Mexico-Tenochtitlan

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Mexico-Tenochtitlan( listen) it was the capital of the Aztec or Mexica Empire. During Spanish domination, Mexico City was founded on it, which was the capital of the Viceroy of New Spain and after independence, it is the capital of the United Mexican States.

The founding of the city was a fact whose history is mixed with mythology, which is distinctive of the native American peoples. 16th-century sources that made correlations between ancient calendars and Western ones have placed it in various years, being the most frequent on March 13, 1325 (697 years), —2 House in the Mexica calendrical count—, 1345, 1363, 1364 and others on an islet in the center of the lake area, according to the information recorded in several colonial documents, as well as in the later reliefs of the Mexica monolith called Teocalli of the Sacred War.

The myth of the founding tells that Tenochtitlán was populated by a group of Nahua tribes migrating from Aztlán, a place whose precise location is unknown. After wandering around the vicinity of Lake Tetzcoco, the future Mexicas settled in various parts of the Basin of Mexico that were subject to the altepetl of Azcapotzalco. The migration ended when they founded their city on an islet near the western shore of the lake. Archaeological excavations suggest that the islet of Mexico was inhabited since before the 14th century and that the foundation of Tenochtitlan could have been after that of Mexico-Tlatelolco, its "twin" from North. Mexico-Tenochtitlan became an independent altepetl after the establishment of an alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan that defeated Azcapotzalco.

The capital of the Mexica became one of the largest cities of its day in the world and was the head of a powerful multi-ethnic state that dominated much of Mesoamerica. The flourishing of the city was achieved at the expense of the tribute paid by the towns under its power. For this reason, when the Spanish arrived in Mesoamerica, numerous indigenous nations allied with them with the aim of ending Tenochca domination. Cuauhtémoc—the last tlatoani of Mexico-Tenochtitlan—led the resistance of the city, which fell on August 13, 1521, to the Spanish and their indigenous allies, all under the command of Hernán Cortés.

Toponymy

Maqueta del Temple Mayor, ceremonial, religious and civil center of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

The name of the capital of the Mexicas is made up of two place names, the meaning of which has been the subject of numerous interpretations. The spelling of the name also varies, depending on the source and the time. In many publications the city is simply called Tenochtitlan, in others Gran Tenochtitlan, some accentuate this place name (Tenochtitlán). Cortés wrote Temixtitán, and other spellings of the name include Tenuchtitlán, Tenustitlán and Theonustitlán. There is no consensus on the meaning of the indigenous name, although some are very popular both in popular culture and in academic circles.

Mexico

Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan (place of Ténoch, "tuna de piedra"), was founded on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325, when the ancestors of the Mexicas saw an eagle perched on a cactus, this being the origin of the national coat of arms of Mexico. The original name of the city was Cuauhmixtitlan ("place of the eagle among the clouds", in Nahuatl). It was renamed by Acamapichtli in 1376 as a tribute to Ténoch.

The legendary tradition of the Nahuas explains that these peoples made a pilgrimage from their place of origin, called Aztlan, to what would later be Tenochtitlan, and that this pilgrimage of the Nahuas-Aztecs lasted around 260 years (1064-1065 to 1325), until finding the desired place. According to their legends, their god Huitzilopochtli (Left Hummingbird), had promised them that they would find a lake with an islet, in which there would be a rock and on the rock a cactus and, on the cactus, an eagle with outstretched wings and recognizing the sun and Moon

Finally, the Mexicas found the indicated site somewhere on Lake Texcoco and founded their city there. Such an island was where the center of Mexico City is located today. According to some of the chronicles, these events could have occurred on July 18, 1327 according to Gongora, in the year 1318 in the Anales de Cuauhtitlán, from the year 1314 to 1332 in the Vatican codex, and on June 20. from the year 2 calli or 1325 according to the Annals of Tlatelolco; the latter being the most probable date. Later the Mexicas built their temples in the place.

History

Foundation

History of the founding of Tenochtitlan

Fundación de México-Tenochtitlan. Duran Code16th.

Memorial sculpture of the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, on the side of the building of the City of Mexico City.

After the conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, some friars were interested in learning about the ancient life of the city. Thanks to this curiosity, documents are available that allow us to approach the stories of the indigenous people. Some of these later documents were produced directly by the descendants of the indigenous nobility. All of these sources indicate that the Mexica were originally from Aztlán, a site whose precise location and actual existence are debated. According to the Mexicáyotl Chronicle, in Aztlán the future Mexicas were slaves of the Mexicas and bore this name. When Huitzilopochtli expressed to his people the imperative that they march to new lands, he also ordered them to stop calling themselves Mexica because from then on they would all be Mexica. This episode is also recreated in the Aubin Codex and the Códice Durán. The Pilgrimage Strip indicates that Aztlán was located on an island where there were six calpulli and a large temple, probably dedicated to Mixcóatl. the Tira, Huitzilopochtli only appears after the Mexicas arrived in Teoculhuacan in the year 1-flint. Eight calpulli set out from there, headed by four teomamaque ("carriers of the dream gods"); one of them, identified as Tezcacóatl, was carrying Huitzilopochtli's bundle.

The Annals of Tlatelolco mentions the day "4 Cuauhtli" (eagle) of the year "1-Tecpatl" (1064-1065) as the final departure from the territory of Aztlan-Colhuacan and correlated to January 4, 1065, the day of Perihelion.

According to Mexica mythology, Huitzilopochtli ordered them to found their kingdom only where there was "an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake". Following this design, the Mexicas wandered through various places, always in search of the portent that would indicate which was the land promised by their god. According to the Pilgrimage Strip, the people of Cuitláhuac separated from the rest of the calpulli while they were still migrating. Later, the Mexica arrived in the Tollan-Xicocotitlan region, where Huitzilopochtli ordered them to divert the course of a river to create a lagoon around a hill. The pleasure of living in that land almost led the Mexica to forget that their god had promised them another land, and seeing this, Huitzilopochtli made them leave that place and continue their migration. They then reached the Valley of Mexico and passed through several towns, until they settled in the territory of the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco, to whom they served as mercenary warriors. Finally, they found the site indicated by Huitzilopochtli on an islet in Lake Texcoco. In the Mexicáyotl Chronicle, Tezozómoc says that when they found the place, the priest Cuauhtlequetzqui said the following words:

Go and see a wild nopal: and there you shall see an eagle that is in there. There he eats, there he sins the feathers, and with that your heart will be happy: there is the heart of Copil that you went to throw there where the water makes turns and more twists! But where it came to fall, and you have seen among the rocks, in that cave between reeds and juncias, from the heart of Chopil has sprouted that wild nopal! And there we will be and there we will reign: there we will wait and meet all kinds of people!
Our breasts, our head, our arrows, our shields, there we will see: all those around us will conquer them! Here our city of Tenochtitlan will be durable! The place where the eagle grazna, where it opens the wings; the place where she eats and where the fish fly, where the serpents are making rough and whistle! That will be Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and many things will happen!

The founding legend presents numerous variants, and several dates, according to Leonardo López Luján they appear 1318, 1322, 1324, 1325, 1364 and 1366. The one of the year "2 calli" (House), 1325 of the Western calendar is the most repeated. The Annals of Tlateloco mention the day of its foundation: day with sign "1-Cipactli" (Crocodile) correlated with June 20 and the beginning of the summer solstice.

Archaeological evidence

Most of the historical sources indicate that the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan occurred in the year 1325. This date corresponds to the one declared by the indigenous people themselves in the years following the fall of Tenochtitlan. Archaeoastronomical studies indicate that a lunar eclipse also occurred that year, an astronomical event that could be taken by the Mexicas as a mythical marker that could legitimize the supposed relationship between the Toltecs and the Tenochcas. The archaeological explorations that have been carried out in the old enclosure of the Tenochca Templo Mayor, whose discovery was in 1978 and the first explorations were made by the archaeologist Manuel Gamio, have allowed the recovery of ceramic pieces prior to the 13th century, which shows that the islet of Mexico (known as "Isla de los perros") was occupied before the date indicated for the founding of Tenochtitlan.
In question is also the primacy of Mexico-Tenochtitlan over Mexico-Tlatelolco. Sources indicate that the twin city of Tenochtitlán was founded 13 years later, that is, in 1337. However, in 2007, a structure that could have been erected between the 11th and 12th centuries was discovered in the archaeological zone of Tlatelolco. This could indicate that the founding of Mexico-Tlatelolco was prior to that of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

Consolidation

The Coyolxauhqui.

After the settlement of the Mexicas on the islet (which belonged to the town of Azcapotzalco) they asked the government of Culhuacán, a neighboring altepetl of Culhua affiliation, to send a member of his royal class to Tenochtitlan to lead the Mexicas. Culhuacán agreed and sent Acamapichtli, who became the first tlatoani, around 1376. However, the Mexica were still partially subject to Azcapotzalco and their king, Tezozómoc. The conditions of establishment were harsh and expensive for the Mexicas, who took advantage of the lake resources for their benefit (fauna and flora).

Itzcóatl is considered the first tlatoani of Tenochtitlan. Since their independence, the Mexicas began processes that would lead them to magnify their city. Among them was the formation of the Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan, the flowery wars and the conquest of nearby towns. Moctezuma Ilhuicamina the Great, turned this power into an empire, when he achieved the conquests of Puebla, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Oaxaca and part of Veracruz. The conquests resumed from 1486, when Ahuízotl extended the empire through the center and south of present-day Mexico. Around 1500, already after the discovery of America, the Mexicas were the most powerful people in Mesoamerica and Tenochtitlan a city comparable to the most important in the world.

The city at the beginning of the 16th century

Reconstruction of the Tlatelolco Market, National Museum of Anthropology.

The Spanish astonishment expressed by the chroniclers who knew the city in the XVI century narrate the concert and the size of the Mexica capital and the degree of organization of its social functions. Many of Cortés's soldiers had never seen such a large city before. A glance at Tenochtitlan might have shown countless canoes (about 60,000 on a normal day of activity) going back and forth from the center to the lake shores, and a city with about fifty large buildings towering over the houses that they were usually single-story.

Tenochtitlan was crossed from side to side by three wide and long causeways, which extended to the mainland: to the north, the one that went to Tepeyacac and that began at the Cuauhquihuac gate; to the west the one that went to Tlacopan (where the troops of Cortés fled expelled) and that began outside the islet on the bridge known as Chichimecapan (approximately at the intersection of the current streets of Hidalgo and Paseo de la Reforma); the causeway to the south that went to Ixtapalapa and that crossed the Tepantzinco gate that divided it from the Templo Mayor, two ditches, the aqueducts of Ahuízotl and Acuecuezcatl at the height of Acatlán (near the hermitage of San Antonio Abad) and came out to the lake in Tlamacoyan. To the east there was no causeway since the limit was the Embarcadero Texcoco, which communicated said city with the east bank. Parallel to these canals there was always a wide street.

The canals were used for transportation with boats made of reeds. There were barges for the collection of waste and others for the collection of excrement, which was used as fertilizer in the chinampas. Around 1,000 people were in charge of cleaning the streets. Bernal Díaz del Castillo comments on his surprise at finding latrines in private houses, in the public market and on the roads. The canals were crossed by wooden bridges that were removed at night, as a way of regulating the currents of the lake and as a military strategy.

Although Lake Texcoco was salty, the city was surrounded by fresh water thanks to the dykes built by the Mexicas, which allowed the water that flowed from the rivers that fed the lake to be concentrated there. The city had two aqueducts that had two channels, which Bernal describes as "the width of an ox". This allowed one channel to be kept in operation while the other was maintained. This water was mainly used for washing and cleaning, the Mexica used to take two baths a day, and it is reported that Moctezuma II took four. They used the coplaxócotl root (Saponaria Americana) as soap, and the metl root for washing clothes.

The symmetry of the city was maintained by means of an official called calmimilócatl, who had to supervise any construction and prevent the streets and canals, which were previously built, from being invaded.

The social and economic organization of the towns at the time was in altépetl, which had their local base in the calpullis (neighborhoods). The four main calpullis of Tenochtitlan were to the northwest Cuepopan (present-day Guerrero colony), to the northeast Atzacualco (present-day La Romita), to the southwest Moyotla (present-day Avenida 16 de Septiembre and to the southeast Zoquiapan (present-day Temazcaltitlán neighborhood) and from 1473, to the north Tlatelolco. Each of the calpullis had a personality, since usually the artisans and artists were grouped in some calpulli and competed against those of other calpullis., each calpulli tried to surpass the others.Currently, in the southern zone of Mexico City, the organizations generated around the Catholic churches are still called calpullis, and in popular festivals they still compete with each other.

In addition, each calpulli was assigned an area of arable land; the inhabitants of a calpulli shared the work of sowing and harvesting those lands. This tended to further strengthen the ties between the neighbors of a calpulli. This form of communal land possession persists in some towns in modern Mexico, although it is generally considered subversive by the government. Since the invasion, for centuries the peasants have had to fight to keep these communal lands and not have them taken away by the landlords.

Generally, each calpulli had its own tianquiztli (market or tianguis in Spanish), in addition to the calpulli market there was a main market in Tlatelolco. According to Fray Bernardino de Sahagún there were approximately 20,000 people on common days and 40,000 on holidays, among which there were groups of immigrants living permanently in the city, some of them were important artisans such as the xochimilca lapidaries mentioned by Torquemada, in addition to the refugees from Huejotzingo, giving the city a multi-ethnic character^{[citation required]}.

Regarding the Tlatelolco Market, Cortés himself expressed:

It has this city many squares where there is continuous market and try to buy and sell. It has another large square like twice the city of Salamanca, all fences of portals around; where there are daily up to sixty thousand cheers buying and selling; where there are all the genres of merchandise that are found in all lands, as well as maintenance as of vitualla, gold and silver jewels, of lead, of brass, of copper, of tin, of stones, of bones, of shells, of caracoles.
See lime, labrated stone and work, adobes, bricks, labrated wood and work in various ways. There is a hunting street where they sell all the fowl lineages that are on the earth, as well as hens, perdices, codornics, lavenders, dorales, dortoles, pigeons, cañuela birds, papagayos, eagles, hawks, gavilanes and cernícalos; and some of these birds of prey, sell the leathers and the skins.
Finally, that in the said markets all the things are sold in all the land, that of more than I have said are so many and of so many qualities, that by prolixity and by not so many to memory, and yet not knowing to put the names, I do not express them. Each kind of merchandise is sold on its street, without another merchant, and in this they have a lot of order.

Fall

Main articles: Fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Conquest of Mexico.

The Spanish conquerors getting rid of the body of Moctezuma, miniature of the Florentine Codex, century XVI.

Lamine Tlaxcala Canvas. Malintzin served as an interpreter to Hernán Cortés before the indigenous people, as he spoke Maya and Nahuatl.

By 1502, the Mexica had established themselves as the strongest people in Mesoamerica. In that same year the tlatoani Ahuízotl died during the floods of that year. Moctezuma Xocoyotzin succeeded him in office. Meanwhile, Christopher Columbus had arrived in America eleven years ago, and in Europe, mainly in Spain and Portugal, expeditions were already being prepared in order to conquer the new territories.

On November 8, 1519, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan, being triumphantly received by Moctezuma on the Tlalpan road. He believed that it was the god Quetzalcóatl who, according to legend, would return one day from the east. Moctezuma hosted Cortés in the Palace of Axayácatl and soon he captured Moctezuma, who offered no resistance. Meanwhile, in Cuba, Diego Velázquez was trying to regain control of the troops, since he suspected that Cortés was planning to insubordinate himself and as a precaution he sent an expedition commanded by Pánfilo de Narváez to Veracruz. When Cortés found out what had happened, he went to Cempoala with some soldiers to confront him, while Therefore, he left Pedro de Alvarado in command of the garrison. Near Zempoala, Cortés had a violent confrontation with Narváez, who was wounded. Cortés managed to convince the newly arrived soldiers to join him in strengthening the Spanish army. Among Narváez's men was a black slave who had contracted smallpox, a disease unknown in Mesoamerica that spread rapidly among the indigenous people and caused enormous mortality.

Meanwhile, in the Mexica capital, the inhabitants were preparing an important festival for the gods Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli. Pedro de Alvarado ordered his soldiers to attack the indigenous people during the festival. Although the reasons for Alvarado's order are difficult to understand for many, some explain it by arguing that he could have confused the preparations for the indigenous religious festival thinking that perhaps they were moves to set a trap for them.

After Cortés's return, the town was furious at Alvarado's excesses, and Cortés, after reprimanding him, sent for Moctezuma to calm the people down, but the town responded by stoning him, wounds that caused his death shortly after, in June 1520.

Then Cuitláhuac was elected tlatoani and immediately organized the army to drive out the Spanish. On June 30, 1520, the Mexicas took the Spanish by surprise, who were trying to flee from Tenochtitlan, and defeated them on one of the city's bridges, causing them severe casualties and significant losses of gold objects they had accumulated. This episode, which occurred on June 30, 1520, is known as the Sad Night, because, according to legend, Cortés wept at the foot of an ahuehuete.

The Spanish immediately began to reinforce their troops, with the help of the Tlaxcalans and other allied towns. In May 1521, the siege of Tenochtitlán began. Meanwhile, Cuitlahuác died of smallpox in November 1520, and was succeeded by Cuauhtémoc. The siege continued, the Spanish with the help of their indigenous allies little by little took the city, cut off the water and forced the Mexica to retreat until, finally, on August 13, 1521, Tenochtitlán fell.

Economy and society

The Mexica economy was based on the tributes that the dominated peoples were obliged to pay. Another important point of the economy lay in trade, an activity that the Mexicas carried out based on barter, and in which they used cocoa beans and beans as currency. This kind of trade favored the exchange of products.

The Mexicas introduced into their legislation the concept of communal property, which was a piece of land given to each of the members of the calpulli, called macehuales who, unlike the nobles, owned only the essential lands to survive.

These lands could be rented, but the products were shared between the landlord community and the tenants. The lands of the nobles were inherited, and could not pass to people of another social class. If a person who owned a land died without descendants, he automatically passed to the tlatoani. In general, the lands of the city were used for the maintenance of the nobility and the priests, and were divided into:

Teopantlalli (of the priests)
Tlatocatlalli
Tecpantlalli (maintenance of the servants of the palace)
Tecuchtlatoque (payment and services of judges)
Michmalli (service of warriors and military)
Yoatlalli (enemy land)

The Mexica social structure was characterized by its marked classism. The two great social divisions were the pillis, that is to say the nobles, the military, the priests and the most powerful merchants. The "not privileged" They were the macehuales, the artisans, the peasants, the employees of low economic level and slaves.

The most consumed foods were corn, chili, epazote, squash and chayote. Other important crops were tobacco and cotton.

Education

Education was centered around three institutions:

Calm down.: School where the children of the upper class studied, preparing them to be priests, soldiers or merchants, taught by wise men tlamatinime, based on a fierce bodily discipline.
Telpochcalli: There were the children of the macehuals, education was less prepared and taught only trades.
Cuicacalco: School dedicated to singing and musical development.

Natural resources

The basin of Mexico was rich in natural resources exploited by the neighboring towns. The Mexicas supplied the city through highly intensive agriculture with cultivation on the mainland, in chinampas (floating crops in swamps and on the shores of islets) and the use of riverside fauna (fish, birds, axolotls, frogs, crayfish, insects, salt)., algae, rabbits, deer, herons). The use of the canoe was essential for the weaving of a complicated network that moved the economic system through the exchange and mobility of products and the necessary inputs for agriculture such as special land for the elaboration of chinampas and natural fertilizers such as human excrement.. He also introduced the natural resource "obsidian" (volcanic rock formed by rapid cooling of lava, black or very dark green in color, and glassy structure, made up mainly of silica, it was used to make ornaments, jewelry and sometimes to make some combat weapons).

Hydraulic technology

The hydraulic system upon arrival of the Spaniards.

The settlement in the lake environment required hydraulic systems for the use of natural resources and the containment of water to prevent the city from being flooded with brackish water and supplying itself with fresh water, as well as for crops and circulation itself inside and outside the city. Complex control and cultivation works (as well as computation and knowledge of climatic cycles and factors) were then necessary, which made it possible to produce food in volume for a mega-city that developed complex agricultural systems, the basis of its economy and subsistence.

The Mexica built and cultivated chinampas, superficial plots supported by piles and thick layers of earth irrigated with canals (acalotes) and by infiltration of the bed where they were settled. They also devised irrigation systems using canals, dams (made of wood, stone, or mud), dikes, gates, and rainwater tanks.

The waters of the lake always represented a risk due to the currents that formed in it (currently causing the so-called dustdusters in Mexico City, which run from east to west almost without any obstacles). as well as the characteristics of a lacustrine environment. The main works were the dikes or albarradas, highlighting the so-called albarradón de Nezahualcóyotl, devised by him and built in 1449 –after a huge flood– a stone and mortar wall designed to contain and separate the brackish and fresh waters and that ran from south to north from the Mexicaltzingo pier (current crossing of La Viga and Ermita-Iztapalapa) on the Iztapalapa bank to Peñón de los Baños (near the current airport) along 16 kilometres. Another was that of Ahuízotl, built in 1499 and which protected the islet in its eastern part from the currents of Lake Texcoco at the pier of the same name. Mexico-Tenochtitlan was flooded in 1382, 1449, and 1517.

Another important hydraulic work were the aqueducts, highlighting the one built by Ahuizotl to supply fresh water from the acuecuexcatl of Huitzilopochco (Churubusco) to the center of Tenochtitlan via the Ixtapalapa causeway and which was a central element for the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 when Cortés conquered it and cut off the water supply, as well as the double of Chapultepec (built in 1465) that circulated adjacent to the Tlacopan causeway, with two channels that were used one at a time to give maintenance to the other.

Roadways

Mexico-Tenochtitlan and its roads (reconstitution of Hanns J. Prem).

The causeways were artificial elevations with an average width of 15 meters made of stone, clay and mortar and planted on the bottom of the lake with wooden piles. There were three main ones, differentiating those that ran from north to south (Tepeyacac and Iztapalapa) and those from west-east (Tlacopan and Coyoacán), since they had a greater number of sectional cuts in which mobile wooden bridges were installed during the day. for a problem-free circulation of the lake waters, while the first ones were more resistant, since they were essentially made of stone and could be cast as dikes before the construction of the Nezahualcóyotl dike, in 1449. The main roads were:

Calzada de Tepeyacac: It crossed from north to south from Tepeyacac hill to the islet of Nonoalco-Tlaltelolco, approximately at the current streets of República de Argentina, Jesús Carranza and Calzada de los Misterios until Tepeyacac hill. It had a width of 11 meters and a thickness of 1.8 meters and was made of stone.

Tlacopan or Tacuba Causeway: It started west to the main temple of Tlacopan (Tacuba) following the approximate outline of the current Mexico-Tacuba Causeway, starting from the Canal de los Toltecas (where where the church of San Hipólito is erected), Avenida Hidalgo, Puente de Alvarado, Ribera de San Cosme and México-Tacuba to the current Tacuba Metro station, the approximate site where the remains of the Greater Temple of Tlacopan are still buried. It had a width of 22 meters and a fork towards the Calzada de Chapultepec to the southeast on the islet of Mazatzintamalco and which ended in Chapultepec with a width of 12 meters.

Calzada de Nonoalco: It connected the city of Tlatelolco with the mainland following the approximate outline of the current Manuel González and Eulalia Guzmán avenues. It bifurcated at the islet of Xochimanca to the northeast and ended at San Miguel Amantla and Azcapotzalco. It was made of clay and had a width of 15 meters and a thickness of 1.6 meters.

Calzada de Ixtapalapan: It started from the Templo Mayor to the south, going out towards the water in San Antonio Abad and making landfall again in the current Av. del Taller and following the approximate outline of the current Tlalpan road forking towards Huitzilopochco and Coyoacán. In this the first meeting between Hernán Cortés and Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin was held. It was made of stone and clay finished in a slope with a thickness of 2.10 meters and a width of 15.

Tenayocan Causeway: Connected the islet of Tlaltelolco to Tenayocan in the north. It had the approximate layout of the current Calzada Vallejo.

Other main roads were: the one that went to the east and ended at the Embarcadero Texcoco in Tetamazolco (current streets of Republic of Guatemala and Miguel Negrete); those that communicated the Templo Mayor with that of Tlaltelolco (Bolivia-S. Allende and Isabel la Católica-República de Chile) and one that started from the Tlacopan causeway to the Tezontlale ditch.

They were first made by driving stakes 5 meters long by a diameter of 1, along the edge of what would be the causeway, the width of the causeways was 15 meters. After the stakes were driven into an area, they proceeded to fill in with stones such as tezontle and basalt and a mixture of hot lime, compacting them and giving the final flattening. Giving the road great resistance, their roads were extremely straight.

Rectangular sections were built with spaces between them to allow trajineras and canoes to pass through the canals. And between the sections of roads, wooden platforms were placed that were raised in case a boat passed. Thus, when it rose, it also became a defense for the channel that it crossed, but also the bridge became a barrier that protected those who were on the other side of the platform.

The towers that raised the bridge were always arranged on the city side to prevent the enemy from using them against them.

Streets

The streets of Tenochtitlan (tlaxilacalli) were made with a kind of tamped earth sidewalk for human traffic and in many of the adjacent streets there was a channel for the access of canoes. According to versions of the chroniclers, efforts were made to constantly terracing and trampling, as well as sweeping and cleaning. The excrement was collected by macehuales dedicated to it, who later sold it as fertilizer or deposited it in private or public latrines that emptied into the lake. The urine was deposited in vessels to be used in textile treatment. Garbage was incinerated in huge bonfires that served to illuminate the streets at night, a Mexica custom that the Spanish discarded.

Water supply

From the two aqueducts supplied by the Acuecuexcatl, Zochcoatl and Tiliatl springs of Coyoacán and Churubusco, as well as those located in the Templo Mayor and in Zoquiapan, the water was distributed through open pipes (apantles) towards public fountains and noble houses. They were never the ones who had the supply of fresh water by these methods, it was supplied by buying canoe water carriers.

Dikes

The construction of the Albarradón de Nezahualcóyotl is in honor of its builder and ally of the city-state of Texcoco. The dike was a basketry work that had a thickness of 3.5 m wide and a height from the bottom of the lake of 8 m. It was built by intertwining tree trunks, impermeable rocks, and sand. The dam had gates to allow the passage of water and canoes. If the water level rose, the gates were closed to prevent flooding. The dam also had the duty to prevent the salty waters of Lake Texcoco, Xaltocan and Zumpango and other small lakes further north from mixing with the lakes. from Xochimilco and Chalco

This was built after a great rain that caused the water level to rise, flooding the city of Tenochtitlán. After this, by orders of the Aztec emperor, the order was given to build something that would prevent flooding in the city. The answer was the construction of this great dam that is 20 km long.

Agricultural technology

The city of Tenochtitlan, with its own food and meat production, came to produce enough for the development of the city and its population, a decisive factor in a civilization on the rise to power. But they also produced extra food so their armies wouldn't starve. In addition to knowing how to choose the best species variants for the climate and terrain and if they did not improve the existing ones.

Terraces

In some places, especially in the southern part of what is now Mexico City, you can see terraces that the Aztecs used to take advantage of the relief of the land. They built them and they grew all kinds of products on them.

Chinampa

Main article: China

The chinampas are fields that were built on water, making new land where there was none. With the growth of the city, the chinampas became residential areas, displacing the cultivated fields, so they were very useful. The chinampas were the best farmlands ever invented, since the land could produce up to 7 crops in a year while in other places the maximum that could be 5 crops a year. The chinampas were and are the most fertile places in the world due to the way they are built.

Crop protection

The techniques used by the Mexicas to protect their crops from erosion by the effect of air and water consisted of cultivating trees in the fields and in the chinampas and, in the specific case of the chinampas, ahuejotes. The trees would protect the land from the air currents that would cause dust storms and in effect begin to erode the land and take away the nutrients from them and in the chinampas they would strengthen the land of these preventing them from being eroded by water. Also with the same purpose of protecting the land from erosion, stone walls were placed on top.

Foundation and construction of large buildings and pyramids

At the beginning, when the Mexicas settled on the islet of Lake Texcoco, they realized the difficulty that the soil offered, because immediately when they began to build on the floor of the islet, everything would sink, so they developed a foundation system of the buildings.

This consisted of cutting 5 meter by 10 cm diameter stakes and placing them under the entire area that would be the building, at the end an uncovered part of the stake would be left that would later be covered with a mixture of tezontle and a cementitious mixture.

As the stakes went to a slightly firmer ground, they gave greater stability and when the layer of construction mix and Tezontle were placed, they gave a great construction base and that would work as a flotation principle.

Some examples of the foundations can be seen in the Archaeological Zone of the Templo Mayor.

Demographics

The population that Mexico-Tenochtitlan came to house has been the subject of speculation. Alfonso Caso, for example, estimated a population of three hundred thousand inhabitants. At the end of the XIX century, Morgan and Bandelier thought that Tenochtitlan was a semi-rural center, with religious and administrative buildings surrounded by small parcels where the majority of the population lived, so that its population could not have exceeded 50,000 people. Among the main reasons for rejecting higher numbers would be the level of overcrowding that would occur on the two small islets on which the city was located (to which must be added that a third of the space on one of the islets was occupied by the ceremonial center) and the logistical challenges to provide a home and feed to a large population with the technological means available to the Mexica. However, the studies of both authors are currently highly questioned due to the analyzes made in recent decades.

According to studies of the 21st century, archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma points out that the population of the city could have been around 200,000. In 2002, Edward Calnek indicated the figure of 175,000 inhabitants during his presentation at the National Museum of Anthropology, which is close to the estimated figures of William Sanders, who, according to the calculation of the production of the chinampas, calculated from 175,000 to 200 000 inhabitants.

For his part, Robert Carmack estimated its residents at 100,000 in an area of 7.5 km², with a density of more than 10,000 per km². The city, as Sanders describes it, was neatly zoned according to its use: temple complexes, roads, squares and residential areas, which made such a population density possible for him. Another factor to consider is the intensive cultivation of chinampas that occurred throughout the Valley of Mexico and was key to maintaining the large population of the basin, including its many cities, estimated by some authors at up to a million people. In fact, apparently the production of grains would have been enough to feed one hundred or even two hundred thousand people.

Lastly, the highest figures are those given by Roger Bartra, around 700,000. According to Jacques Soustelle, Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco had eighty to one hundred thousand households, each with an average of seven people, which would allow a total from 560,000 to 700,000 people. However, regardless of the exact figure, the enormous growth that Tenochtitlan experienced in a relatively short period of time is undeniable. From being a small town when it was founded in the [[14th century]] to a large city at the beginning of the 16th century. And that Tenochtitlan was, most likely, the largest city that existed in America until the [[XVII century]], therefore less (when the golden age of Potosí occurred) surpassing others such as Teotihuacán (125,000 inhabitants), Tikal (60,000-100,000), Tetzcuco (40,000), Cobá (40,000-60,000), Tula (30,000-40,000), Calakmul (50,000), Copán (18,000-25,000) and Sayil (11,000) in Mesoamerica and Cusco (125,000), Chan Chan (50,000), Tihuanaco (30,000-60,000), Huari (10,000-70,000), Huánuco Pampa (30,000) and Tomebamba (50,000) in Andinoamerica. Its successor, Mexico City, had population levels comparable only from the [[18th century]] onward.

Current celebration

On March 13, 1925, the regents of Mexico City Lic. Vicente Lombardo Toledano and Juan Rico chose this day to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan. The actual date could not have been found at that time, the celebration was resumed 50 years later in 1975 and given as the semi-official date of the foundation. The date July 18 given by Góngora was also taken up by tradition groups in 1975 and years later transferred to July 26 and aligned with the second passage of the sun through the zenith, however Góngora gives the year 1327 for the foundation and does not 1325, making their correlation confusing. Likewise, Diego Durán and Francisco Javier Clavijero describe that during the festival of the second zenithal passage, the victory of Tezcatlipoca against Quetzalcóatl, two gods that were suns, was commemorated and they do not mention the existence of any celebration dedicated to the founding of Mexico.

Tenochtitlan in popular culture

The opera Montezuma was composed by Antonio Vivaldi and the story is set in the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
The Tragedy for Theatre Tenochtitlanof Santiago Sevilla (see Liceus the Portal of Humanities).
The song "Cortez the Killer"of Neil Young speaks of the arrival of the troops of Hernán Cortés and the massacre of the people of Moctezuma at the hands of the Spaniards.
The novel Tenochtitlan: the last battle of the Aztecs (1984) by Costa Rican writer José León Sánchez, narrates, from the perspective of the Aztecs, the events that occurred from the arrival of the Spanish conquerors to the Mexican coasts in 1519, until the fall of the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1521.
Barbara Wood's novel, "The Woman of the Thousand Secrets" (2008) tells the story of the Tenochtitlan foundation after a long journey both literally speaking and a journey of discovery of oneself and its origins by the protagonists.
The novel by Federico Navarrete, "Huesos de lagartija" (1998) tells the story of a young Mexica who lived the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, also told the daily life in the city of Tenochtitlan.
Gary Jennings' novel, Azteca (1980) history develops through the narration of an Aztec in times of conquest to Fray Juan de Zumárraga by telling personal experiences from childhood to death.
The Gaia album (Mägo album de Oz), from the Spanish folk metal band Mägo de Oz focuses on the history of the conquest and arrival of Hernán Cortés to Mexicas lands, as well as the Gaia II records: the dormant voice, Gaia III: Atlantia and Gaia: Epilogue.
The album "Moctezuma" was composed of the alternative rock group called "Porter" which tells the Aztec mythology since the migration that began in Aztlán, using characteristic sounds of Pre-Hispanic Mexico.

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