The Aztec lived without plague, without lack of food, and without equals.
This should have been the closest anyone had ever come until then to creating a paradise…
and yet they waged constant War, practised cannibalism, and sacrificed thousands of people
alive every year.
How did a civilization create such a mix of peaceful paradise and violent brutality?
In this series we're going to look at the Aztecs from their mythical past, to the rise
of their civilization, and until they failed the test of time.
We're not just going to look at the military accomplishments, we're also going to look
at their politics, their culture, and their economics and we're going to analyse how their
policies in these matters turned them into the dominant empire in the region and why
it wasn't another empire that rose instead.
We don’t know a lot about the Aztec people before they founded their civilization.
That’s because one of their kings decided to burn all the codexes detailing the origins
of the Aztec people.
But luckily another king later tried to recover this part of their history… but that too
was burned when the Spanish arrived.
Therefore, their early history is rooted in myth and legend, with various sources scraped
together over time such as from Spanish priests who spoke with the locals to some recovered
codexes.
So we do know some things about their early past.
The Aztecs came from the plains what is currently Northern Mexico.
According to mythology, the Aztec people originated from an island called Aztlan.
Aztec literally means ‘people of Aztlan’.
Eventually their most important god commanded them to leave Aztlan to travel to a land of
paradise where they will receive good weather and bountiful harvests.
The name of this god was Huitzilopochtli, the sungod.
He is comparable to Amun-Ra, Jupiter or Odin.
It is this god who would guide the Aztec people on their journey to a promised land.
The migration lasted for centuries.
each time they would settle a location for a few years or decades and then move on.
How Aztec priests would interpreted the will of Huitzilopochtli directly affected how the
people would live and had ripple effects throughout aztec history that may not be obvious at first.
For example, on their journey the Aztecs tell of a land named Tollan.
Here the priests built an altar in honour of their faithful god.
Huitzilopochtli advised his priests to go down the hill, to an area of meadows, and
construct a dam to block any water going out.
This created the first artificial lagoon recorded in Mesoamerican history.
Many animals came to this lagoon such wild ducks, hummingbirds, and an array of fish.
The Aztec people were SO happy with this easy abundance of food that they formed a sedentary
lifestyle and no longer honoured Huitzilopochtli.
They went so far as to ask the priests to just give up on the whole migration thing
and take the land of Tollan instead.
But one night lightning rocked the land of Tollan and in the morning the Aztec people
woke up to find the bodies of those who had forsaken Huitzilopochtli.
Their bodies were mutilated, their chests lay open, and their hearts had been ripped
out.
Today, scholars mainly see this story as a mythological account fo a real event: a blood
struggle between two groups for leadership of the Aztec tribe.
But this event made something clear to the Aztec people: Huitzilopochtli wanted blood
sacrifices.
From now on the Aztec high priests would offer human sacrifices and extract human hearts
for their god to appease his anger.
This event would lead to the eventual rise of the Aztec tribe as an empire… and it
would also be the event that would eventually help destroy it…
And so, with all opposition to the great migration dead, the Aztec continued their journey until
eventually arriving at Lake Tetzcoco.
And it's the arrival at Tetzcoco where we finally get some written historical records,
not just from the Aztecs themselves but also from the other people's of that area.
Upon their arrival at Lake Tetzcoco they discovered a civilization far more sophisticated than
their own: cities, a feudal system, and large temples.
What is often overlooked in history is what was there in Central America before the Aztec
Civilization arose.
When I was in school I was taught that the Aztecs were the first civilization in this
region.
But this isn’t so.
There were already cities everywhere, going as far back as Teotihuacan.
Some were independent while others were part of larger kingdoms and paid taxes to the central
city in exchange for protection.
This society was in many ways similar to that of medieval Europe.
And when the Aztec decided to settle this land, the locals were very displeased.
You see, the people in this region practised something called ‘land ownership’, a new
concept to the Aztecs.
So the nobles of the other towns and cities weren’t particularly happy with a bunch
of migrants from North America coming south to take their land.
On the advice of their god Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec constructed a town, erect solid
walls, and elect a warrior to become their leader.
This would set a major president, for all future leaders of the Aztec would be warriors…
a decision that would, over time, make the Aztecs expansionist.
This warrior leader told his people to craft weapons to defend themselves with.
And so the Aztec people evolved from a religious and agricultural society into a militarily
aggressive society.
As the hostilities became worse, the Aztec decided to teach all the men, women, and children
how to use all sort of weaponry to defend their tribe.
Over time the surrounding kingdoms would fight several battles with the Aztec tribe until
these kingdoms decided to kill all the Aztecs in an ambush.
But the Aztecs instead ambushed their ambushers, ripped out their beating hearts and offer
them to sun god Huitzilopochtli, and after a few more battles decided that maybe it was
a good time to leave this area.
On the advice of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztecs sent a diplomatic envoy to the next king whose
land they wanted to settle.
This land was ruled by the kingdom of Colhuacan.
They asked the king for land and were given a patch of inhospitable land with barren soil
and poisonous animals.
They eventually managed to build a town, turn the ground fertile, and settle into a life
of agriculture.
But Huitzilopochtli, who had become not just the sungod but also the god of human sacrifice,
and war didn’t like the sound of a peaceful and quiet life.
He ordered his people to attack their Colhuacan overlords.
The Aztec were crafty and sent an emissary to ask for the hand of the king’s daughter.
She would be crowned as their queen and become bride of their god Huitzilopochtli.
And the king agreed to this marriage.
When the princess arrived at the tribe for her wedding ceremony, the priests took her
by the hand and brought her to the Temple of her future husband.
There, four priests tore off her clothing each took one of her limbs and dragged her
onto the altar.
A fifth priest emerged with a flint knife.
He held the knife in the air and cut open her chest.
With one hand he reached into her still-living body, grabbed her heart, and ripped it out
of her chest.
That night, after dinner, that same priest appeared before the king wearing the skin
of his daughter.
This spectacle enraged the king and he ordered all of his people who were there for the wedding
to kill every last Aztec.
His daughter.
will.
Be.
Avenged!
The ensuing battle was a disastrous defeat for the Aztec.
What remained of their population fled into their canoes to an island in lake Texcoco.
In their desperation they sought the counsel of Huitzilopochtli once more.
And he told them that their migration was nearly over.
They were almost at their destination.
The Aztecs would have their homeland.
Huitzilopochtli told them to look for a rock with a cactus on top.
On top of that cactus they would find an eagle nesting and devouring a serpent.
After some searching the Aztecs finally found it and named their new city Tenochtitlan,
meaning “place of the cactus on the rock”.
At last, the long journey of the Aztec had ended in 1325.
Their god had shown them the promised land, he told them to build a city here, and to
start claiming ownership of all the lands that surrounded them.