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Towards the middle of the continent near the Pacific ocean at an elevation of almost seven thousand five hundred feet is the Valley of Mexico. The Valley is surrounded by towering rocks which seem to have been placed there for the sole purpose of protecting the land. The land itself that at one time was full of greenery and trees is now somewhat bare and, in some places, white with salt from the draining of waters. Five lakes are spread over the Valley, which occupy about one tenth of its surface (Bray 1968). On the opposite shore of the largest of these lakes stood the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. This land can be seen in Fig 1.
Aztlan was an island city in the middle of a lake, surrounded by reeds and marshes. The region around Aztlan was arid but in Aztlan, the birds and fish were abundant. The Mexica's lived peacefully until their patron deity commanded them to leave Aztlan and find the land of their true destiny. This just happened to be the year I Flint in their calendar. This year only came around every 52 years, and when it did, the Mexica's saw it as a rebirth and initiated great undertakings.
Throughout the migration Huitzilopochtli, a fierce and relentless god who forced them to give up settlements and move forward if they had stayed in one place too long, drove them. Under his direction the Mexica's canoed across the lake and began the long march of their migration. They arrived first at a mythical place called Teoculhuacan (The place of Those With Divine Ancestors) (Bray 1968). At Teoculhuacan, like at every stop along the way, they built a temple to their god and awaited instruction.
The migration was long and grueling. At each stop the Mexica would erect a temple to Huitzilopochtli, build houses, and plant crops to feed themselves. They would remain at some places for years. Sometimes Huitzilopochtli would tell them to move onward even before the harvest would come in. This caused a great suffering among the people. Those who were old, weak, or sick were left behind in some places, thus populating the route.
As the migration reached toward the Valley of Mexico, they quickly discovered that settled peoples had already occupied all the prime lands. These people had farmed these lands for centuries and had migrated here earlier. The Mexica's were forced to move on from place to place, until they finally stopped at the hill on the western edge of Lake Texcoco called Chapultepec (Grasshopper Hill) (Boone 1994). Even after they had settled here, Huitzilopochtli warned them that this was not their promised land and that they should prepare for war because they were surrounded by people who did not care for them.
When the people attacked, they captured their ruler and carried him to Culhuacan (Place of Those with Ancestors), and sacrificed him. The Mexica now were under the rule of the Culhua lord. They begged him for a place to live. He told them they could live nearby at Tizapan. This place was a fierce wilderness occupied by vipers and lizards. The Mexica were grateful and instead of letting the snakes and lizards kill them off, they killed the poisonous snakes and feasted on them.
The Mexica behavior totally astonished the Culhua, who gained a fearful respect for his neighbors. They lived next to each other for some time, and gradually they began to intermarry. Huitzilopochtli, determined that the Mexica should leave this place, came up with a devilish scheme to instruct his priests to ask the Culhua lord for his beloved daughter who would rule over the Mexica as Huitzilopochtli's bride. Once she had arrived, the Mexica "took the young princess of Culhuacan [Culhuacan], heiress of that kingdom, and sacrificed her.
Then they skinned her and dressed one of the youths in her skin, as the deity willed. Then they went to the sovereign of Culhuacan and asked him to come adore his own daughter and sacrifice to her as a goddess. [The King] accepted the invitation, calling together the dignitaries of his kingdom. With great confidence, [he] arose and went to the temple. He entered the chamber of the idol and began to perform many ceremonies As the room was dark he distinguished no one. Taking his hand a brazier with fire, he threw incense into it fervently. This began to burn and the room lightened up with the fire.
Thus the king suddenly perceived the priest who was seated next to the idol, dressed in his daughter's skin. This was such a frightful sight that the king was filled with a wild terror. He dropped the brazier and rushed out of the temple shouting: 'Come here, come, O my vassals of Culhuacan! Come avenge the foul deed committed by the Aztecs!
They have killed my daughter and dressed a youth in her skin and have made me worship him. Death and destruction to men so evil and with such vile customs! Let not a trace of their memory remain! Let us put an end to them!" (Boone 1994) The Mexica's barely escaped with their lives and were kicked out of Tizapan and were forced deep into the reeds and marshes of the lake. There they wondered from place to place. Huitzilopochtli seeing the despair and weeping of his people promised to lead them to the promised land.
As their god had told them, in the middle of the lake, they came upon a prickly cactus growing from a stone with an eagle nested upon it. At last the Mexica's had found their promised land. They founded their new home here and called it Tenochtitlan (Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus). Huitzilopochtli told them that they would find rest and grandeur, their name would be praised and their nation made great.
They would rule over people near and far and the city would be the queen of all others. This is where the great civilization of the Aztecs would begin and end. The next year, the first full year of their residence, was also appropriate because that year (2 House) stood for settling down. With this new year came the task of building their great city.
They began by building a simple shrine for Huitzilopochtli. They then spent many a days shoring up the edges around their island. They also began firming the land and building houses out of wood and thatch. They drudged up muddy soil form the lake bed to make fertile lands to grow crops on. These plots of land were known as chinaman.
They followed the word of Huitzilopochtli and created their city with four main districts which surrounded the central district. During the early time of building some of the people left Tenochtitlan to found a sister city to the north known as Tlatelolco (Time Life Books 1992). In the early years the struggling Aztecs were forced to pay a stiff tribute and serve as mercenaries for Tezozomoc, the ruler of Azcapotzalco, which was home to the Tepanec's. The Mexica soon grew tired of serving the Tepanec's and wanted to establish their royal dynasty. They looked to Culhuacan to help them out. The Mexica went before the Culhua lord and asked for a ruler to guide them and show them the way to live.
They asked that he give Acamapichtli (Handful of Arrows), the son of a Mexica nobleman and the Culhua ruler's daughter (Time Life Books 1992). Acamapichtli became the first Mexica tlatoani, literally speaker. He took his wife and ruled over the Mexica, whom celebrated when they referred to themselves as the Culhua-Mexica. Acamapichtli and his successors- his sons Huitzilihuitl (Hummingbird Feather) and grandson Chimalpopoca (Smoking Shield) - controlled Mexica for the next 50 years (Bray 1968).
They guided the early construction and accomplished many local conquests on their own. Huitzilihuitl married the daughter of their Tepanecs lord Tezozomoc, who became so fond of him that he reduced to tribute to merely ducks, fish, and frogs. They were now more like allies than vassals. This relationship didn't last long though. Tepanecs came to resent the Mexica's favored status and their arrogance. When Tezozomoc died, his successor murdered Chimalpopoca.
The Mexica's had had enough and when Iztcoatl took over he began allying with many of the other lakeside people. Iztcoatl and his forces defeated the Tepanec's and destroyed the city of Azcapotzalco, bringing an end to the Tepanecs domination of the basin of Mexico. In the place of their domination came the Triple Alliance. A coalition between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan.
Armies of the three fought together and the cities would share the incoming tribute. Iztcoatl established the fact of the Aztec empire and its dominance over the Valley of Mexico. His successor, Montezuma Ilhuicamina, broadened the empire. Montezuma (Angry Lord, Archer of the Sky), was a brilliant military leader under Iztcoatl. During his reign (1440 - 1469) he established the Aztec's victorious military program (Boone 1994). While his armies were off expanding the empire, at home Montezuma wanted to make Tenochtitlan a fitting capital.
He enlarged the temple to Huitzilopochtli and built aqueducts to bring water from Chapultepec to the heart of the city. Axayacatl (Water Face), the sixth tlatoani, took on Montezuma's thoughts of expanding the empire. Axayacatl also took care of problems close to the capital. When problems arose between Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, Axayacatl decided to just take over the market city.
His string of victories came to s screeching holt at the hands of the Tarascans of Michoacan. The Tarascans never did fall under the control of the Mexica's (Bray 1968). Axayacatl's successor and brother, Tion (Chalk Leg) took control and only ruled for about five years. He was seen as weak and cowardly in battle.
His main accomplishment was a renovation and expansion of the Temple Mayor complex. It was said that members of his court poisoned him. The next ruler was Ahuitzotl (Water Beast). He was the third brother to take the throne. He was a young man still in the school for the noble youths when he became tlatoani. He was very similar to his grandfather Montezuma.
He extended the empire even further. He also renovated the temple for Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. After the completion of the temples a huge feast was had and Ahuitzotl invited all the guests to bring victims for sacrifice. Some 20, 000 people died that day (Boone 1994). Ahuitzotl's successor Montezuma Xocoyotzin (Angry Lord, The Younger) also carried out great expedition. Not much was said of him because of the overshadowing of the humiliation that he experienced at the hands of the Spanish.
Montezuma's successor was an eighteen-year-old by the name of Cuahutemoc. Cuahutemoc's rule was short. It ended when he was captured by the Spanish and killed two years later. Cuahutemoc was the last Aztec emperor. The Aztecs were described as short and stocky people. The men rarely grew taller than 5 feet 6 inches and the women were much smaller, usually about 4 feet 8 inches.
Their skin color varied from a dark to a light brown and the typical Aztec face was broad with a hooked nose. An Aztec's eyes were either black or brown almond-shaped and they frequently had folds in the outer corners. Their hair was coarse, black, and straight. The men usually wore it cut in a fringe over the forehead and allowed it to grow down to the nape of the neck at the back. Priests had their own hairstyle while the warriors usually wore theirs in pigtails.
The women let their hair grow long. It usually just hung loose but on festival days it was braided with ribbons. Hair on the face was looked down upon. The Aztec men didn't have to worry about it like we do today.
They were blessed with very little facial hair so shaving was not done. Instead they plucked out what little they had with tweezers. Most young boys had hot cloths applied to their faces by their mothers to help stifle the hair follicles and to inhibit the growth of whiskers. Only the old or distinguished men wore beards and those were thin and wispy at best (Bray 1968).
The love of cleanliness was general among the Aztecs. Most bathed frequently in the lakes and rivers. Soap was not known to them but they used substitutes like the fruit of the soap-tree and the roots of certain plants which could produce a lather. Along with normal cold-water baths, the Aztecs also had a sort of sauna or steam bath. Most of the dwellings had a bath-house, a little hemispherical building shaped rather like an igloo with a little low doorway. Against the bathhouse was constructed a fireplace, and the blaze warmed the adjacent wall of the bathhouse until the wall glowed red-hot.
Once the wall was hot, the bather crept into the house and threw water onto the hot wall until the interior was filled with steam. To increase the flow of perspiration and to gain the full effect from the treatment, the bather switched himself with twigs or bundles of grass. Sometimes after the bathing process was done and the bather had finished with the steam bath, they might follow it with a message and a period of relaxation lying stretched out on a mat. The Aztec skin was naturally a light or dark brown color. This was alright for the men but for the women the fashionable shade for their complexion was yellow.
To get their skin to appear yellowish, women would either rub a yellow earth on themselves or anoint with a cream containing an, a waxy yellowish substance obtained by cooking and crushing the bodies of fat-producing insects (Bray 1968). The women also used perfumes, rose water, and incense. They also had a form of chewing gum (made of chicle mixed with an and bitumen) that was used to sweeten the breath. The most common article of male attire, for sleep as well as for daywear, was the loincloth. It was a strip of fabric which went around the waist, between the legs, and was knotted so that one end hung down in front and the other end hung down behind. The quality of the loincloth varied according to the wealth and the status of the wearer.
Farmers and workmen wore simple white strips of maguey fiber cloth, while the nobility wore more elaborate versions made of cotton and embroidered fur, or decorated w...
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