasional rebellions. The last of these rebellions was the 1994 Zapatista uprising, which succeeded in obtaining new rights for indigenous people, the official name of the state is Chiapas. The name derives from Chiapan or Tepechiapan, the name of an indigenous population, the term, from Nahuatl, may mean sage seed hill or water below the hill. After the Spanish arrived, they established two cities called Chiapas de los Indios and Chiapas de los Españoles, with the name of Provincia de Chiapas for the area around the cities, the first coat of arms of the region dates from 1535 as that of the Ciudad Real. Chiapas painter Javier Vargas Ballinas designed the coat of arms. Hunter gatherers began to occupy the valley of the state around 7000 BCE. The oldest archaeological remains in the seat are located at the Santa Elena Ranch in Ocozocoautla whose finds include tools, in the pre Classic period from 1800 BCE to 300 CE, agricultural villages appeared all over the state although hunter gather groups would persist for long after the era. There is speculation that these were the forefathers of the Olmec, migrating across the Grijalva Valley and onto the plain of the Gulf of Mexico to the north. One of these peoples ancient cities is now the site of Chiapa de Corzo. This is three hundred years before the Mayans developed their calendar, the descendants of Mokaya are the Mixe-Zoque. During the pre Classic era, it is known that most of Chiapas was not Olmec, olmec-influenced sculpture can be found in Chiapas and products from the state including amber, magnetite, and ilmenite were exported to Olmec lands. The Olmecs came to what is now the northwest of the looking for amber with one of the main evidences for this called the Simojovel Ax
Chiapas
–
Jaguar sculpture from Cintalapa dating between 1000 to 400 BCE on display at the
Regional Museum of Anthropology and History of Chiapas.
Chiapas
Chiapas
–
The Palace at
Palenque.
Chiapas
–
The Royal Crown centered in the main plaza of
Chiapa de Corzo built in 1562.
28.
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
–
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, prior to the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major shipping route known simply as the Tehuantepec Route. The name is taken from the town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca, the isthmus includes the part of Mexico lying between the 94th and 96th meridians west longitude, or the southeastern parts of Veracruz and Oaxaca, including small areas of Chiapas and Tabasco. The states of Tabasco and Chiapas are east of the isthmus, with Veracruz, at its narrowest point, the isthmus is 200 km across from gulf to gulf, or 192 km to the head of Laguna Superior on the Pacific coast. The Sierra Madre breaks down at this point into a broad, plateau-like ridge, whose elevation, the northern side of the isthmus is swampy and densely covered with jungle, which has been a greater obstacle to railway construction than the grades in crossing the sierra. The whole region is hot and malarial, except for the open elevations, the annual rainfall on the Atlantic or northern slope is 3,960 mm and the maximum temperature about 35 degrees Celsius in the shade. The Pacific slope has a light rainfall and dryer climate, the narrowness of the isthmus, and the gap in the Sierra Madre, allow the trade winds from the Gulf of Mexico to blow through to the Pacific. This wind is known as the Tehuano, the region has one of the best wind resources in Mexico, with several wind farms. The population is composed almost wholly of indigenous Zapotec peoples, the women are the traders in Tehuantepec and do little menial work. The cuisine of the region is based upon traditional foods and ingredients, dishes may range from simple to elaborate, most dishes incorporate maize and moles. Common items include tamales made with iguana, chicken, beef or armadillo, guetabingui, Garnachas topped with dried queso Oaxaca, and pozol, a maize-based soup. Since the days of Hernán Cortés, the Tehuantepec isthmus has been considered a favorable route, first for an interoceanic canal and its proximity to the axis of international trade gives it some advantage over the Panama route. The Isthmus of Panama, however, is narrower, making for a shorter traversal. The 1853 Gadsden Purchase treaty included a provision allowing the U. S. to transport mail and trade goods across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec via a plank road and railroad. The 1859 McLane-Ocampo Treaty, which Benito Juárez signed but was never ratified by the United States Congress, when the great cost of a canal across the isthmus compelled engineers and capitalists to give it up as impracticable, James B. Eads proposed to construct a quadruple track ship-railway, and the scheme received serious attention for some time, then came projects for an ordinary railway, and several concessions were granted by the Mexican government for this purpose from 1857 to 1882. In the latter year the Mexican government resolved to undertake the construction on its own account. In 1888 this contract was rescinded, after 108 km of road had been completed, the next contract was fruitless because of the death of the contractor, and the third failed to complete the work within the sum specified
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
–
Map showing the relief of the isthmus
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
–
Map of the
Straits of Florida and Gulf of Mexico. To accompany a report from the Treasury Department to the Senate by Israel D. Andrews, per the resolution of the Senate of March 8, 1851.
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
–
Garnachas
29.
Zapotec civilization
–
The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture goes back at least 2,500 years, the Zapotec left archaeological evidence at the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods including finely worked gold jewelry. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica, Zapotec civilization had its beginnings in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca in the late 6th Century BC. The three valleys were divided between three different-sized societies, separated by 80 km2 “no-man’s-land” in the middle, today occupied by the city of Oaxaca, archaeological evidence from the period, such as burned temples and sacrificed captives, suggest that the three societies competed against each other. At the end of the Rosario phase the valleys largest settlement San José Mogote, during the same period a new large settlement emerged in the “no-man’s-land”. That settlement, which was constructed on top of a mountain overlooking the three Central valleys was Monte Albán, similarities between the pottery of San José Mogote and at early Monte Albán indicate that the people who populated Monte Albán were the same ones who had left San José Mogote. The Zapotec state formed at Monte Albán began an expansion during the late Monte Alban 1 phase, Zapotec rulers seized control over the provinces outside the valley of Oaxaca. They were able to do this during Monte Alban 1c to Monte Alban 2 because none of the provinces could compete with the valley of Oaxaca both politically and militarily. By 200 AD the Zapotecs had extended their influence, from Quiotepec in the North to Ocelotepec and Chiltepec in the South, Monte Albán had become the largest city in what are today the southern Mexican highlands, and retained this status until approximately 700 AD. The expansion of the Zapotec empire peaked during the Monte Alban II phase, Zapotecs conquered or colonized settlements far beyond The Valley of Oaxaca. Most notably, this expansion is visible in the change of ceramics found in regions outside the valley. These regions own unique styles were replaced with Zapotec style pottery. What today is referred to as building J, is shaped like an arrowhead, the glyphs have been interpreted by archaeologists to represent the provinces that were controlled by the Zapotecs of Monte Albán. In addition, each group also depicts a head with an elaborate head dress carved into the slabs. These are assumed to illustrate the rulers of the provinces who were taken over, small polities, seeing that resistance would be futile, may accept a face-saving offer. Larger polities unwilling to lose their autonomy may have to be subdued militarily, during the expansion of Monte Alban 2 state, we think we see both colonization and conquest. The name Zapotec is an exonym coming from Nahuatl tzapotēcah, which inhabitants of the place of sapote. The Zapotec referred to themselves by some variant of the term Beenaa, the Zapotec languages belong to a language family called Oto-manguean, an ancient family of Mesoamerican languages
Zapotec civilization
–
Palace of Columns,
Mitla,
Oaxaca
Zapotec civilization
–
Zapotec at greatest extent
Zapotec civilization
–
A funerary urn in the shape of a "bat god" or a jaguar, from Oaxaca, dated to AD 300–650. Height: 9.5 in (23 cm).
Zapotec civilization
–
Looking over the site of
Monte Alban. Situated on a mountaintop, Monte Alban overlooks much of the Valley of Oaxaca.
30.
Ecatepec
–
Ecatepec, (Spanish once officially Ecatepec de Morelos, is a city and municipality in the State of Mexico. Both are usually known simply as Ecatepec, the city is practically co-extensive with the municipality, with the citys 2005 population of 1,687,549 being 99. 9% of the total municipal population of 1,688,258. The provisional population at the 2010 Census was 1,658,806, the city forms the most populous suburb of Mexico City and the 15th-most-populous suburb in the world. Its also Mexicos 2nd most populous municipality, the name Ecatepec is derived from Nahuatl, and means windy hill or hill devoted to Ehecatl. It was also a name or invocation to Quetzalcoatl. Morelos is the last name of José María Morelos, a hero of the Mexican War of Independence, most inhabitants commute to Mexico City for work, and recently the Mexico City metro subway system was extended into Ecatepec. San Cristóbal is the patron saint, whose feast day is celebrated on July 25 of each year. Points of interest include the newest Catholic Cathedral in Mexico, Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, several colonial era churches and the colonel edifice Casa de los virreyes. The town of San Cristóbal Ecatepec, a seat, has governing jurisdiction over the following communities, San Pedro Xoloxtoc, Tulpetlac, Chiconautla, Ciudad Azteca. The area of municipality is 155 km². The human senttlements in Ecatepec de Morelos are a valley from the Valley of Mexico to Sierra de Guadalupe. The flora in Sierra de Guadalupe is interesting, here there are pines, oaks, ocote pines, century plants, prickly pears, zacatón. Remains of earliest human inhabitation of the area have found on the nearby Cerro de Ecatepec. Ecatepec was an Aztec altepetl or city-state in the Valley of Mexico, from 1428 to 1539, Ecatepec was ruled by a tlatoani. The tlatoque of Ecatepec were closely related to the dynasty of Tenochtitlan. - Chimalpilli I, grandson of Moctezuma I, - Matlaccohuatl, whose daughter Teotlalco married Moctezuma II. - Chimalpilli II, son of Ahuitzotl, - Diego de Alvarado Huanitzin, grandson of Axayacatl. Diego Huanitzin was subsequently made tlatoani of Tenochtitlan by Antonio de Mendoza, during the Aztec empire, the Mexicas used the town to control trade routes going north
Ecatepec
–
Ecatepec de Morelos
Ecatepec
–
Seal
Ecatepec
–
The
glyph for Ecatepec. Its name is represented by a hill (tepetl) and the face of the wind god (
Ehecatl).
Ecatepec
–
House of culture.
31.
Compound word
–
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of formation that creates compound lexemes. That is, in terms, compounding occurs when two or more words are joined to make one longer word. The meaning of the compound may be similar to or different from the meanings of its components in isolation, with very few exceptions, English compound words are stressed on their first component stem. The process occurs readily in other Germanic languages for different reasons, words can be concatenated both to mean the same as the sum of two words or where an adjective and noun are compounded. The addition of affix morphemes to words should not be confused with nominal composition, compound formation rules vary widely across language types. In a synthetic language, the relationship between the elements of a compound may be marked with a case or other morpheme. This latter pattern is common throughout the Semitic languages, though in some it is combined with a genitive case. Agglutinative languages tend to very long words with derivational morphemes. Compounds may or may not require the use of derivational morphemes also, the longest compounds in the world may be found in the Finnic and Germanic languages. German examples include Farbfernsehgerät, Funkfernbedienung, and the jocular word Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmütze, in Finnish, although there is theoretically no limit to the length of compound words, words consisting of more than three components are rare. Even those with less than three components can look mysterious to non-Finnish such as hätäuloskäytävä, compounds can be rather long when translating technical documents from English to some other language, since the lengths of the words are theoretically unlimited, especially in chemical terminology. For example, the English compound doghouse, where house is the head, endocentric compounds tend to be of the same part of speech as their head, as in the case of doghouse. For example, the English compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing, in an exocentric compound, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents. For example, a must-have is not a verb but a noun, the meaning of this type of compound can be glossed as whose B is A, where B is the second element of the compound and A the first. A bahuvrihi compound is one whose nature is expressed by neither of the words, copulative compounds are compounds with two semantic heads. Appositional compounds are lexemes that have two attributes that classify the compound, most natural languages have compound nouns. The positioning of the words according to the language
Compound word
–
The German language has many compounds
32.
Glyph
–
In typography, a glyph /ˈɡlɪf/ is an elemental symbol within an agreed set of symbols, intended to represent a readable character for the purposes of writing. In Turkish, however, it is not a glyph because that language has two versions of the letter i, with and without a dot. In Japanese syllabaries, a number of the characters are made up of more than one separate mark, however, in some cases, additional marks fulfill the role of diacritics, to differentiate distinct characters. In general, a diacritic is a glyph, even if it is contiguous with the rest of the character, two or more glyphs which have the same significance, whether used interchangeably or chosen depending on context, are called allographs of each other. The term has been used in English since 1727, borrowed from glyphe, from the Greek γλυφή, glyphē, carving, and the verb γλύφειν, glýphein, to hollow out, engrave, carve. The word glyph first came to widespread European attention with the engravings, in archaeology, a glyph is a carved or inscribed symbol. It may be a pictogram or ideogram, or part of a system such as a syllable. In 1897 Dana Evans discovered glyphs written on rocks in the Colorado Desert and these ancient characters have been called the most enlightening discovery in Native American History in the 19th Century. In typography, a glyph has a different definition, it is the specific shape, design. The same is true in computing, in computing as well as typography, the term character refers to a grapheme or grapheme-like unit of text, as found in natural language writing systems. The range of glyphs required increases correspondingly, in summary, in typography and computing, a glyph is a graphical unit. In graphonomics, the glyph is used for a noncharacter. Most typographic glyphs originate from the characters of a typeface, in the mobile text input technologies, Glyph is a family of text input methods based on the decomposition of letters into basic shapes. In role-playing games, the glyph is sometimes used alongside the word rune in describing magical drawings or etchings. Runes often refer to placing the image on an object or person to empower it, whereas the magic in a glyph lies dormant and is only triggered when the glyph is read or approached
Glyph
–
The adjacent characters ſi represented as one glyph
Glyph
–
Various glyphs representing the lower case letter "
a "
33.
Diadem
–
A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty. The word derives from the Greek διάδημα diádēma, band or fillet, from διαδέω diadéō, I bind round, such ribbons were also used to crown victorious athletes in important sports games in antiquity. It was later applied to a crown, generally in a circular or fillet shape. For example, the worn by Juliana was a diadem. The ancient Celts were believed to have used a thin, semioval gold plate called a mind as a diadem. Some of the earliest examples of types of crowns can be found in ancient Egypt, from the simple fabric type to the more elaborate metallic type. A diadem is also a jewelled ornament in the shape of a crown, worn by women. In some societies, it may be a wreath worn around the head, the ancient Persians wore a high and erect royal tiara encircled with a diadem. Hera, queen of the Greek gods, wore a crown called the diadem. By extension, diadem can be used generally for an emblem of power or dignity. The head regalia worn by Roman Emperors, from the time of Diocletian onwards, is described as a diadem in the original sources and it was this object that the Foederatus general Odoacer returned to Emperor Zeno after his expulsion of the usurper Romulus Augustus from Rome in 476 CE. Civic crown Tainia Fillet Tiara Diadem
Diadem
–
The diadem or crown of Princess
Sit-Hathor Yunet from her tomb.
12th Dynasty Egypt 19th century BC.
Diadem
–
17th Dynasty diadem crown
ancient Egypt (
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden)
Diadem
–
19th Dynasty wig with diadem (
British Museum)
Diadem
–
Elliptical diadem from
Mycenae,
Greece (16th century BC)
34.
Earspool
–
A plug, in the context of body modification, is a short, cylindrical piece of jewellery commonly worn in larger-gauge body piercings. Because of their size — which is substantially thicker than a standard metal earring — plugs can be made out of almost any material. Acrylic glass, metal, wood, bone, stone, horn, glass, plugs are commonly, and have historically, been worn in the ears. They can, however, be inserted into any piercing, in order for a plug to stay put within a piercing, the ends of its cylindrical shape are often flared out, or the plug is fastened in place by o-rings. Combinations of these two methods may also be used, a double-flared plug, flares outward at both ends, and is thinner towards the middle. No o-rings are needed to keep the plug in the piercing, a single flared plug has one flared end, usually worn on the front of the piercing, and one end with no flare. The no flare end is held in place by an o-ring and these plugs give the aesthetic of double-flared plugs without requiring that the wearers fistulas be large enough to accommodate flares. A straight plug is a cylinder, without flares, and is kept in place by sliding o-rings against both ends of the plug. A grooved plug is a variation on the plug, with grooves carved in the material to hold the o-rings snug. During the ancient Egyptian New Kingdom, both wore a variety of jewelry, including earplugs and large-gauge hoop-style earrings. An earspool, or an ear tunnel, is an ornament worn inserted into the earlobe and they were particularly used among indigenous cultures of the Americas, including Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya and the Aztecs. Their use could sometimes stretch the earlobe. In Mesoamerica they were used from as early as the Preclassic Period, Inca men wore gold or silver plugs in the ears, which indicated their nobility. Their stretched piercings, which could reach the size of two inches, later inspired a Spanish nickname for the Inca people, orejones, ivory earplugs have been used by the Hmong people. Silver plugs, called rombin, are worn by Aka women
Earspool
–
Totonac figurine wearing prominent earspools.
Earspool
–
Pre-Hispanic earspools crafted from
amber, at the Museum of Amber in
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
35.
Speech scroll
–
In art history, speech scroll is an illustrative device denoting speech, song, or, in rarer cases, other types of sound. While European speech scrolls were drawn as if they were an actual unfurled scroll or strip of parchment, Mesoamerican speech scrolls are merely scroll-shaped, speech scrolls are found throughout Mesoamerica. One of the earliest examples of a Mesoamerican speech scroll was found on an Olmec ceramic cylinder seal dated to approximately 650 BC, here two lines issue from a birds mouth followed by glyphs proposed to be 3 Ajaw, a rulers name. In Mesoamerica, the speech-scroll is usually oriented with the longest outer edge upward, some Mesoamerican speech scrolls are divided lengthwise with each side a different shade. Glyphs or similar markings rarely appear on the Mesoamerican speech scroll, although tabs—small, if the speech scroll represents a tongue, then the tabs may represent teeth, but their meaning or message, if any, is not known. At times, speech scrolls are decorated with devices that describe the tone of the speech, In an engraving at the Maya site of Chichen Itza, a Spaniards speech scroll in a 16th-century Aztec codex is decorated with feathers to denote soft, smooth words. In another 16th century codex, the Selden Codex, two Mixtec rulers are shown insulting two ambassadors through the use of flint knife icons attached to the speech scrolls, as with many native traditions, use of the speech scroll died out in the decades following the Spanish Conquest. In contrast to the nature of Mesoamerican speech scrolls, Medieval European speech scrolls or banderoles appear as actual scrolls. They first become common at the start of the Gothic period, previously, as in Byzantine art, spoken words, if they appeared at all, were usually painted alongside a figure, these are called tituli. However, earlier works using banderoles are the Aachen Gospels of Otto III and it may be seen in the Santa Trinita Maestà by Cimabue, Duccios Maestà, and other works. The convention had a historical appropriateness, as the Old Testament was originally written on scrolls and they may also be used for the words of angels, especially Gabriels greeting to Mary in Annunciation scenes. Unlike Mesoamerican speech scrolls, European speech scrolls usually contain the spoken words, because the words are usually religious in nature, the speech scroll is often written in Latin even when appearing in woodcut illustrations for books written in the vernacular. This would also enable the illustration to be used in editions in other languages, European speech scrolls may at times be seen in secular works as well and may also contain the name of a person to identify them. On carved figures the words would usually be painted on the scroll and have worn away. In some Late Gothic and Renaissance works, and in architectural decoration, the European speech scroll fell out of favor largely due to an increasing interest in realism in painting, the halo had a similar decline. Speech balloon Banderole - a streamer or pennant Boone, Elizabeth Writing Without Words, Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica, coggins, Clement Chase Pure Language & Lapidary Prose in New Theories on the Ancient Maya, Elin C. Danien and Robert J. Sharer, Eds, john Pohls - Ancient Books - Mixtec Group Codices - Codex Selden. Hilmo, Maidie Medieval Images, Icons, and Chaucer Illustrated English Literary Texts, From Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer, holt, Dennis About the Endangered Language Fund Logo, accessed November 2007
Speech scroll
–
The two figures on the right show the red and white "
flint knife " icon attached to their small speech scrolls, indicating that they are verbally attacking the travellers on the left. From page 7 of the
Codex Selden.
Speech scroll
–
A
Teotihuacan stick-ball player with a bi-color speech scroll. Note the "tabs" along the outer edge of the speech scroll.
Speech scroll
–
A 1506 painting by
Bernhard Strigel with banderole.
Speech scroll
–
Scenes of the
Resurrection, an
illuminated manuscript, 1188.
36.
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.
37.
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
–
Its members are most commonly known as Mercedarian friars or nuns. The Order exists today in 17 countries, according to James W. Raids by militias, bands and armies from both sides were an almost annual occurrence. For over 600 years, these constant armed confrontations produced numerous war prisoners on both sides, islam’s captives were reduced to the state of slaves since they were considered war booty. In the lands of Visigothic Spain, both Christian and Muslim societies had become accustomed to the buying and selling of captives, so much so that tenth-century Andalusian merchants formed caravans to purchase slaves in Eastern Europe. In the thirteenth century, in addition to spices, slaves constituted one of the goods of the trade between Christian and Muslim ports. Starting before the First Crusade, many hospices and hospitals were organized by the chapters of cathedrals or by the monastic orders, sources for the origins of the Mercedarians are scant and almost nothing is known of the founder, St. Peter Nolasco. A narrative developed between the 15th and early 17th centuries that culminated in Nolascos canonization as a saint in 1628, Nolasco began ransoming Christian captives in 1203. After fifteen years of work, he and his friends saw that the number of captives was growing day by day and his plan was to establish a well-structured and stable redemptive religious order under the patronage of Blessed Mary. The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy was one of dozens of associations that sprang up in Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries as institutions of charitable works. The work of the Mercedarians was in ransoming impoverished captive Christians held in Muslim hands, from the year 1192 certain noblemen of Barcelona had formed a confraternity for the purpose of caring for the sick in hospitals, and also for rescuing Christian captives from the Moors. Nolascos confessor, Raymond of Penyafort, a Dominican friar and former canon of Barcelona, encouraged and assisted him in this project, after that, Nolasco and the first Mercedarians made their religious profession there before the bishop. Their headquarters was the Monastery of St. Eulalia of Barcelona, reconstructing the Orders beginnings from the documentary record produces a far less detailed story. In this, the year 1218 plays no role, the founder first appears ca.1226 as a collector of alms in Perpignan. By 1230 he was collecting alms for captives in Barcelona as the head of a lay confraternity. On August 12,1230, Maimó Gombal, a resident of Barcelona, the bequest was not unusual, either in amount or intent, for Catalans of this era frequently included this pious good work in their testaments. What sets this particular bequest apart is that it contains the first notice of the work of Nolasco. Nothing is known about him before his appearance in Maimós will, during the next six years, the confraternity slowly evolves into a religious order, as members obtain properties in Catalonia. While Nolasco, by all accounts, first established his movement at Barcelona and then on Mallorca, consequently, the preponderance of what Mercedarians came to possess here were lands donated by the king, successful crusaders and other patrons
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
–
Our Lady of Mercy - From the Generalate of the Mercedarian Order
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
–
Peter Nolasco (1189-1256)
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
–
A series of articles on
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
–
La Mercè basilica in
Barcelona where the Mercedarian mother church was built in 1267
38.
Florentine Codex
–
The Florentine Codex is a 16th-century ethnographic research study in Mesoamerica by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Sahagún originally titled it, La Historia Universal de las Cosas de Nueva España, after a translation mistake, it was given the name Historia general de las Cosas de Nueva España. The best-preserved manuscript is commonly referred to as The Florentine Codex, as it is held in the Laurentian Library of Florence, Italy. In partnership with Nahua men who were formerly his students at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, Sahagún conducted research, organized evidence, wrote and he worked on this project from 1545 up until his death in 1590. The work consists of 2,400 pages organized into twelve books and it documents the culture, religious cosmology and ritual practices, society, economics, and natural history of the Aztec people. It has been described as “one of the most remarkable accounts of a non-Western culture ever composed. ”The Americans Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson were the first to translate the Codex from Nahuatl to English, in a project that took 30 years to complete. In 2012 high-resolution scans of all volumes of The Florentine Codex, in Nahuatl and Spanish, the three bound volumes of the Florentine Codex are found in the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palat. 218-220 in Florence, Italy, with the title Florentine Codex chosen by its English translators, Anderson and Charles Dibble, following in the tradition of nineteenth-century Mexican scholars Francisco del Paso y Troncoso and Joaquín García Icazbalceta. The manuscript became part of the collection of the library in Florence at some point after its creation in the sixteenth century. It was not until the eighteenth century that scholars become aware of it. The work became more known in the nineteenth century, with a description published by P. Fr. The Spanish Royal Academy of History learned of work and, at the 5th meeting of the International Congress of Americanists. In 1888 German scholar Eduard Seler presented a description of the illustrations at the 7th meeting of the International Congress of Americanists, Mexican scholar Francisco del Paso y Troncoso received permission in 1893 from the Italian government to copy the alphabetic text and the illustrations. The three-volume manuscript of the Florentine Codex has been analyzed and compared to earlier drafts found in Madrid. The Tolosa Manuscript was known in the 1860s and studied by José Fernando Ramírez The Tolosa Manuscript has been source for all published editions in Spanish of the Historia General. The English translation of the complete Nahuatl text of all volumes of the Florentine Codex was a decades-long work of Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles Dibble, a contribution to the scholarship on Mesoamerican ethno-history. In 1979 the Mexican government published a full-color, three-volume facsimile of the Florentine Codex in an edition of 2,000
Florentine Codex
–
Page 51 of Book IX from the Florentine Codex. The text is in
Nahuatl; World Digital Library.
Florentine Codex
–
Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (original from the
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana).
Florentine Codex
–
An illustration of the "One Flower" ceremony, from the 16th century Florentine Codex. The two drums are the teponaztli (foreground) and the huehuetl (background).
Florentine Codex
–
Aztec warriors as shown in the Florentine Codex.
39.
Tlatelolco (altepetl)
–
Tlatelolco was a pre-Columbian Nahua altepetl in the Valley of Mexico. Its inhabitants were known as Tlatelolca, the Tlatelolca were a part of the Mexica ethnic group, a Nahuatl speaking people who arrived in what is now central Mexico in the 13th century. They settled on an island in Lake Texcoco where they founded their city on the northern part — the other Mexica group, the Tenochca, founded their city Tenochtitlan on the southern part. The city was tied with its sister city, which was largely dependent on the market of Tlatelolco. The Tlatelolco archaeological site is an excavation site in Mexico City. In February 2009, the discovery of a grave with 49 human bodies was announced by archaeologists. The grave is considered unusual because the bodies are laid out in ritual fashion, in 1337, thirteen years after the foundation of Tenochtitlan, the Tlatelolca declared themselves independent from the Tenochca and inaugurated their first independent Tlatoani. Under the king Cuacuauhpitzahuac, the first two stages of the Main Pyramid of Tlatelolco were constructed, under Tlacateotl, the Tlatelolca assisted the Tenochca in the war against the Tepanecs, shortly thereafter, the first war between the Tenochca and Tlatelolca erupted. Also during Tlacateotls reign, the stage of the Main Pyramid was constructed. Under Cuauhtlatoa, the Tlatelolca conquered the citystate of Ahuilizapan, the fourth and fifth stages of the Main Pyramid were constructed in this period. The ruler Moquihuix constructed the stage of the temple, but in 1473 he was defeated by the Tenochca Tlatoani Axayacatl. Itzcuauhtzin ruled Tlatelolco during a period in which it was almost completely incorporated into Tenochtitlan, after the Spanish Conquest in 1521, Tlatelolco became a municipality of New Spain, and was renamed Santiago Tlatelolco. Tlatelolco remained an important location, partly because of the foundation there of the university Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, today its remains are located within Mexico City
Tlatelolco (altepetl)
–
Barrios of pre-Colonial Tlatelolco over modern map
40.
King
–
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, in the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate Latin rex or either Greek archon or basileus. In classical European feudalism, the title of king as the ruler of a kingdom is understood as the highest rank in the order, potentially subject. In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a number of modern monarchies. The title of king is used alongside other titles for monarchs, in the West prince, emperor, archduke, duke or grand duke, in the Middle East sultan or emir, etc. Kings, like other royalty, tend to wear purple because purple was a color to wear in the past. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz, the Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas. The English term king translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx, the Germanic term is notably different from the word for king in other Indo-European languages. It is a derivation from the term *kunjom kin by the -inga- suffix, the literal meaning is that of a scion of the kin, or perhaps son or descendant of one of noble birth. English queen translates Latin regina, it is from Old English cwen queen, noble woman, the Germanic term for wife appears to have been specialized to wife of a king, in Old Norse, the cognate kvan still mostly refers to a wife generally. Scandinavian drottning, dronning is a derivation from *druhtinaz lord. The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship, the Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms. The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, in southern Europe, the kingdom of Sicily was established following the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia was claimed as a title held by the Crown of Aragon in 1324. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Serbia was established in 1217, in eastern-central Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD1000 following the Christianisation of the Magyars. The kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia were established within the Holy Roman Empire in 1025 and 1198, in Eastern Europe, the Kievan Rus consolidated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which did not technically claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia. In northern Europe, the kingdoms of the Viking Age by the 11th century expanded into the North Sea Empire under Cnut the Great, king of Denmark, England
King
–
The nine European Monarchs who attended the
funeral of
King Edward VII of Britain, photographed at
Windsor Castle on 20 May 1910. Standing, from left to right:
King Haakon VII of Norway,
Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria,
King Manuel II of Portugal,
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany,
King George I of Greece and
King Albert I of Belgium. Seated, from left to right:
King Alfonso XIII of Spain,
King George V of Britain and
King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
King
King
–
Ramesses II, the third
Pharaoh of the
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
41.
Messiah
–
In Abrahamic religions, the Messiah, is the one chosen to lead the world and thereby save it. The term also appears in the forms Messias, Christ, or Al-Masih, the concepts of the Messiah, Messianism, and the Messianic Age grew from Isaiahs writings during the latter half of the 8th century BCE. The term comes from the Hebrew verb meaning to apply oil to, to anoint, in the Hebrew Bible, Israels kings were sometimes called Gods messiah -- Gods anointed one. A messiah could also be a high priest or prophet. Messiahs did not even need to descend from Jacob, as the Hebrew Bible refers to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, as a messiah for his decree to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple. In Judaism, the Jewish Messiah, often referred to as King Messiah, is expected to descend from King David, the Jerusalem Temples rebuilding will usher in a Messianic Age of global peace. In Christianity, the Messiah is called the Christ, from Ancient Greek, χριστός, the concept of the Messiah in Christianity originated from the Messiah in Judaism. However, unlike the concept of the Messiah in Judaism and Islam, in Chabad messianism, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, sixth Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch, and Menachem Mendel Schneerson, seventh Rebbe of Chabad, are Messiah claimants. Resembling early Christianity, the deceased Menachem Mendel Schneerson is believed to be the Messiah among adherents of the Chabad movement, in Hebrew, the Messiah is often referred to as מלך המשיח (Meleḵ ha-Mašīaḥ in the Tiberian vocalization, pronounced, literally meaning the Anointed King. The Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament renders all thirty-nine instances of the Hebrew word for anointed as Χριστός, the New Testament records the Greek transliteration Μεσσίας, Messias twice in John. Al-Masīḥ is the Arabic word for messiah, in modern Arabic, it is used as one of the many titles of Jesus. Masīḥ is used by Arab Christians as well as Muslims, and is written as Yasūʿ al-Masih by Arab Christians or ʿĪsā al-Masīḥ by Muslims, the word al-Masīḥ literally means the anointed, the traveller, or the one who cures by caressing. In Quranic scripture, Jesus is mentioned as having been sent down by Allah, strengthened by the spirit, and hence, anointed with the task of being a prophet. The Israelites, to whom Isa was sent, had a practice of anointing their kings with oil. An Imam Bukhari hadith describes Jesus as having wet hair that looked as if water was dripping from it, Muslims believe that this is just one of the many signs that proves that Jesus is the Messiah. The literal translation of the Hebrew word mashiach is anointed, which refers to a ritual of consecrating someone or something by putting holy oil upon it, in Judaism, the Messiah is not considered to be God or a pre-existent divine Son of God. He is considered to be a political leader that has descended from King David. That is why he is referred to as Messiah ben David, the messiah, in Judaism, is considered to be a great, charismatic leader that is well oriented with the laws that are followed in Judaism
Messiah
–
Samuel anoints David,
Dura Europos,
Syria, Date: 3rd century CE.
Messiah
–
The
Last Judgment, by
Jean Cousin the Younger (c. late 16th century)
Messiah
–
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the
Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, considered by
Ahmadis to be the Promised Messiah of the latter days
42.
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.
43.
Warren H. Carroll
–
Warren H. Carroll was a leading Roman Catholic historian, author, and the founder of Christendom College. The son of Herbert Allen Carroll and regional writer Gladys Hasty Carroll and he received his B. A. in history from Bates College in 1953 and his M. A. and Ph. D. in history from Columbia University. His younger sister Sarah Watson, who died one month after Warren in 2011, during 1967-1972 he served on the staff of California State Senator, later U. S. Congressman, John G. Schmitz. Marshner, Jeffrey A. Mirus, Raymund P. OHerron and he served as the first president of the college until 1985, as well as the chairman of the History Department until his retirement in 2002. These public lectures are available for download through iTunes. Carroll remained a member of the Board of Directors and played a role in helping to guide the college through the years. On September 16,2012, Carrolls Celtic cross headstone was blessed by college chaplain Fr, Carroll has received numerous awards throughout his academic career. In 1995, he was the recipient of the Pius XI Award in history from the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. He had published articles through the Societys periodical, the Catholic Social Science Review, Carroll is also known for his major work, the multi-volume History of Christendom. At the time of his death, only five volumes had been published, Anne Carroll helped complete the sixth volume, together, the series presents a narrative account of Western Civilization and Catholic history from antiquity through the year 2010. Reasons for Hope, co-written with William Marshner, Jeffrey A. Carroll – Founder of Christendom College Warren Hasty Carroll at Library of Congress Authorities, with 7 catalog records
Warren H. Carroll
–
Warren H. Carroll
44.
Franciscan
–
The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns
Franciscan
–
Francis of Assisi, founder of the Order of Friars Minor; oldest known portrait in existence of the saint, dating back to St. Francis' retreat to
Subiaco (1223–1224)
Franciscan
–
Regula bullata, the Rule confirmed by
Honorius III
Franciscan
–
"The Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule" by
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), Capella Sassetti,
Florence.
Franciscan
–
Anthony of Padua (c1195-1231) with the
Infant Christ, painting by
Antonio de Pereda (c1611-1678)
45.
Friar
–
The most significant orders of friars are the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Carmelites. Friars are different from monks in that they are called to live the evangelical counsels in service to society, rather than through cloistered asceticism, whereas monks live in a self-sufficient community, friars work among laypeople and are supported by donations or other charitable support. A monk or nun makes their vows and commits to a community in a particular place. The English term Friar is derived from the Norman French word frere, from the Latin frater, Fray is sometimes used in former Spanish colonies such as the Philippines or the American Southwest as a title, such as in Fray Juan de Torquemada. In the Roman Catholic Church, there are two classes of orders known as friars, or mendicant orders, the four great orders, the four great orders were mentioned by the Second Council of Lyons, and are, The Carmelites, founded c. They are also known as the White Friars because of the cloak which covers their brown habit. They received papal approval from Honorius III in 1226 and later by Innocent IV in 1247, the Carmelites were founded as a purely contemplative order, but became mendicants in 1245. There are two types of Carmelites, those of the Ancient Observance and those of the Discalced Carmelites and they are also known as the Friars Minor. The Franciscans were founded by St. Francis of Assisi and received papal approval by Innocent III in 1209. Today the Friars Minor is composed of three branches, the Order of Friars Minor, Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and the Order of Friars Minor Conventual wearing grey or black habits. They are also known as the Friar Preachers, or the Black Friars, the Dominicans were founded by St. Dominic and received papal approval from Honorius III in 1216 as the Ordo Praedicatorum under the Rule of St. Augustine. They became a mendicant order in 1221, the Augustinians, founded in 1244 and enlarged in 1256. They are also known as the Hermits of St. Augustine and their rule is based on the writings of Augustine of Hippo. The Augustinians were assembled from various groups of hermits as a mendicant order by Pope Innocent IV in 1244, additional groups were added by Alexander IV in 1256. Francis, a branch of the Third Order of St, in the Anglican Communion there are also a number of mendicant groups such as the Anglican Friars Preachers and The Society of St. Francis. Several high schools, as well as Providence College, use friars as their school mascot, the Major League Baseball team San Diego Padres have the Swinging Friar. The University of Michigans oldest a cappella group is a male known as The Friars. The University of Pennsylvania has an honor society known as Friars
Friar
–
A group of friars; novices of the Order of
Augustinian Recollects at the Monastery of Marcilla,
Navarre
Friar
–
Conventual Franciscans in their variant grey habits
46.
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
–
Working within the tradition of New Philology, Restall questions several notions which he claims are widely held myths about how the Spanish achieved military and cultural hegemony in Latin America. The book has published in Spanish and Portuguese translations. Restall draws on scholars published work for this conclusion, nor were they acting under the command of the Holy Roman Emperor who was also the king of the Spanish realms. And they were not soldiers in a military sense of the word but rather a group of feudal lords with their respective footmen, servants. Chapter 3 deals with what Restall calls the Myth of the White Conquistador — the belief that the Spanish conquest was accomplished by a number of white Spaniards. Restall claims that much of the military operations was undertaken by the indigenous allies of the Conquistadors. He also shows that there were several conquistadors of African and Moorish descent — dispelling the idea of the conquest as a victory of the white Europeans over the red Indians. Chapter 4 deals with what Restall calls the Myth of Completion — the belief all of the Americas were under Spanish control within a few years after the initial contact. Restall claims that contrary to this belief pockets of indigenous peoples living without having been conquered subsisted for centuries after the conquest -. For example, Tayasal, the last independent city of the Maya, in other areas of Latin America, Spanish control was never complete and rebellions were continuous. He also refutes the notion that the Indians lack of alphabetic writing constituted a major drawback, nor were the Indians childlike, naive or cowardly in comparison with the Spanish such as many early Spanish sources have painted them. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest was first published 2003 in cloth edition by OUP, a Spanish-language edition was published by Paidós, with imprints issued in Spain and Mexico. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. Los siete mitos de la conquista española, matthew Restall, traducción de Marta Pino Moreno. Los siete mitos de la conquista española
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
–
Cover of the 2003 OUP hardback edition. The design shows a photo reproduction of two portions of the late 17thC painting El encuentro de Cortés y Moctezuma, attributed to
Juan Correa, held in the collection of the
Banco de México
47.
Toltec
–
The Toltec culture is an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico in the early post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology. The Aztec oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the Toltec Empire, giving lists of rulers, among modern scholars it is a matter of debate whether the Aztec narratives of Toltec history should be given credence as descriptions of actual historical events. Others maintain that continued analysis of the narratives as sources of history is futile. No consensus has yet emerged about the degree or direction of influence between these two sites, another source of controversy is the fact that New Age authors such as Carlos Castaneda and Don Miguel Ruiz, who say that they represent Toltec teachings. For this tradition of knowledge see Toltec, traits associated with this horizon are, The Mixteca-Puebla style of iconography, Tohil plumbate ceramic ware and Silho or X-Fine Orange Ware ceramics. The presence of traits associated with Tula in Chichén Itzá is also taken as evidence for a Toltec horizon. The existence of any meaning of the Mixteca-Puebla art style has also been questioned, while Tula does have the urban complexity expected of an imperial capital, its influence and dominance was not very far reaching. Evidence for Tulas participation in trade networks has been uncovered, for example. The debate about the nature of the Toltec culture goes back to the late 19th century and this led him to posit the theory that Chichén Itzá had been violently taken over by a Toltec military force under the leadership of Kukulcan. The historicist school of thought persisted well in to the 20th century, represented in the works of such as David Carrasco, Miguel León Portilla, Nigel Davies. Nicholson, which all held the Toltecs to have been an ethnic group. This school of thought connected the Toltecs to the site of Tula. This tradition assumes that much of central Mexico was dominated by a Toltec Empire between the 10th and 12th century CE, the Aztecs referred to several Mexican city states as Tollan, Place of Reeds, such as Tollan Cholollan. Archaeologist Laurette Sejourné, followed by the historian Enrique Florescano, have argued that the original Tollan was probably Teotihuacán, Florescano adds that the Mayan sources refer to Chichén Itzá when talking about the mythical place Zuyua. Many historicists such as H. B, for example, they seek to discern between the deity Quetzalcoatl and a Toltec ruler often referred to as Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl. Scholars such as Michel Graulich and Susan D. Gillespie maintained that the difficulties in salvaging historic data from the Aztec accounts of Toltec history are too great to overcome, the first is described as a valiant triumphant warrior, but the last as a feeble and self-doubting old man. This caused Graulich to consider that the only historical data in the Aztec chronicles are the names of some rulers. Furthermore, among the Nahuan peoples the word Tolteca was synonymous with artist, artisan or wise man, and toltecayotl
Toltec
–
An expressive orange-ware clay vessel in the Toltec style, from the
American Museum of Natural History collection.
Toltec
–
Toltec pyramid at
Tula, Hidalgo
Toltec
–
A map of the layout of the archaeological site of Tula, Hidalgo
Toltec
–
Stucco relief at Tula, Hidalgo depicting
Coyotes,
Jaguars and
Eagles feasting on human hearts.
48.
Fall of Tenochtitlan
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The Siege of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was a decisive event in the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The conquest of Mexico was a stage in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In April 1519 Hernán Cortés, the Chief Magistrate of Santiago, Cuba, came upon the coast of Mexico at a point he called Vera Cruz with 508 soldiers,100 sailors, and 14 small cannons. Velázquez revoked Cortés right to lead the expedition once he realized that Cortés intended to exceed his mandate, after Cortés sailed, Velázquez sent an army led by Pánfilo de Narváez to take him into custody. Cortés followed this tactic when he and his men established the city of Veracruz, an inquiry into Cortés action was conducted in Spain in 1529 and no action was taken against him. As he moved inland Cortés came into contact with a number of polities who resented Aztec rule, Cortés clashed with some of these polities, among them the Totonacs, the latter surrounded his army on a hilltop for two agonizing weeks. This is now believed to be an invention of the conquerors, most scholars agree that the Aztecs, especially the inner circle around Moctezuma, were well convinced that Cortés was not a god in any shape or form. Moctezuma sent a group of noblemen and other emissaries to meet Cortés at Quauhtechcac and these emissaries brought golden jewelry as a gift, which greatly pleased the Spaniards. According to the Florentine Codex, Lib, Moctezuma also ordered that his messengers carry the highly symbolic penacho of Quetzalcoatl de Tula to Cortés and place it on his person. As news about the strangers reached the city, Moctezuma became increasingly fearful and considered fleeing the city. Cortés continued on his march towards Tenochtitlan, before entering the city, on November 8,1519 Cortés and his troops prepared themselves for battle, armoring themselves and their horses, and arranging themselves in proper military rank. Four horsemen were at the lead of the procession, the indigenous soldiers wore cotton armor and were armed with shields and crossbows, many carried provisions in baskets or bundles while others escorted the cannons on wooden carts. Cortés army entered the city on the flower-covered causeway associated with the god Quetzalcoatl, Cortés was amicably received by Moctezuma. The captive woman Malinalli Tenépal, also known as La Malinche or Doña Marina, translated from Nahuatl to Chontal Maya, Moctezuma was soon taken hostage on November 14,1519, as a safety measure by the vastly outnumbered Spanish. The first captain assigned to him was Pedro de Alvarado. Other Aztec lords were also detained by the Spanish, the palace was surrounded by over 100 Spanish soldiers in order to prevent any attempt at rescue. It is uncertain why Moctezuma cooperated so readily with the Spaniards and it is possible he feared losing his life or political power. It was clear from the beginning that he was ambivalent about who Cortés and his men really were, gods, descendants of a god, ambassadors from a greater king, from the perspective of the tlatoani, the Spaniards might have been assigned some decisive role by fate
Fall of Tenochtitlan
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"Conquista de México por Cortés". Unknown artist, second half of the 17th century. Library of Congress, Washington, DC. The depiction of the Aztecs' clothing and weaponry is inaccurate.
Fall of Tenochtitlan
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Conquistador
Pedro de Alvarado.
Fall of Tenochtitlan
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La Noche Triste - The Sad Night.
Fall of Tenochtitlan
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The
Battle of Otumba.
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Spanish colonization of the Americas
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The Colonial expansion under the crown of Castile was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through indigenous conversions and it is estimated that during the colonial period, a total of 18.6 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and a further 3.5 million immigrated during the post-colonial era. Spains loss of these last territories politically ended the Spanish rule in the Americas, the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile, Queen of Castile and her husband King Ferdinand, King of Aragon, pursued a policy of joint rule of their kingdoms and created a single Spanish monarchy. Even though Castile and Aragon were ruled jointly by their respective monarchs, the Catholic Monarchs gave official approval for the plans of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus for a voyage to reach India by sailing West. The funding came from the queen of Castile, so the profits from Spanish expedition flowed to Castile, in the extension of Spanish sovereignty to its overseas territories, authority for expeditions of discovery, conquest, and settlement resided in the monarchy. Columbus made four voyages to the West Indiesas the monarchs granted Columbus the governorship of the new territories and he founded La Navidad on the island later named Hispaniola, in what is present day Haiti on his first voyage. After its destruction by the indigenous Taino people, the town of Isabella was begun in 1493, in 1496 his brother, Bartholomew, founded Santo Domingo. By 1500, despite a death rate, there were between 300 and 1000 Spanish settled in the area. The local Taíno people continued to resist, refusing to plant crops, the first mainland explorations were followed by a phase of inland expeditions and conquest. In 1500 the city of Nueva Cádiz was founded on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, the Spanish founded San Sebastian de Uraba in 1509 but abandoned it within the year. There is indirect evidence that the first permanent Spanish mainland settlement established in the Americas was Santa María la Antigua del Darién, the Spanish conquest of Mexico is generally understood to be the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire which was the base for later conquests of other regions. Later conquests were protracted campaigns with less spectacular results than conquest of the Aztecs, but not until the Spanish conquest of Peru was the conquest of the Aztecs matched in scope by the victory over the Inca empire in 1532. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire was led by Hernán Cortés, the victory over the Aztecs was relatively quick, from 1519 to 1521, and aided by his Tlaxcala and other allies from indigenous city-states or altepetl. These polities allied against the Aztec empire, to which they paid tribute following conquest or threat of conquest, leaving the political hierarchy. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was a longer campaign, from 1551 to 1697, against the Maya peoples in the Yucatán Peninsula of present-day Mexico. When Hernán Cortés landed ashore at present day Veracruz and founded the Spanish city there on April 22,1519, Spain colonized and exerted control of Alta California through the Spanish missions in California until the Mexican secularization act of 1833. It was the first step in a campaign that took decades of fighting to subdue the mightiest empire in the Americas. In the following years Spain extended its rule over the Empire of the Inca civilization, in the following years the conquistadors and indigenous allies extended control over Greater Andes Region
Spanish colonization of the Americas
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Spanish Conquest of Mexico, meeting of Cortés and Moctezuma II
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish colonization of the Americas
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Vasco Núñez de Balboa claiming possession of the South Sea (
Pacific Ocean)
Spanish colonization of the Americas
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Map depicting the route of Pizarro from Panama to Cuzco
modern Nahuatl pronunciation (help·info)),[N.B. 1] was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520. The first contact between indigenous civilizations of Mesoamerica and Europeans took place during his reign, and he was killed during the initial stages of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, when conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men fought to escape from the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.
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"Montezuma I.". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
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