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México-Tenochtitlan

From Hispanopedia

For other uses, see Tenochtitlan (disambiguation).
Tenochtitlan
Tenōchtitlan
1325–1521
Coat of arms of Tenochtitlan
Coat of arms
Plan of Tenōchtitlān
Plan of Tenōchtitlān
Location of Tenochtitlan
StatusCapital
Ethnic groups
Mexicas (Tenochcas)
GovernmentAltepetl
Historical eraMesoamerican Postclassic period
• Established
1325
August 13 1521
Today part of Mexico Mexico City (Mexico)

México-Tenochtitlan or México-Tenochtitlán[1][2]( listen) (in Nahuatl Mēxíhco-Tenōchtítlān; te-, 'stone'; nōch-, 'prickly pear' and -ti-tlān, 'place where prickly pears abound') was the altépetl or capital of the Mexica.[3]

The founding of the city was an event whose history is mixed with mythology, which is distinctive of the indigenous American regions.[4] Sixteenth-century sources that made correlations between the ancient calendars and the Western ones have placed it in various years, the most frequent being 1325 —2 House in the Mexica calendar count—, 1345, 1363, 1364 and others,[5] on an islet in the center of the lake area, according to the information recorded in several viceregal documents, as well as in the later reliefs of the Mexica monolith called the Teocalli of the Sacred War. The founding myth tells that México-Tenochtitlan was settled by a group of Nahua tribes migrating from Aztlán, a place whose precise location is unknown. After wandering around the surroundings of Lake Texcoco, the future Mexica settled in various points of the Basin of Mexico that were subject to the altepetl of Azcapotzalco. The migration concluded when they founded their city on an islet near the western shore of the lake. Archaeological excavations indicate that the islet of Mexico was inhabited before the 14th century and that the founding of Tenochtitlán may have been later than that of México-Tlatelolco, its northern "twin". México-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 time in the entire world and was the head of a powerful state that dominated a large part of Mesoamerica. The flourishing of the city was achieved at the expense of the tribute paid by the peoples subjected to its power. For this reason, when the Spaniards arrived in Mesoamerica, numerous indigenous nations allied with them with the aim of putting an end to Tenochca domination. Cuauhtémoc —the last tlatoani of México-Tenochtitlan— led the resistance of the city, which fell on August 13, 1521 to the Spaniards and their indigenous allies, all under the command of Hernán Cortés.

During the Spanish administration, Mexico City was founded upon it; it was the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and after independence it was the seat of the First Mexican Empire. It is currently the capital of Mexico.


Toponymy

Model of the Templo Mayor, ceremonial, religious and civic center of México-Tenochtitlan.

The name of the capital of the Mexica is composed of two toponyms, whose meaning has been the subject of numerous interpretations. The spelling of the name also varies, depending on the source and the period. In many publications the city is called simply Tenochtitlan, in others Great Tenochtitlan, and some place an accent on this toponym (Tenochtitlán). Cortés wrote Temixtitán, and among other ways of writing the name are Tenuchtitlán, Tenustitlán and Theonustitlán. There is no consensus on the meaning of the indigenous name, although some interpretations are very popular both in popular culture and in academic circles.

México

México is the Castilianization of a Nahuatl word. It is the name of the country in which the ancient Tenochtitlán is currently located, as well as of Mexico City and the State of Mexico, which owes its name to the city even though the city is no longer part of its territory. In the written sources of the viceregal era where the toponym appears for the first time, the dictionary of Alonso Molina and phylogenetic evidence make it possible to know that the pronunciation of the toponym in the 16th century was Mēxihco [meː.ˈʃiʔ.ko].

Bernardino de Sahagún, whose work documenting Nahuatl culture tentatively speculates that it derives from Me-(-tl) 'maguey', and from cih(-tli) 'hare', the name of the leader who guided them, so that the name of the city means Place of Mecih(tli). Other authors, such as Francisco Javier Clavijero, Cecilio Robelo, Luis Cabrera Lobato and Rémi Simeón give the variant of the word as Mexihtli, making it an alternative name of Huitzilopochtli; in this way México would be the Place of Mexihtli.

  • México (< Nahuatl Mēxihco): Alfonso Caso wrote, in some pages about the founding of Tenochtitlán, that "the Aztecs arrived at the lake of the Moon, where in its center (Anepantla) there was an island whose name was México, from Metz(tli), moon; xīc(tli), center, navel; and -co, locative: 'In the center of the lake of the Moon'.[6] Gutierre Tibón refers to a passage from Alfonso Caso's essay "El águila y el nopal":

«Tenochtitlan is the city founded in the center of Metztliapan, which recalls another lake that surrounded the island of Aztlán (...) the island called México was located there (...) from Metztli (moon), xictli (navel, center) and co (place), giving in its composition 'In the center of the moon'; thus 'The center of the lake of the moon' was the name of the great lake of Mexico.»

— (The italics do not appear in the original.)

However, this proposed explanation presents several difficulties from the etymological point of view, since Mēxihco does not appear to be regularly derivable from the words mētz-tli 'moon', xīc-tli 'navel, center', and the locative morpheme -co 'in, the place of', because the vowel quantities of the long and short vowels do not match, and in addition it presents anomalous developments of the consonants that close the syllable: neither the vowel quantity of the /ī/ (long vowel) of xīc- 'navel' is the same as in Mēxihco (short vowel), nor is the saltillo -h that precedes the locative -co accounted for; moreover, the derivation presents an irregular loss of the cluster -tz- in mētz-.[7]

Tenochtitlán

  1. Tenochtitlán (place of Ténoch, "stone prickly pear") was founded on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325, when the ancestors of the Mexica saw an eagle perched on a nopal, 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.

Etymologically Tenochtitlán means "place of Ténoch" or "place of the stone prickly pear"; the prickly pear (tuna) is the fruit of the nopal.

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

Finally the Aztecs found the indicated site somewhere in Lake Texcoco and there they founded their city. That island was located where the center of Mexico City is today. According to some of the chronicles, these events may have occurred on July 18, 1325 according to Góngora, in the year 1318 in the Annals of Cuauhtitlan,[8] between the years 1314 and 1332 in the Codex Vaticanus,[9] and on June 20, 1321[10] according to the Annals of Tlatelolco;[11] the latter being the most probable date. Later the Aztecs built their temples on the site.

History

Founding

History of the founding of Tenochtitlan

Founding of México-Tenochtitlan. Codex Durán, 16th century.
Sculpture commemorating the founding of México-Tenochtitlan, beside the building of the City Council of Mexico City.

After the conquest of México Tenochtitlan, some friars took an interest in learning the ancient history of the city. Thanks to this curiosity, documents are available that allow us to approach the accounts of the indigenous people. Some of these documents, of later date, were produced directly by the descendants of the indigenous nobility. All these sources indicate that the Mexica were originally from Aztlán, a site whose precise location and real existence are debated. According to the Crónica Mexicáyotl, in Aztlán the future Mexica were slaves of the Aztecs and bore that name. When Huitzilopochtli made known to his people the imperative that they march toward new lands, he also ordered them to stop calling themselves Aztecs because from that moment on they would all be Mexica.[12] This episode is also recreated by the Codex Aubin[13] and the Codex Durán.[14] The Tira de la Peregrinación indicates that Aztlán was located on an island where there were six calpulli and a great temple, probably dedicated to Mixcóatl.[15] In the Tira, Huitzilopochtli only appears after the Aztecs arrived at Teoculhuacan in the year 1-Flint. From there eight calpulli set out, led by four teomamaque ("bearers of the gods of dream"); one of them, identified as Tezcacóatl, carried the bundle of Huitzilopochtli.[16]

The "Annals of Tlatelolco" mention the day "4 Cuauhtli" (Eagle)[17] of the year "1-Tecpatl" (1064-1065) as the definitive departure from the territory of Aztlan-Colhuacan, correlated to January 4, 1065, the day of perihelion.[18]

According to Mexica mythology, Huitzilopochtli ordered them to found their kingdom only where there was "an eagle perched on a nopal devouring a serpent". Following this design, the Mexica wandered through various places, always in search of the portent that would indicate which was the land promised by their god. According to the Tira de la Peregrinación, the people of Cuitláhuac separated from the rest of the calpulli while they were still migrating. Later, the Mexica reached the region of Tollan-Xicocotitlan, 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 the migration.[19] They then reached the Valley of Mexico and passed through several towns, until they settled in the territory of the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco, whom they served as mercenary warriors. Finally, they found the site indicated by Huitzilopochtli on an islet of Lake Texcoco. In the Crónica Mexicáyotl, Tezozómoc says that when they found the place, the priest Cuauhtlequetzqui spoke the following words:

Go and see a wild nopal: and there, calm, you will see an eagle standing upright. There it eats, there it combs its feathers, and with that your heart will be content: there is the heart of Copil, which you went to cast there where the water turns and turns again! But there where it came to fall, and you have seen among the crags, in that cave among the reeds and sedges, from the heart of Cópil that wild nopal has sprouted! And there we shall be and there we shall reign: there we shall wait and we shall meet all kinds of peoples!
Our breasts, our heads, our arrows, our shields, there we shall make them see: all those who surround us, there we shall conquer them! Here our city of Tenochtitlan shall endure! The place where the eagle screeches, where it spreads its wings; the place where it eats and where the fish fly, where the serpents go coiling and hissing! That shall be México Tenochtitlan, and many things are to happen![20]

The founding legend presents numerous variants, and several dates; according to Leonardo López Luján, 1318, 1322, 1324, 1325, 1364 and 1366 appear[21]. That of the year "2 Calli" (House), 1325 of the Western calendar, is the most repeated. The Annals of Tlatelolco mention the day of its founding: a day with the sign "1-Cipactli" (Crocodile), correlated with June 20 and with the beginning of the summer solstice.[22]

Archaeological evidence

Most historical sources indicate that the founding of México-Tenochtitlan took place in the year 1325. This date corresponds to the one declared by the indigenous people themselves in the years following the Fall of Tenochtitlán. Archaeoastronomical studies indicate that a lunar eclipse also occurred in that year, an astronomical event that the Mexica may have taken as a mythical marker that could legitimize the supposed relationship between the Toltecs and the Tenochcas.[23] The archaeological explorations carried out in the old precinct of the Tenochca Templo Mayor, whose discovery was in 1978 and whose first explorations were made by the archaeologist Manuel Gamio, have made it possible to recover ceramic pieces earlier than the 13th century, which shows that the islet of Mexico was occupied before the date indicated for the founding of Tenochtitlán. The primacy of México-Tenochtitlan over México-Tlatelolco is also in question. The sources indicate that the twin city of Tenochtitlán was founded 13 years later, that is, in 1337. However, in 2007 a structure was discovered in the archaeological zone of Tlatelolco that may have been erected between the 11th and 12th centuries. This could indicate that the founding of México-Tlatelolco was earlier than that of México-Tenochtitlan.[24]

Consolidation

The Coyolxauhqui.

After the Mexica settled on the islet (which belonged to the people of Azcapotzalco), they asked the government of Culhuacán, a neighboring altepetl of Culhua affiliation, to send to Tenochtitlán a member of its royal class to lead the Mexica. Culhuacán agreed and sent Acamapichtli, who became the first tlatoani, around 1376. However, the Mexica were still partially subject to Azcapotzalco and its king, Tezozómoc. The conditions of settlement were harsh and costly for the Mexica, who made use of the lake resources (fauna and flora) to their benefit.

Itzcóatl is considered the first tlatoani of Tenochtitlán. From their independence onward, the Mexica began processes that would lead them to aggrandize their city. Among them were the formation of the Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan, the flower wars, and the conquest of nearby peoples. Moctezuma Ilhuicamina the Great turned this power into an empire, as his conquests reached 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 Mexica were the most powerful people of Mesoamerica and Tenochtitlán a city comparable to the most important in the world.

The city at the beginning of the 16th century

Reconstruction of a market in Tenochtitlán, National Museum of Anthropology.

The Spanish astonishment expressed by the chroniclers who knew the city in the 16th century recounts the order and the size of the Mexica capital and the degree of organization of its social functions. Many of Cortés's soldiers had never before known such a large city. A glance at Tenochtitlán could have shown countless canoes (some 60,000 on a day of normal activity) coming and going from the center to the shores of the lakes, and a city with nearly fifty large buildings that stood out above the houses, which were generally of a single story.

Tenochtitlán was crossed from side to side by three wide and long avenues (causeways) that 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 (along which the expelled troops of Cortés fled) and that began outside the islet at the bridge known as Chichimecapan (approximately at the intersection of present-day Hidalgo street and Paseo de la Reforma); the causeway to the south that went to Ixtapalapa and that passed through the Tepantzinco gate, which separated it from the Templo Mayor, crossed two canals and the aqueducts of Ahuízotl and Acuecuezcatl at the level of Acatlan (near the hermitage of San Antonio Abad), and went out onto the lake at Tlamacoyan. To the east there was no causeway, since the limit was the Texcoco Landing, which connected that city with the eastern shore. Parallel to these canals there was always a wide street.

The canals were used for transport with boats made of totora reeds. There were barges for collecting refuse and others for collecting excrement, which was used as fertilizer on the chinampas. Around 1,000 people were in charge of cleaning the streets. Bernal Díaz del Castillo remarks on his surprise at finding latrines in private houses, in the public market and along 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 dikes built by the Mexica, which made it possible to concentrate there the water that flowed from the rivers feeding the lake. The city had two aqueducts with two channels each, which Bernal describes as "the width of an ox". This made it possible to keep one channel in operation while the other was being maintained. This water was mainly used for washing and cleaning; the Mexica were accustomed to taking two baths a day, and it is reported that Moctezuma II took four. They used the root of coplaxócotl (Saponaria americana) as soap, and the root of metl 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 encroachment on the streets and canals, which were built beforehand.

The social and economic organization of the peoples of the time was in altepetl, which had their local base in the calpullis (neighborhoods). The four main calpullis of Tenochtitlán were Cuepopan to the northwest, Aztacalco to the northeast, Moyotla to the southwest and Zoquiapan to the southeast, and from 1473, Tlaltelolco to the north. Each of the calpullis had a personality, since artisans and artists usually grouped together in a calpulli and competed against those of other calpullis. In the case of festivities, each calpulli tried to outdo the others. Today, in the southern area of Mexico City, the organizations formed around the Catholic churches are still called calpullis, and they still compete with one another at popular festivals.

In addition, each calpulli was assigned an area of cultivable land; the inhabitants of a calpulli shared the work of sowing and harvesting those lands. This tended to further strengthen the ties among the neighbors of a calpulli. This form of communal land tenure persists in some towns of modern Mexico, although in general it is considered subversive by the government. Since the invasion, for centuries the peasants have had to fight to keep those communal lands and to prevent them from being seized by landowners.

Each calpulli had its own tianquiztli ('market'). Today, in almost all of Mexico, the small markets that are set up only one day a week are called tianguis; they are also known as markets on wheels in other Latin American countries.

In addition to the market of the calpulli, there was a main market in Tlatelolco. Cortés reports that this market was twice as large as the city of Seville and that there were 60,000 people buying and selling daily. Bernardino de Sahagún gives us a more conservative figure of 20,000 people on ordinary days and 40,000 on feast days.

Fall

Main articles: Fall of Tenochtitlan and Conquest of Mexico
Fragment of the mosaic behind the Temple of Jesús Nazareno depicting the meeting between Cortés and Moctezuma, inspired by the painting of the New Spanish painter Juan Correa.
Plate from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala. Malintzin served as interpreter for Hernán Cortés before the indigenous people, since she spoke Maya and Nahuatl.

By 1502, the Mexica had consolidated themselves as the strongest people of Mesoamerica.[3][25] Only some peoples, such as the Yopes, the Totonacs, the Tlaxcaltecs and the Purépechas, refused to be subjugated. 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 earlier, and in Europe, mainly in Spain and Portugal, expeditions were already being prepared with the aim of conquering the new territories.

On November 8, 1519, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlán, being received triumphally by Moctezuma on the Calzada de Tlalpan. The latter believed that he was the god Quetzalcóatl, who, according to legend, would one day return from the east.[26][27] Moctezuma lodged Cortés in the Palace of Axayácatl, and soon the latter captured Moctezuma, who offered no resistance.[26] Meanwhile, in Cuba, Diego Velázquez was trying to regain control of the troops, since he suspected that Cortés was planning to rebel, and as a precaution he sent an expedition commanded by Pánfilo de Narváez to Veracruz.[28] When Cortés learned of what had happened, he went to Cempoala with some soldiers to confront him, and in the meantime he left Pedro de Alvarado in command of the garrison. Near Zempoala, Cortés had a violent clash with Narváez, who was wounded. Cortés managed to convince the newly arrived soldiers to join him in order to strengthen the Spanish army. Among Narváez's men came a black slave who had contracted smallpox, a disease unknown in Mesoamerica that spread rapidly among the indigenous people and caused enormous mortality.[29]

Meanwhile, in the Mexica capital, the inhabitants were preparing an important festival to the gods Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli.[28] Pedro de Alvarado ordered his soldiers to attack the indigenous people during the festival. Although for many the reasons for Alvarado's order are hard to understand, some explain it by arguing that he may have misread the preparations for the indigenous religious festival, thinking that they were perhaps movements to set a trap for them.[28] What is certain is that during that attack hundreds of indigenous people, including women and children, were killed by the Spaniards in front of the Templo Mayor. The indignation that this attack generated among the Mexica was enormous. The people rose up in arms against the Spaniards and fought them with vigor.

After Cortés's return, the people were furious at Alvarado's excesses, and Cortés, after reprimanding him, sent for Moctezuma so that he would calm the people, but the people responded by stoning him, wounds that caused his death shortly afterward, in June 1520.

Then Cuitláhuac was elected tlatoani and immediately organized the army to drive out the Spaniards. On June 30, 1520, the Mexica took by surprise the Spaniards, who were trying to flee Tenochtitlán, and defeated them on one of the city's bridges, inflicting severe casualties on them and significant losses of the gold objects they had accumulated. This episode, which took place on June 30, 1520, is known as the Noche Triste, because, according to legend, Cortés wept at the foot of an ahuehuete.

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

Economy and society

The Aztec 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 Mexica carried out on the basis of barter, and in which they used the cacao bean and beans as currency. This kind of trade favored the exchange of products.

The Mexica introduced into their legislation the concept of communal property, which was a piece of land given to each of the members of the calpulli,[30] called macehuales, who, unlike the nobles, possessed only the lands indispensable to survive.

These lands could be rented, but the products were shared between the leasing 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 land died without descendants, it passed automatically 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:

  1. teopantlalli (of the priests)
  2. tlatocatlalli (palace expenses)
  3. tecpantlalli (maintenance of the palace servants)
  4. tecuchtlatoque (payment and services of the judges)
  5. michmalli (service of warriors and soldiers)
  6. yoatlalli (lands of the enemy)

The Mexica social structure was characterized by its marked class divisions. The two great social divisions were the pillis, that is, the nobles, the military, the priests and the most powerful merchants. The "non-privileged" were the macehuales, the artisans, the peasants, the employees of low economic level, and slaves.

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

Education

Education was centered on three institutions:

  1. Calmécac: School where the children of the upper class studied, preparing them to be priests, soldiers or merchants, taught by sages called tlamatinime, on the basis of an iron bodily discipline.
  2. Telpochcalli: The children of the macehuales attended there; the education was less elaborate and they were taught only trades.
  3. Cuicacalco: School dedicated to song and musical development.

Natural resources

The Basin of Mexico was rich in natural resources exploited by the surrounding peoples. The Mexica supplied the city by means of a very intensive agriculture with cultivation on dry land, on chinampas (floating crops in marshes and on the shores of the islets), and the use of lakeshore fauna (fish, birds, axolotls, frogs, acociles, insects, salt, algae, rabbits, deer, herons). The use of the canoe was fundamental for weaving a complicated network that moved the economic system through the exchange and mobility of products and of the inputs needed for agriculture, such as special soil for building chinampas and natural fertilizers such as human excrement. It also introduced the natural resource "obsidian" (a volcanic rock formed by the rapid cooling of lava, black or very dark green in color, with a glassy structure, consisting mainly of silica; it was used for making ornaments and jewelry and sometimes for making some combat weapons).

Hydraulic technology

The hydraulic system at the arrival of the Spaniards.

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

The Mexica built and cultivated chinampas, shallow plots supported by piles and thick layers of earth, irrigated by canals (acalotes) and by the infiltration of the very bed on which they were set. They also devised irrigation systems by means of canals, dams (made of wood, stone or mud), dikes, sluice gates and rainwater reservoirs.

The waters of the lake always represented a risk because of the currents that formed in it (the present-day cause of the so-called tolvaneras, or dust storms, in Mexico City, which run from east to west almost without any obstacle), as well as the characteristics inherent in a lake environment. The main works were the dikes or albarradas, notably the so-called albarradón of Nezahualcóyotl, devised by him and built in 1449 —after an enormous flood—, a wall of stone and mortar designed for the containment and separation of brackish and fresh waters, which ran from south to north from the Mexicaltzingo landing (present-day intersection of La Viga and Ermita-Iztapalapa) on the shore of Iztapalapa to the Peñón de los Baños (near the present-day airport) over a length of 16 kilometers. Another was that of Ahuízotl, built in 1499, which protected the islet on its eastern side from the currents of Lake Texcoco at the landing of the same name. México-Tenochtitlan was flooded in 1382, 1449 and 1517.

Another important hydraulic work was the aqueducts, notably the one built by Ahuizotl to supply fresh water from the acuecuexcatl of Huitzilopochco (Churubusco) to the center of Tenochtitlán along the Ixtapalapa causeway, which was a central element in the fall of Tenochtitlán in 1521 when Cortés conquered it and cut off the water supply; as well as the double aqueduct of Chapultepec (built in 1465), which ran alongside the Tlacopan causeway, with two channels, one used at a time so that the other could be maintained.

Causeways

México-Tenochtitlan and its causeways (reconstruction by Hanns J. Prem).

The causeways were artificial embankments with an average width of 15 meters, made of stone, clay and mortar and set into the bottom of the lake with wooden piles. There were three main ones, differing between those that ran north to south (Tepeyacac and Iztapalapa) and those running west–east (Tlacopan and Coyoacan), since the latter had a greater number of sectional cuts in which daytime movable wooden bridges were installed for the unimpeded circulation of the lake waters, while the former were more resistant,[31] since they were essentially of stone and may have served as dikes before the construction of the dike of Nezahualcoyotl, in 1449. The main causeways were:

Tepeyacac causeway: It crossed from north to south from the hill of Tepeyacac to the islet of Nonoalco-Tlaltelolco, approximately along the present-day streets of República de Argentina, Jesús Carranza and Calzada de los Misterios up to the Tepeyacac hill. It had a width of 11 meters and a thickness of 1.8 meters and was made of stone.[32]

Tlacopan or Tacuba causeway: It ran westward to the main temple of Tlacopan (Tacuba), following the approximate route of the present-day Calzada México-Tacuba, starting from the Canal of the Toltecs (where the church of San Hipólito stands), Avenida Hidalgo, Puente de Alvarado, Ribera de San Cosme and México-Tacuba up to the present-day Tacuba Metro station, the approximate site where the remains of the Templo Mayor of Tlacopan are still buried. It had a width of 22 meters[32] and a branch toward the Chapultepec causeway to the southwest at the islet of Mazatzintamalco, which ended at Chapultepec, with a width of 12 meters.[32]

Nonoalco causeway: It connected the city of Tlatelolco with the mainland, following the approximate route of the present-day avenues Manuel González and Eulalia Guzmán. It branched at the islet of Xochimanca toward the northwest 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[32]

Ixtapalapan causeway: It ran from the Templo Mayor toward the south, going out onto the water at San Antonio Abad and touching land again at the present-day Av. del Taller, following the approximate route of the present-day Calzada de Tlalpan and branching toward Huitzilopochco and Coyoacán. On it the first meeting between Hernán Cortés and Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin took place. It was made of stone and clay, finished in a slope, with a thickness of 2.10 meters and a width of 15.[32]

Tenayocan causeway: It connected the islet of Tlaltelolco to Tenayocan in the north. It followed the approximate route of the present-day Calzada Vallejo.[32]

Other main causeways were: the one that went east and ended at the Texcoco Landing in Tetamazolco (present-day streets of República de Guatemala and Miguel Negrete); those that connected the Templo Mayor with that of Tlaltelolco (Bolivia–S. Allende and Isabel la Católica–República de Chile); and one that ran from the Tlacopan causeway to the Tezontlale canal.

They were made first by driving stakes 5 meters long by 1 in diameter along the edge of what would become the causeway; the width of the causeways was 15 meters. After the stakes were driven in an area, it was filled with stones such as tezontle and basalt and a mixture of hot lime, compacting them and giving the final leveling. This gave the causeway great resistance; its roads were extremely straight.

Rectangular sections were built with spaces between them to allow the passage of the barges (trajineras) and canoes through the canals. And between the sections of causeway wooden platforms were placed that were raised in case a vessel passed. Thus, when raised, it also became a defense because of the canal it crossed, and in addition the bridge became a barrier that protected those on the other side of the platform.

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

Streets

The streets of Tenochtitlán (tlaxilacalli) were made with a kind of sidewalk of tamped earth for human traffic, and along many of the adjacent streets ran a canal for the access of canoes. According to the accounts of the chroniclers, their constant embanking and tamping was ensured, as well as their sweeping and cleaning. Excrement was collected by macehuales dedicated to this task, who later sold it as fertilizer, or else it was deposited in private or public latrines that were emptied into the lake. Urine was deposited in vessels to be used in textile treatment. Garbage was burned in enormous bonfires that served to light the streets at night, a Mexica custom that the Spaniards discarded.

Water supply

From the two aqueducts fed by the springs Acuecuexcatl, Zochcoatl and Tiliatl of Coyoacán and Churubusco, as well as from those located at the Templo Mayor and in Zoquiapan, water was distributed by means of open conduits (apantles) to public fountains and houses of nobles. Those who never had a supply of fresh water through these methods were supplied by purchase from water carriers in canoes.

Dikes

Main article: Albarradón of Nezahualcoyotl

The Albarradón of Nezahualcoyotl is named in honor of its builder, an ally of the city-state of Texcoco. The dike was a work of basketry with a thickness of 3.5 m and a height from the bottom of the lake of 8 m. It was built by interweaving tree trunks, impermeable rocks and sand. The dike had gates to allow the passage of water and canoes. If the water level rose, the gates were closed to prevent a flood; the dike also had the task of preventing the salt waters of Lake Texcoco, Xaltocan and Zumpango and other small lakes farther north from mixing with the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco.

It was built after a great rain that caused the water level to rise, flooding the city of Tenochtitlán. After this, by order of the Aztec emperor, the order was given to build something that would prevent floods in the city. The answer was the construction of this great dike, which has a length of 20 km.

Agrarian technology

The city of Tenochtitlán, with its own production of food and meat, came to produce enough for the development of the city and its population, a decisive factor in a civilization rising to power. But they also produced surplus food so that their armies would not suffer from hunger. In addition, they knew how to choose the best varieties of species for the climate and the terrain, and if not, they improved the existing ones.

Terraces

In some places, especially in the southern area of present-day Mexico City, one can see terraces that the Aztecs used so as not to waste the relief of the terrain; they built them and on them cultivated all kinds of products.

Chinampa

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Main article: Chinampa

Chinampas are fields that were built on the 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. Chinampas were the best farmland ever invented, since the land could produce up to 7 harvests in a year, while in other places the maximum possible was some 5 harvests a year. Chinampas were and are the most fertile places in the world because of the way they are built.

Crop protection

The techniques the Mexica used to protect their crops from erosion caused by wind and water consisted of planting trees in the fields and on the chinampas, and in the specific case of the chinampas, ahuejotes. The trees would protect the soil from air currents that raised dust clouds and thereby began to erode the soil and carry away its nutrients, and on the chinampas they anchored the soil, preventing it from being eroded by the water. Also with the same purpose of protecting the lands from erosion, stacked stone walls were set up.

Foundations and construction of large buildings and pyramids

At first, when the Mexica settled on the islet of Lake Texcoco, they realized the difficulty the ground presented, since as soon as they began to build on the soil of the islet everything sank, so they developed a system of foundations for buildings.

This consisted of cutting stakes 5 meters long by 10 cm in diameter and placing them beneath the entire area that would be the building; at the end a part of the stake was left uncovered, which would later be covered with a mixture of tezontle and a cementing mixture.

As the stakes went down into somewhat firmer ground, they gave greater stability, and when the layer of building mixture and tezontle was placed, they provided a great construction base that would work on a principle of flotation.

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

Demography

The population that México-Tenochtitlan came to house has been the subject of speculation. Alfonso Caso, for example, calculated a population of three hundred thousand inhabitants.[33] At the end of the 19th century, Morgan and Bandelier thought that Tenochtitlán was a semi-rural center, with religious and administrative buildings surrounded by small plots where most of the population lived, so that its population could not have exceeded 50,000 people.[34] Among the main reasons for their rejection of higher figures would be the level of overcrowding that would occur on the two small islets on which the city stood (to which must be added that a third of the space on one of the islets was occupied by the ceremonial center)[35] and the logistical challenges of housing and feeding a large population with the technological means available to the Mexica.[36] However, the studies of both authors are now widely questioned because of the analyses made in recent decades.[37]

According to 21st-century studies, the archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma indicates that the population of the city could have been some 200,000 inhabitants. In 2002, Edward Calnek gave the figure of 175,000 inhabitants during his lecture at the National Museum of Anthropology, which is close to the figures estimated by William Sanders, who, on the basis of a calculation of the production of the chinampas, estimated 175,000 to 200,000 inhabitants.[38]

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.[39] The city, as Sanders describes it, was perfectly divided into zones according to their use: temple complexes, roads, plazas and residential zones, which for him made such a population density possible. Another factor to consider is that the intensive chinampa cultivation that took place throughout the Valley of Mexico was key to sustaining the large population of the basin, including its numerous cities,[40] estimated by some authors at up to a million people.[41] In fact, it appears that grain production would have been sufficient to feed one hundred or even two hundred thousand people.[42]

Finally, the highest figures are those given by Roger Bartra, some 700,000.[43] According to Jacques Soustelle, Tenochtitlán and Tlatelolco had eighty to one hundred thousand households, each with an average of seven people, which would allow a total of 560,000 to 700,000 people.[44] However, regardless of the exact figure, the enormous growth that Tenochtitlán 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 great city at the beginning of the 16th.[40] And Tenochtitlán was, very probably, the largest city that existed in America until at least the 17th century (when the golden age of Potosí took place), surpassing others such as Teotihuacan (125,000 inhabitants),[45] Tikal (60,000–100,000),[46] Tetzcuco (40,000),[47] Cobá (40,000–60,000),[48] Tula (30,000–40,000),[49] Calakmul (50,000),[50] Copán (18,000–25,000)[51] and Sayil (11,000)[52] in Mesoamerica, and Cusco (125,000),[53] Chan Chan (50,000),[54] Tihuanaco (30,000–60,000),[55] Huari (10,000–70,000),[56] Huánuco Pampa (30,000)[57] and Tomebamba (50,000)[58] in Andean America. Its successor, Mexico City, had comparable population levels only from the 18th century onward.[59]

Present-day celebration

On March 13, 1925, the regents of Mexico City, Lic. Vicente Lombardo Toledano and Juan Rico, chose this day to celebrate the 600 years since the founding of Tenochtitlan.[60] Since the actual date could not be found at that time, the celebration was taken up again 50 years later in 1975 and given as the semi-official date of the founding. The date of July 18 given by Góngora was also taken up by tradition groups in 1975 and years later moved to July 26; however, Góngora gives the year 1327 for the founding and not 1325, making its correlation confusing.[61]

  • The opera Montezuma was composed by Antonio Vivaldi, and its story is set in the city of México-Tenochtitlan.
  • The stage tragedy Tenochtitlan, by Santiago Sevilla (see Liceus, the Humanities Portal).
  • The song "Cortez the Killer" by Neil Young tells of the arrival of the troops of Hernán Cortés and the massacre of Moctezuma's people at the hands of the Spaniards.
  • The novel Tenochtitlan: la última batalla de los aztecas (1984) by the Costa Rican writer José León Sánchez narrates, from the perspective of the Aztecs, the events that took place from the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors on the Mexican coasts in 1519 until the fall of the city of México-Tenochtitlan in 1521.
  • The novel by Barbara Wood, "La mujer de los mil secretos" (2008), tells the story of the founding of Tenochtitlán after a long journey, both literally speaking and as a journey of self-discovery and of discovery of their origins on the part of the protagonists.
  • The novel by Federico Navarrete, "Huesos de lagartija" (1998), tells the story of a young Mexica who lived through the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, also recounting daily life in the city of Tenochtitlán.
  • In the novel by Gary Jennings, Azteca (1980), the story unfolds through the narration of an Aztec, at the time of the conquest, to Fray Juan de Zumárraga, recounting personal experiences from his childhood until his death.
  • The album Gaia, by the Spanish folk metal band Mägo de Oz, focuses on the history of the conquest and the arrival of Hernán Cortés in the lands of the Mexica, as do the albums Gaia II: la voz dormida, Gaia III: Atlantia and Gaia: Epílogo.
  • The album "Moctezuma" was composed by an alternative rock group called "Porter"; it recounts Aztec mythology from the migration that began in Aztlán, using sounds characteristic of Prehispanic Mexico.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Noyola, Emmanuel. "¿Teotihuacan o Teotihuacán?". Letras Libres (in español). Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Tenochtitlán o Tenochtitlan". Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (in español). Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rico Galindo, Rosario (September 2008). "Terminologías". Historia de México (in español) (3ra. Edición ed.). Santillana. p. 64. ISBN 970-2-9223-08. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  4. ↑ "The history of the migration of that indigenous group that left Aztlán –place of whiteness– to found México-Tenochtitlán has been told in various ways, both by the protagonists themselves and by the conquistadors and, in present times, by Mexican and foreign historians; for this reason there is no consensus to determine the exact date when this people settled in the middle of Lake Tetzcoco. The year 1325 has been determined; however, this is not certain for two reasons: first, because the documentary sources give us several dates and, second, because there is still controversy over the computation of time used by the Mexica in their calendar. Among the most serious exceptions disqualifying that year, it was noted, is that of Nigel Davies, who, based on computations made by the historians Wigberto Jiménez Moreno and Paul Kirchhoff, establishes 1345 as the date.", in "En nuestro país se exalta el pasado mexica y se discrimina a los indígenas actuales", Boletín UNAM-DGCS-553, Mexico, July 16, 2003, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
  5. ↑ Johansson K., Patrick (December 18, 2016). "La fundación de México-Tenochtitlan. Consideraciones "crono-lógicas"". Arqueología Mexicana (in español). Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  6. ↑ One difficulty of this popular explanation is that the long and short vowels do not match, nor does the change from metz-xīc- to mēxih seem linguistically justified.
  7. ↑ Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl, University of Texas, Austin, 1983, ISBN 0-8061-2421-0.
  8. ↑ Anales de Cuauhtitlan 1885 p 49
  9. ↑ Códice Vaticano Ríos, folio 71v
  10. ↑ El Calendario de Ketzalkoatl, Fourth Edition. Oscar Ayotzintli. p 33 34 47
  11. ↑ Anales de Tlatelolco, Rafael Tena CONACULTA p 73
  12. ↑ De Alvarado Tezozómoc, 1998: 22.
  13. ↑ Códice Aubin, 22-23; León Portilla, 2000: 309.
  14. ↑ Durán,...: ch. III.
  15. ↑ Castañeda de la Paz, 2007: 188. In this article, the author refers to the indigenous pictography, which gives special importance to the temple on the island, above which a glyph is identified that can be interpreted as Amímitl ("water arrow"), one of the symbols that identified Mixcóatl.
  16. ↑ Tira de la Peregrinación, plate 2.
  17. ↑ Anales de Tlatelolco, Codex of 1528. National Library of Paris, Fondo Mexicano Manuscript 22 22bis
  18. ↑ El Calendario de Ketzalkoatl, Fourth Edition. Oscar Ayotzintli p 29 30
  19. ↑ Durán,...: 24.
  20. ↑ De Alvarado Tezozómoc, Crónica Mexicáyotl, in Garibay K., 1974.
  21. ↑ "Hilo de Twitter del arqueólogo Leonardo López Luján" (in español).
  22. ↑ Anales de Tlatelolco, Rafael Tena. CONACULTA 2004, p. 63; El Calendario de Ketzalkoatl, Fourth Edition. Oscar Ayotzintli p 33
  23. ↑ Matos Moctezuma, 2007: 60.
  24. ↑ Gutiérrez, Miguel Ángel: "Arqueólogos descubren en México pirámide que cambiaría historia", in Reuters América Latina, December 27, 2007, accessed December 7, 2009.
  25. ↑ Rico Galindo, Rosario (September 2008). "La civilización de Tenochtitlan". Historia de México (in español) (3ra. Edición ed.). Santillana. p. 37. ISBN 970-2-9223-08. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Rico Galindo, Rosario (September 2008). "La conquista de Tenochtitlan". Historia de México (in español) (3ra. Edición ed.). Santillana. p. 70. ISBN 970-2-9223-08. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  27. ↑ The reason for this triumphal entry is that for several years Moctezuma had received signs that his empire would soon pass away and that Quetzalcóatl, the mythical founder, would return. Moctezuma believed that Cortés was Quetzalcoátl.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Rico Galindo, Rosario (September 2008). "La conquista de Tenochtitlan". Historia de México (in español) (3ra. Edición ed.). Santillana. p. 71. ISBN 970-2-9223-08. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  29. ↑ Rico Galindo, Rosario (September 2008). "La conquista de Tenochtitlan". Historia de México (in español) (3ra. Edición ed.). Santillana. p. 75. ISBN 970-2-9223-08. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  30. ↑ Calpulli was the name of each of the neighborhoods into which Tenochtitlán was divided. The head of each calpulli was in charge of the registry of lands and divided their work among the heads of family.
  31. ↑ Carballal, M. and Flores, M. (2004). Elementos hidráulicos en el Lago de México-Texcoco en el posclásico. Arqueología Mexicana, 68 "Lagos del Valle de México", Jul–Aug.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 Ibid.
  33. ↑ Caso, Alfonso. "Los barrios antiguos de Tenochtitlán y Tlatelolco". Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia. Mexico City. Vol. XV, no. 1, January–March 1956, pp. 7-63.
  34. ↑ Morgan, Lewis Henry & Bandelier, Adolph Francis (2003). México antiguo: Breve y sumaria relación de los señores de la Nueva España. Mexico City; Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, pp. xlix, note 66. Foreword and editing by Jaime Labastida. ISBN 978-9-68232-452-9.
  35. ↑ Morgan & Bandelier, 2003: xlvi-xlvii. Morgan absolutely rejects Caso's figures, accusing him of relying on maps of the city from viceregal times. For him it would be socially and materially unfeasible for 300,000 people to crowd into a space of 7 km². The population density would be greater than that of any nineteenth-century European city, despite the greater technological development.
  36. ↑ Morgan & Bandelier, 2003: xlvii-xlviii. According to Morgan the land would be even more reduced since each family had a milpa and vegetable gardens around its house. He also argues that Mesoamerican farming methods would have been unproductive and would have forced the cultivated area to be changed after a couple of years of use for a relatively long period of time.
  37. ↑ Morgan & Bandelier, 2003: ix
  38. ↑ Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo (2006). Tenochtitlan. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, El Colegio de México, Fideicomiso Historia de las Américas, pp. 117. ISBN 978-968-16-8118-5.
  39. ↑ Carmack, Robert M. (2001). Evolución del Reino K'iche'. Guatemala: Cholsamaj Fundación, Fondo de Desarrollo Indígena Guatemalteco, pp. 498. ISBN 978-9-99225-622-0. In this respect Tenochtitlan surpassed Teotihuacán, which would have had only 85,000 inhabitants but in 19 km², that is, 4,500 per km².
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 León Portilla, Miguel (1983). De Teotihuacán a Los Aztecas: Antología de Fuentes e Interpretaciones Históricas. Mexico: UNAM, pp. 354. ISBN 978-9-68580-593-3. The author estimates the population of the city at 100,000 to 300,000.
  41. ↑ Jalil Saab H. (2010). México: Un Experimento. Ensayo histórico-social. Mexico: Saab, pp. 57. ISBN 978-0-55752-324-5. The author puts the residents of the Aztec capital plus those of Tlatelolco at one hundred thousand.
  42. ↑ Noejovich, Héctor Omar (1996). Los Albores de la Economía Americana. Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP, pp. 221. ISBN 978-9-97242-001-6.
  43. ↑ Roger Bartra (1969). "Tributo y tendencia de la tierra en la sociedad azteca". El modo de producción asiático. Mexico City: Ediciones Era.
  44. ↑ Soustelle, Jacques (1970). Daily Life of the Aztecs: On the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 9. ISBN 978-0-80470-721-3.
  45. ↑ Isbell, William Harris & Silverman, Helaine (2002). Andean Archaeology: Variations in Sociopolitical Organization. Vol. I. New York: Springer, pp. 185, table 6.1. ISBN 978-0-30646-772-1.
  46. ↑ Foster, Lynn V. (2005). Handbook To Life In The Ancient Maya World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 44. ISBN 978-0-19518-363-4; Nations, James D. (2006). The Maya Tropical Forest: People, Parks, & Ancient Cities. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 216. ISBN 978-0-29271-318-5.
  47. ↑ Tortolero, Alejandro (1993). Entre lagos y volcanes: Chalco Amecameca, pasado y presente. Vol. I. Mexico: Colegio Méxiquense, pp. 82.
  48. ↑ Folan, William J.; Kintz, Ellen R. & Fletcher, Laraine A. (1983). Cobá, a classic Maya metropolis. Vol. I. New York: Academic Press, pp. 210. ISBN 978-0-12261-880-2.
  49. ↑ Richard A. Diehl (1983). Tula. The Toltec Capital of Ancient Mexico. London: Thames and Hudson, pp. 58.
  50. ↑ Dominguez C., Maria del Rosario & William J. Folan. Calakmul, México: Aguadas, bajos, precipitación y asentamiento en el Peten Campechano. Paper presented at the IX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala, July 1995.
  51. ↑ Sanders, William T. & Webster, David (1988). "Copan as a Classic Maya Center". The Southeast Classic Maya Zone. Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks. Edited by Elizabeth H. Boone & Gordon R. Willey, pp. 5-30.
  52. ↑ Tourtellot, Gair; Jeremy Sabloff & Michael Smyth (1990). "Room Counts and Population Estimation for Terminal Classic Sayil in the Puuc Region, Yucatán, México". Precolumbian Population History en the Maya Lowlands. Edited by T.P. Culbert & D. Rice. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 248, 261.
  53. ↑ Hyslop, John (1992). Qhapaqñam. El sistema vial inkaico. Lima: Instituto Andino de Estudios Arqueológico, Petróleos del Perú, pp. 64-65; Agurto Calvo, Santiago (1980). Cusco, la traza urbana de la ciudad inca. Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cultura del Perú, UNESCO.
  54. ↑ Moseley, Michael E. & Mackey, Carol J. "Chan Chan, Peru's Ancient City of Kings". National Geographic 143, no. 3 (March 1973): 328.
  55. ↑ Kolata, Alan & Ponce Sanginés, Carlos (1992). "Tiwanaku: the City at the Center". The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, edited by Richard E. Townsend, pp. 317–334 (332). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago.
  56. ↑ Isbell, William Harris; McEwan, Gordon Francis & Oaks, Dumbarton (1991). Huari Administrative Structure: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government. Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 24. ISBN 978-0-88402-186-5.
  57. ↑ Morris, Craig and Thompson, Donald E. (1985). Huánuco Pampa: an Inca cuy and its Hinterland. London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 86.
  58. ↑ Newson, Linda A. (1995). Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 54. ISBN 978-0-80612-697-5. Before Atahualpa destroyed the city for supporting Húascar.
  59. ↑ Van Young, Erick (1981). Hacienda and Market in Eighteenth-Century Mexico: The Rural Economy of the Guadalajara Region, 1650-1820. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 35, table 2. Around 1770 Mexico City had about one hundred thousand inhabitants.
  60. ↑ Castillo Ledon, Luis (1925). La Fundación de la Ciudad de México 1325-1925 Editorial CVLTURA, pp. 5, 55, 56
  61. ↑ La Incógnita del Nombre de México, David Wood Cano & Arturo Meza Gutiérez p 88

Bibliography

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