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1. The Aztec

2. The Aztec Physical Appearance
• Here is a sixteenth-century Spanish description:
• The people of this land are well made, rather tall than
short. They are swarthy as leopards (see below), of
good manners and gestures, for the greater part very
skillful, robust, and tireless, and at the same time the
most moderate men known. They are very warlike
and face death with the greatest resolution.
• Both leopards and jaguars are not usually dark
(swarthy), the writer must therefore be referring to
those that are melanistic (completely black or very
dark), they are known as black panthers.

3. Aztec Character
• Alonso de Zorita wrote of the Mexicans: these
people are by nature very long-suffering, and
nothing will excite or anger them. They are very
obedient and teachable. The more noble they
are, the more humility they display. This
description suggests a meek and spineless
people, very different from the Aztecs of
popular imagination who are forever shedding
blood on either the altar or the battlefield. The
contradiction, however, is more apparent than
real.

4. • On the one hand the Mexicans showed what Parry
has called 'a very high degree of social docility-the
willing submergence of the individual in the
personality of the tribe', but against this must be set a
streak of personal individualism with a tendency
towards violence and extremism. In a military state
like Tennochtitlan physical bravery was taken for
granted, and death in battle was something to look
forward to. As a Mexican poet put it: There is nothing
like death in war, nothing like the flowery death so
precious to Him who gives life: far off I see it: my
heart yearns for it!

5. Aztec History
• The Aztec were a Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and
early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central
and southern Mexico. The Aztec are so called from Aztlán (“White
Land”), an allusion to their place of origin, probably in northern
Mexico. They were also called the Tenochca, from an eponymous
ancestor, Tenoch, and the Mexica, probably from Metzliapán
(Moon Lake), the mystical name for Lake Texcoco. From
“Tenochca” was derived the name of their great city, Tenochtitlán;
and from “Mexica” came the name for the city that superseded
the Aztec capital and the surrounding valley. This name was
applied later to the whole Mexican nation. The Aztec referred to
themselves as Culhua-Mexica, to link themselves with Colhuacán,
the sacred city of the Toltec, and in their belief, the center of the
most civilized people of the Valley of Mexico.

6. • The origin of the Aztec people is uncertain, but
elements of their own tradition suggest that
they were a tribe of hunters and gatherers on
the northern Mexican plateau before their
appearance in Mesoamerica in perhaps the 12th
century. Aztlán, however, may be legendary. It is
possible that their migration southward was
part of a general movement of peoples that
followed, or perhaps helped trigger, the collapse
of the Toltec civilization.

7. Legends and traditions
• Aztec culture is generally grouped with the
cultural complex known as the nahuas,
because of the common language they
shared. According to legend, the various
groups who were to become the Aztecs came
from the north into the Anahuac valley
around Lake Texcoco.

8. • The Nahua peoples are supposed to have
originated in what is now the southwestern
United States and northwestern Mexico. They
split off from the other Uto-Aztecan peoples and
migrated into central Mexico at some point
around 500 A.D. They settled in and around the
Basin of Mexico and spread to become the
dominant people in central Mexico. Some
important Mesoamerican civilizations were of
Nahua ethnicity, for example, the Toltec and
Aztec cultures, as well as the Tepaneca, Acolhua,
Tlaxcaltec, Xochimilca, and many more.

9. • In the legend, the ancestors of the Aztec came from a
place in the north called Aztlán, the last of seven
nahuatlacas (Nahuatl speaking tribes from tlaca (man), to
make the journey southward. The Aztec were said to be
guided by their god Huitzilopochtli, meaning "Left-handed
Hummingbird". When they arrived at an island in Lake
Texcoco, they saw an eagle eating a snake while perched
on a nopal cactus, a vision that fulfilled a prophecy telling
them that they should found their new home on that
spot. The Aztec built their city of Tenochtitlan on that site,
building a great artificial island, which today is the center
of Mexico City. This legendary vision is pictured on the
Mexican flag.

10. • According to legend, when the Aztec arrived in the
Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco, they were
considered by the other groups as the least civilized
of all, but the Aztec decided to learn, and they took
all that they could from other peoples, especially
from the ancient Toltec (whom they seem to have
partially confused with the more ancient civilization
of Teotihuacan). To the Aztec, the Toltecs were the
originators of all culture; "Toltecayotl" was a synonym
for culture. Aztec legends identify the Toltecs and the
cult of Quetzalcoatl with the mythical city of Tolan,
which they also seem to have miss-identified; it too
was also of the more ancient Teotihuacan.

11. • Because the Aztec adopted and combined several traditions with
their own earlier traditions, they had several creation myths; one
of these describes four great ages preceding the present world,
each of which ended in a catastrophe. Our age – Nahui-Ollin, the
fifth age, or fifth creation – escaped destruction due to the
sacrifice of a god (Nanahuatl, "full of sores", the smallest and
humblest of the gods) who was transformed into the Sun. This
myth is associated with the ancient city of Teotihuacan, which was
already abandoned and destroyed when the Aztec arrived.
Another myth describes the earth as a creation of the twin gods
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. Tezcatlipoca lost his foot in the
process of creating the world and all representations of this god
show him without a foot and with a bone exposed. Quetzalcoatl is
also called "White Tezcatlipoca".

12. Rise of the Aztecs
• After the fall of Tula (Toltec city), in the 12th century A.D., in the
valley of Mexico and surrounding area, there were several city
states of Nahua-speaking people: Cholula, Huexotzingo, Tlaxcala,
Atzcapotzalco, Chalco, Culhuacan, Xochimilco, Tlacopan, etc. None
of them was powerful enough to dominate the other cities, all of
them were proud of their Toltec heritage. Aztec chronicles
describe this time as a golden age, when music was established,
people learned arts and craft from surviving Toltecs, and rulers
held poetry contests in place of wars. In the 13th and 14th
centuries, around the Lake Texcoco area in the Anahuac Valley, the
most powerful of these city-states were Culhuacan to the south,
and Azcapotzalco to the west. Their rule extended over all the
area around Lake Texcoco.

13. • As a result, when the Mexica (Aztecs) arrived in the
Anahuac valley as a semi-nomadic tribe, they had
nowhere to go. They established themselves
temporarily in Chapultepec, but this was under the
rule of Azcapotzalco, the city of the "Tepaneca", and
they were soon expelled. They then went to the zone
dominated by Culhuacan and, in 1299, the ruler
Cocoxtli gave them permission to settle in Tizapan, a
rocky place where no one wanted to live. They began
to acquire as much culture as they could from
Culhuacan: they took and married Culhuacan women,
so that those women could teach their children.

14. • The Anahuac valley = The Valley of Mexico: it is
a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly
coterminous with the present-day Distrito
Federal and the eastern half of the State of
Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and
volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for
several pre-Columbian civilizations, including
Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Aztec. The
ancient Aztec term Anahuac (Land Between the
Waters) and the phrase Basin of Mexico are both
used at times to refer to the Valley of Mexico.

15. • In 1323, they asked the new ruler of Culhuacan “Achicometl”, for
his daughter in order to make her the goddess Yaocihuatl.
Achicometl unknowingly complied with their request: the Mexica
sacrificed her. The people of Culhuacan were horrified and
expelled the Mexica. Forced to flee Culhuacan: in 1325 they went
to a small islet in the center of Lake Texcoco, where they began to
build their city "Mexico - Tenochtitlan", eventually creating a large
artificial island. After a time, they elected their first Tlatoani
named Acamapichtli, following customs learned from the
Culhuacan. Another Mexica group later settled on the northern
shore: this would become the city of Tlatelolco. Originally this was
an independent Mexica kingdom, but eventually it merged with
the islet Tenochtitlan.

16. • During this period, the islet was under the jurisdiction of
Azcapotzalco, and the Mexica had to pay heavy tributes to
stay there. Initially, the Mexica hired themselves out as
mercenaries in wars between Nahuas, breaking the
balance of power between these older city-states.
Eventually they gained enough glory to receive royal
marriages. Mexica rulers Acamapichtli, Huitzilihuitl and
Chimalpopoca were in 1372–1427, vassals of Tezozomoc, a
lord of the Tepanec Nahua. When Tezozomoc died, his son
Maxtla assassinated the Mexica ruler Chimalpopoca. His
uncle Itzcoatl, who was an illegitimate son of the first
Emperor Acamapichtli, was elected king. Itzcoatl
immediately sought assistance from the ex-ruler of
Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl.

17. • Acolmiztli Nezahualcoyotl was the son of Ixtlilxochitl I
and Matlalcihuatzin, the daughter of Huitzilihuitl.
Nezahualcoyotl's father had set Texcoco against the
powerful city of Azcapotzalco, ruled by the Tepanec.
In 1418, when the young prince was fifteen, the
Tepanecs, led by Tezozomoc, conquered Texcoco, and
Nezahualcoyotl had to flee into exile in Huexotzinco,
he moved to Tenochtitlan in 1422. After Tezozomoc's
son Maxtla became ruler of Azcapotzalco,
Nezahualcoyotl returned to Texcoco, but had to go
into exile a second time when he learned that Maxtla
plotted against his life.

18. • When Itzcoatl requested help against the Tepanecs,
Nezahualcoyotl envisioned an opportunity to form a single
military force to fight the mighty kingdom of Atzcapotzalco. After
being offered support from insurgents inside Acolhuacan, and
rebel Tepanecs from Coyohuacan, Nezahualcoyotl joined the war.
He called for a coalition composed of most of the most important
cities of the time: Tenochtitlan, Tlacopan, Tlatelolco, Huexotzingo,
Tlaxcala and Chalco. Once declared a shared war, and a single
effort, the coalition army of more than 100,000 men, under the
command of Nezahualcoyotl, and other important tlatoanis,
headed towards Azcapotzalco from the city of Calpulalpan. A
military offensive that in 1428 would reconquer Acolhuacan,
capital city of the kingdom of Texcoco.

19. • The gigantic army was divided into three
parts. One army attacked Acolman to the
north and the second Coatlinchan to the
south. A contingent led by Nezahualcoyotl
himself was intended to attack Acolhuacan,
just after providing support upon request by
any of the first two armies. The coalition
conquered Acolman and Otumba, sacking
them only due to the sudden Tepanec siege
of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco.

20. • In a tactical move, the split armies united again and then divided into
two. One of them, under Nezahualcoyotl again, headed towards Texcoco
laying siege over Acolhuacan on its way, while the other attacked and
destroyed Azcapotzalco. At the time the armies met again,
Nezahualcoyotl reclaimed Texcoco and decided to conquer Acolhuacan,
enteering from the North while the Tenochca and Tlacopan allies coming
from Azcapotzalco attacked from the south. The two armies
simultaneously attacked the north and south of Acolhuacan until they
gained dominance of the city's main square. After their victory, the
coalition began a series of attacks to isolated Tepanec posts throughout
the territory of Texcoco. The defeat of the Tepanecs, and the end of the
kingdom of Azcapotzalco, gave rise to the Aztec "Triple Alliance"
between Texcoco, Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan, that came to dominate the
Valley of Mexico, and then extended its power beyond. Tenochtitlan
gradually became the dominant power in the alliance. Nezahualcoyotl,
was finally crowned Tlatoani of Texcoco in 1431.

21. • Texcoco, not to be confused with the lake: was a
major Acolhua city-state in the central Mexican
plateau. It was situated on the eastern bank of
Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico, to the
northeast of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Pre-
Columbian Texcoco is most noted for its
membership in the Aztec Triple Alliance. At the
time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, it was
one of the largest and most prestigious cities in
central Mexico, second only to the Aztec capital,
Tenochtitlan.

22. • Itzcoatl's nephew Motecuhzoma I inherited the
throne in 1449 A.D, and expanded the realm. His
son Axayacatl (1469) added the surrounding
kingdom of Tlatelolco. His sister was married to
the tlatoani of Tlatelolco, but as a pretext for
war, he declared that she was mistreated. He
went on to conquer Matlazinca and the cities of
Tollocan, Ocuillan, and Mallinalco. He was
defeated by the Tarascans in Tzintzuntzan (the
first great defeat the Aztecs had ever suffered),
but recovered and took control of the Huasteca
region, conquering the Mixtecs and Zapotecs.

23. Aztec society and Class structure
• The society traditionally was divided into two social
classes; the macehualli (people) or peasantry and the
pilli or nobility. Nobility was not originally hereditary,
although the sons of pillis had access to better
resources and education, so it was easier for them to
become pillis. Eventually though, this class system
took on the aspects of a hereditary system. The Aztec
military had a core of full time professional warriors.
An Aztec became a pilli through his abilities in war.
Only those that had taken prisoners could become
full-time warriors, and eventually the honors and
spoils of war would make them pillis.

24. • Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he
would be called tequiua and could attain a rank of Eagle
or Jaguar knight, sometimes translated as "captain",
eventually he could reach the rank of tlacateccatl or
tlachochcalli. To be elected as tlatoani, one was required
to have taken about 17 captives in war. When Aztec boys
attained adult age, they stopped cutting their hair until
they took their first captive; sometimes two or three
youths united to get their first captive; then they would be
called iyac. If after a certain time, usually three combats,
they could not gain a captive, they became macehualli
(common folk); it was shameful to be a warrior with long
hair, indicating lack of captives; one would prefer to be a
macehualli.

25. • The abundance of tributes led to the emergence
and rise of a third class that was not part of the
traditional Aztec society: pochtecas or traders.
Their activities were not only commercial: they
also were an effective intelligence gathering
force. They were scorned by the warriors, who
nonetheless sent to them their spoils of war in
exchange for blankets, feathers, slaves, and
other presents.

26. The Empire
• The Aztec Empire is not completely like the
empires of European history. Like most
European empires, it was ethnically very
diverse, but unlike most European empires, it
was more a system of tribute than a single
system of government. Arnold Toynbee in
War and Civilization analogizes it to the
Assyrian Empire in this respect.

27. • Although cities under Aztec rule seem to have
paid heavy tributes, excavations in the Aztec-
ruled provinces show a steady increase in the
welfare of common people after they were
conquered. This was probably due to an
increase of trade, thanks to better roads and
communications. Only the upper classes seem to
have suffered economically, and only at first.
There appears to have been trade even in things
that could be produced locally: love of novelty
may have been a factor.

28. • The most important official of Tenochtitlan
government is often called The Aztec Emperor.
The Nahuatl title, Huey Tlatoani (plural huey
tlatoque), translates roughly as "Great Speaker";
the tlatoque ("speakers") were an upper class.
This office gradually took on more power with
the rise of Tenochtitlan. By the time of Auitzotl
"Emperor" is an appropriate analogy, although
as in the Holy Roman Empire, the title was not
hereditary.

29. • Most of the Aztec empire was forged by one man,
Tlacaelel (Nahuatl for "manly heart"), who lived from
1397 to 1487. Although he was offered the
opportunity to be tlatoani, he preferred to stay
behind the throne. Nephew of Tlatoani Itzcoatl, and
brother of Chimalpopoca and Motecuhzoma
Ilhuicamina, his title was "Cihuacoatl" (in honor of
the goddess, roughly equivalent to "counselor"), but
as reported in the Ramírez Codex, "what Tlacaellel
ordered, was as soon done". He gave the Aztec
government a new structure, he ordered the burning
of most Aztec books (his explanation being that they
were full of lies) and he rewrote their history.

30. • Tlacaelel thus created a new history for the Aztecs. He also
created the institution of ritual war (flowery war) as a way to
maintain trained warriors, and supply the necessary people for
sacrifices to keep the Sun moving. A flower war (or more
correctly, flowery war) from the Nahuatl xochiyaoyotl; was among
the Aztec, a planned war in which the objective was not to kill
enemies or conquer territory, but rather to capture as many
prisoners as possible, who would then be sacrificed in religious
ceremonies and maybe eaten. On account of this institution, Aztec
warriors were trained to prefer capturing their enemies in battle,
rather than killing. For the Aztec warriors, providing blood for the
gods was a sacred duty and it was a noble occupation. In the Aztec
world, flowers and feathers were the most precious things, so the
word "flower" means "precious" and it was used as an descriptor
for the activity of sacred war. The blood flowing from a wound
was described as a flower of war.

31. • These sacred wars were planned for both
sides involved, though not necessarily
willingly, and the participants had to be
nahuas. Sometimes the rulers of the cities at
war were invited to the sacrifice of their own
people. After the aztecs conquered most of
the nahuatl speaking cities, the cities states
of Tlaxcala and Huexotzingo were spared, but
with the obligation of participating in the
flowery wars.

32. • In all the Mesoamerican cultures, blood had a very
important place. Blood was provided not only by
human sacrifice, but also by self-sacrifice. Tlacaelel
made changes so that it became a constant necessity
to offer blood to restore the blood the sun lost in his
daily battle against the darkness. Every 52 years there
was the possibility the world would end. They did not
believe it was necessarily a daily sacrifice, but they
did believe human sacrifice would postpone
indefinitely the defeat of the sun. In a way the Aztecs
considered it their duty to maintain the world.

33. • And so stood the Aztec Empire when Montezuma II at
the age of 36 (in 1502), succeeded his uncle Ahuitzotl,
as the ninth Aztec emperor of Mexico. By now the
Aztec Empire had reached its greatest extent,
stretching to what is now Honduras and Nicaragua.
But below the surface, the Aztec Empire was fragile.
The Aztecs bloodlust and ever-increasing demands for
tribute had to eventually have consequences. And so
it was that when Montezuma was still a boy of five
years old, another boy was born in a land across the
ocean. That boys name was Christopher Columbus,
and his arrival would mean the beginning of the end
for the Aztec.

34. Fall of the Aztec Empire
• Hernando Cortes was born in 1485 into a
Medellin family of minor nobility in
southwestern Spain, Cortes briefly studied law
before sailing from his homeland to the New
World at the age of nineteen to seek his fortune.
After several years as a gentleman farmer on the
Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in 1511, Cortes
joined the military expedition of Diego de
Velazquez that went on to capture Cuba. After
the victory, Cortes became the mayor of
Santiago and married the sister-in-law of
Velazquez.

35. • In 1518, Velazquez gave Cortes permission to form a small
force with a fleet of eleven ships, about 550 men, 20
horses and 10 cannon to conduct an exploration of
Mexico, which the Spaniards had first visited the previous
year in 1517. Velazquez however, began to regret his
instructions as he grew apprehensive of Cortes's
ambitions and attempted to rescind his orders. His
actions, however, were too late to stop Cortes from sailing
westward in February 1519. Cortes explored the Yucatan
coastline before landing at the region of Totonacapan,
which was subject to Aztec military incursions. Despite the
establishment of Aztec fortifications throughout the
region, rebellion was endemic.

36. • The Major Totonac centers were Papantla, with
an estimated population of 60,000 in
1519, Xalapa (around 120,000), and Cempoala
(around 80,000). Cempoala was the first major
center encountered by Cortés . The Totonacs of
Cempoala told Cortes of the great and rich
empire of the Aztec people further inland. (It is
at this time that Cortes is offered twenty young
women as his slaves, one of them is an Aztec
maiden, later to be known as Malinche, she will
serve as his interpetor with the Aztec, her story
is at the end of this section).

37. • The Totonacs joined forces with Cortés, and
moving inland, there they encountered the
second power of the region, the Tlaxcalans,
who briefly engaged them in battle, but
suffering heavy losses, soon decided to ally
with them against their traditional enemy,
the Aztec.

38. • Both the Totonacs and the Tlaxcalans
probably after consideration, saw the
Spanish as a God-sent. The Aztec “Flowery
Wars” had claimed thousands of their
people, and their hatred of the Aztec ran
deep, as was evidenced by their reported
savagery in their subsequent battles against
the Aztec. As the army moved on toward
Tenochtitlán, many of the local subordinate
states also came to terms.

39. • Cortes moved his force a short distance
northward and established what became the
port of Vera Cruz, as he made plans to
advance against the Aztecs. To prevent his
own force of less than six hundred men from
deserting, because many feared venturing
inland, Cortes burned his ships, leaving no
means of escape.

40. • In Tenochtitlan Montezuma hears of the pale invaders
(In all non-white cultures, whiteness or paleness is
associated with loss of blood, sickness, death: so it is
consistent that Montezuma would view these strange
new creatures with pale skin, as dead gods returned
to life). He considers Cortés to be Quetzacoatl, the
great god who left Mexico many years before, on a
raft of snakes, vowing to return. And who, according
to legend, had taught them about agriculture and
government, and whose return they were to welcome
with great ceremony.

41. • Also knowing of this Aztec myth (probably from
Malinche) Cortes exploits the Aztec myth of a
pale skinned, bearded god-king named
Quetzalcoatl, as he approaches Tenochtitlan.
Montezuma made a feeble attempt to stop
Cortes, but his defenses lacked unity and
tenacity, both because of the Quetzalcoatl
legend, which dictated that his people should
welcome the return of the "white god," and the
fear generated by the sight of Spanish horses
and firearms, which the Aztecs had never seen
before.

42. • There are contradictory reports of what
happened at Cholula. Moctezuma had
apparently tried to stop the advance of
Cortés and his troops, and it seems that he
ordered the leaders of Cholula to try to stop
him. Cholula had a very small army, since as a
sacred city, they put their confidence in their
prestige and their gods.

43. • La Malinche told Cortés, after talking to the wife of
one of the lords of Cholula, that the locals planned to
murder the Spaniards in their sleep and although he
did not know if the rumor was true or not, Cortés
ordered a pre-emptive strike. After Cortés arrived in
Cholula he seized their leaders Tlaquiach and
Tlalchiac and then ordered the city set fire. The
troops started in the palace of Xacayatzin, and then
on to Chialinco and Yetzcoloc. In his letters, Cortés
claimed that in three hours time his troops (helped by
the Tlaxcalans) killed 3,000 people and burned the
city. Another witness, Vázquez de Tapia, claimed the
death toll was as high as 30,000.

44. • The massacre had a chilling effect on the
other Mesoamerican cultures and on the
Mexica themselves. The tale of the massacre
inclined the other cultures in the Aztec
empire to submit to Cortés' demands rather
than risk the same fate.

45. • Cortés then sent emissaries to Moctezuma
with the message that the people of Cholula
had treated him with disrespect and had
therefore been punished. Cortés' message
continued that the Aztecs need not fear his
wrath if Moctezuma treated him with respect
and gifts of gold.

46. • According to the Aztec chronicles recorded by
Sahagún, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II
welcomed him with great pomp. Sahagún
reports that Moctezuma welcomed Cortés to
Tenochtitlan on the Great Causeway into the
"Venice of the West" According to Sahagún's
manuscript, Moctezuma personally dressed
Cortés with flowers from his own gardens, the
highest honour he could give, although probably
Cortés did not understand the significance of the
gesture.

47. • Moctezuma had the palace of his father Axayácatl
prepared to house the Spanish and their 3000 native
allies. Cortés asked Moctezuma to provide more gifts
of gold to demonstrate his fealty as a vassal of Charles
V. Cortés also demanded that the two large idols be
removed from the main temple pyramid in the city,
the human blood scrubbed off, and shrines to the
Virgin Mary and St. Christopher be set up in their
place. All his demands were met. Cortés then seized
Moctezuma in his own palace and made him his
prisoner as insurance against Aztec revolt, and
demanded an enormous ransom of gold, which was
duly delivered.

48. Fall of the Inca Empire
• Pizarro sent an embassy to the Inca, led by Hernando de Soto with
15 horsemen and an interpreter; shortly thereafter he sent 20
more horsemen led by his brother Hernando Pizarro as
reinforcements in case of an Inca attack. During the interview, the
Spaniards invited Atahualpa to visit Cajamarca to meet Francisco
Pizarro; the Inca promised to go the following day. In the town,
Pizarro prepared an ambush to trap the Inca: the Spanish cavalry
and infantry occupied three long buildings around the plaza, while
some musketeers and four pieces of artillery were located in a
stone structure in the middle of the square. The plan was to
persuade Atahualpa to submit to the authority of the Spaniards
and, if this failed, there were two options: a surprise attack if
success seemed possible or to keep a friendly stand if the Inca
forces appeared too powerful.

49. • The following day, Atahualpa left his camp at midday
preceded by a large number of men in ceremonial
attire; as the procession advanced slowly, Pizarro sent
his brother Hernando to invite the Inca to enter
Cajamarca before nightfall. Atahualpa entered the
town late in the afternoon in a litter carried by eighty
lords; with him were four other lords in litters and
hammocks and 5-6,000 men carrying small battle
axes, slings and pouches of stones underneath their
clothes. The Inca found no Spaniards in the plaza, as
they were all inside the buildings;the only one to
come out was the Dominican friar Vicente de
Valverde with an interpreter

50. • Although there are different accounts as to what
Valverde said, most agree that he invited the
Inca to come inside to talk and dine with Pizarro.
Atahualpa instead demanded the return of
every single thing the Spaniards had taken since
they landed. According to eyewitness accounts,
Valverde then spoke about the Catholic religion
but did not deliver the requerimiento, a speech
requiring the listener to submit to the authority
of the Spanish Crown and accept the Christian
faith.

51. • At Atahualpa's request, Valverde gave him his
breviary but after a brief examination, the Inca threw
it to the ground; Valverde hurried back toward
Pizzarro, calling on the Spaniards to attack. At that
moment, Pizarro gave the signal; the Spanish infantry
and cavalry came out of their hiding places and
charged the unsuspecting Inca retinue, killing a great
number while the rest fled in panic. Pizarro led the
charge on Atahualpa but managed to capture him
only after killing all those carrying him and turning
over his litter. Not a single Spanish soldier was killed

52. • On November 17 the Spaniards sacked the
Inca army camp in which they found great
quantities of gold, silver and emeralds.
Noticing their lust for precious metals,
Atahualpa offered to fill a large room about
22 feet (6.7 m) long and 17 feet (5.2 m) wide
up to a height of 8 feet (2.4 m) once with gold
and twice with silver within two months.

53. • It is commonly believed that the Inca offered
this ransom to regain his freedom; however,
it seems likelier that he did so to avoid being
killed, as none of the early chroniclers
mention any commitment by the Spaniards
to free Atahualpa once the metals were
delivered. One of the main events in the
conquest of the Incan Empire was the death
of Atahualpa, the last Sapa Inca on 26 July
1533 (a painting by Luis Montero)

54. • Outnumbered and fearing an imminent
attack from the Inca general Rumiñahui, after
several months the Spanish saw Atahualpa as
too much of a liability and decided to execute
him. Pizarro staged a mock trial and found
Atahualpa guilty of revolting against the
Spanish, practicing idolatry and murdering
Huáscar, his brother.

55. • Atahualpa was sentenced to execution by
burning. He was horrified, since the Inca
believed that the soul would not be able to
go on to the afterlife if the body were
burned. Friar Vicente de Valverde, who had
earlier offered his breviary to Atahualpa,
intervened, telling Atahualpa that if he
agreed to convert to Catholicism, he would
convince Pizarro to commute the sentence.

56. • Atahualpa agreed to be baptized into the
Catholic faith. He was given the name Juan
Santos Atahualpa. In accordance with his
request, he was strangled with a garrote
instead of being burned on July 26, 1533.
Following his execution, his clothes and some
of his skin were burned, and his remains
were given a Christian burial.

57. IT'S THE SAME STORY!
• Obviously, there is no point in going on:
• Clearly, as is typical with Whites and their "made-up" histories,
the above is not history, it is a canned recording of a few Whites,
defeating thousands of non-Whites, brought out as the historical
situation requires. In both cases, other sources indicate that the
native allies of the Spanish numbered in the many tens-of-
thousands, and it was THEY who conquered the Aztec and the
Inca. In South America, some of these tribes were foolish enough
to actually SUE the Spanish in SPANISH courts, for the rights and
benefits that they were promised, but never received.
• See below: Litigation over the Rights of “Natural Lords” in Early
Colonial Courts in the Andes by JOHN V. MURRA.
•

58. La Malinche
• "La Malinche." Slave, interpreter, secretary,
mistress, and mother of the first "Mexican." her
very name still stirs up controversy. Many
Mexicans continue to revile the woman called
Doña Marina by the Spaniards and La Malinche
by the Aztecs, labeling her a traitor and harlot
for her role as the alter ego of Hernando Cortes
as he conquered Mexico. Her ability to
communicate also enabled the Spaniards to
introduce Christianity. Herself a convert,
baptized Marina, she was an eloquent advocate
for her new faith.

59. • All historians agree that she was the
daughter of a noble Aztec family. Upon the
death of her father, a chief, her mother
remarried and gave birth to a son. Deciding
that the son rather than Marina should
inherit, the mother turned her young
daughter over to some passing traders and
thereafter proclaimed her dead. Eventually,
the girl wound up as a slave of the Cacique
(the military chief) of Tabasco.

60. • By the time Cortes arrived, she had learned the
Mayan dialects used in the Yucatan while still
understanding Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs
and most Non-Mayan Indians. La Malinche was
offered to Cortes as a slave by the Cacique of Tabasco,
along with 19 other young women. Up till then,
Cortes had relied on a Spanish priest, Jeronimo de
Aguilar, as his interpreter. Aguilar had been
shipwrecked off Cozumel, while waiting for rescue he
had learned the Mayan language. But when the
expedition left the Mayan-speaking area, Cortes
discovered that he could not communicate with the
Indians.

61. • That night he was advised that one of the
women given to him in Tabasco spoke
"Mexican." Doña Marina now enters Mexican
history. It was she who served as the interpreter
at the first meetings between Cortes and the
representatives of Moctezuma. At that time
Marina spoke no Spanish. She translated what
the Aztecs said into the Mayan dialect
understood by de Aguilar and he relayed it to
Cortes in Spanish. The process was then
reversed, Spanish to Mayan and Mayan to
Nahuatl.

62. • Bernal Diaz, author of "The Conquest of New
Spain" authenticated her pedigree. An
eyewitness to the events, he did not describe
her physically, but related that after the
Conquest he attended a reunion of Doña
Marina, her mother and the half- brother who
had usurped her rightful place. Diaz marveled at
her kindness in forgiving them for the injustice
she had suffered. The author referred to her
only as Marina or Doña Marina.

63. • The name "La Malinche" came about because
Marina was always with Cortes, he was called
"Malinche"--which is translated to mean
"Marina's Captain." Prescott, in the
"Conquest of Mexico," (perhaps the best
known book on the subject) confirms that
Cortes was always addressed as "Malinche"
which he translated as Captain and defined
"La Malinche" as "the captain's woman."

64. • Both definitions confirm that the Indians saw
Cortes and his spokesperson as a single unit.
They recognized that what they heard were the
words of "Malinche," not "La Malinche. " It is
very possible that without her, Cortes would
have failed. He himself, in a letter preserved in
the Spanish archives, said "After God we owe
this conquest of New Spain to Doña Marina. "
After the Conquest, Cortes, with a wife in Spain,
arranged to have Marina married to a Castilian
knight, Don Juan Xamarillo. Soon thereafter she
disappeared from history.

65. • She had borne Cortes a son, Don Mahin
Cortes. If modern-day Mexicans are a blend
of Spanish and Indian blood, Doña Marina's
son “Mahin” was the first "Mexican". He rose
to high government position and was a
"Comendador" of the Order of St. Jago. In
1548, after being accused of conspiring
against the Viceroy, he was tortured and
executed.

66. • IN MEXICO CITY - There is no museum at 57
Higuera St., not even a plaque.

67. • When foreign tourists ring the doorbell of the
stone house, they are shooed away by the
owners. Mexicans just walk right by, shunning
the place because of its historical associations
and popular fears of the ghosts that supposedly
stalk any visitors who dare to go inside. But the
house, which is one of the most graceful in the
colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan, receives a
modest mention in tourist guidebooks as "La
Malinche's house," named after Hernan Cortes'
beautiful and reputedly treacherous Indian
translator and mistress.

68. • Not only did La Malinche live in the house almost 500
years ago. This was also the place where Cortes wrote
the chronicles of his brutal conquests for King Charles
V, and where historians believe he strangled his wife
for reasons that are still the stuff of popular rumor
and historical speculation. Mexico City has museums
that commemorate its modern art, its Indian heritage,
stamps, and even the house where Leon Trotsky lived
and was assassinated. But the only commemorative
to the woman who helped Cortes forge alliances with
various Indian nations against the Aztecs is an insult.
To be called a malinchista is to be called a lover of
foreigners, a traitor.

69. • For Mexico to make this house a museum, would be like
the people of Hiroshima creating a monument for the
man who dropped the atomic bomb," said Rina Lazo, a
prominent Mexican muralist who lives at 57 Higuera
Street with her family. "We're not malinchistas, but we
want to conserve Mexican history." La Malinche, who
took part in the Spanish conquest and gave birth to one of
Cortes' children, has become a symbol of a nation that is
still not entirely comfortable with either its European or
its Indian roots. Some Mexican feminists say she is even at
the root of much of the disdain Mexican men display
toward Mexican women, expressed in the country's high
rates of infidelity and domestic violence.

70. • La Malinche is present in the murals of Diego
Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. She has been
described and analyzed in the writings of most
of Mexico's great authors, from the essays of
Carlos Fuentes to the plays of Salvador Novo
and Rodolfo Usigli. But even though Mexican
and Mexican-American intellectuals have begun
to rethink her meaning, La Malinche is for the
most part portrayed as the perpetrator of
Mexico's original sin and as a cultural metaphor
for all that is wrong with Mexico.

71. • For Octavio Paz, La Malinche was "the cruel
incarnation of the feminine condition." In his book
"The Labyrinth of Solitude," Paz wrote, "The strange
permanence of Cortes and La Malinche in the
Mexican's imagination and sensibilities reveals that
they are something more than historical figures: They
are symbols of a secret conflict that we have still not
resolved." But while Cortes and La Malinche are still
on the minds of Mexicans, they are kept in the closet.
When Coyoacan officials constructed a fountain and
statue depicting Cortes, La Malinche and their son
about 15 years ago, street demonstrations became so
fierce that the monument was destroyed.

72. • Visitors who are lucky enough to gain entrance to 57
Higuera Street are treated to an array of riches. Ms. Lazo
and her husband, Arturo Garcia Bustos, who is also a
prominent painter, use the ample two-story house as their
studio. Amid their own work and that of their teachers,
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, are Aztec jade jewelry and
other artifacts they found in the garden. The house
sustained a rich history between the time La Malinche
lived there and when Ms. Lazo and Garcia Bustos moved
in 35 years ago. It has been restored and rebuilt several
times, but the foundation and several walls remain from
the original house, and stone rings to tie idle horses still
grace the facade.

73. • In colonial times, Indians wove blankets and clothing in the house
for their Spanish masters. It was left in ruins in the 17th century.
But a group of Catholic monks clandestinely converted the house
into a convent in the middle of the 19th century, resisting the anti-
clerical policies of President Benito Juarez. Some peasants
betrayed the monks, and the house was confiscated and turned
into a prison. Jose Vasconcelos, the Mexican philosopher and
unsuccessful presidential candidate, bought the house in the '30s
and rented it to various people, including Lupe Rivera Marin,
Diego Rivera's daughter. She used the house as headquarters
when she successfully ran for Congress. "It will take another
century before this house could become a museum," Ms. Lazo
said. "The gringos and Spaniards will keep knocking on the door,
but the Mexicans will only knock when they no longer hold
grudges and feel resentments, and that will take time."

74. More on Aztec charactor
• Success in war had given the Aztecs more than a
fair share of national pride, and the arrogance of
Mexican officials and tax-gatherers was
notorious. The structure and values of society
were designed to foster competition and pride
in achievement, and the Aztecs were clearly not
lacking in ambition and self esteem, nor
apparently in passion, for the severe penalties
for adultery and drunkenness-both of which are
crimes of excess suggest that these were two
evils which could only be kept down by
repression.

75. • A well-bred Aztec was, however, expected to
exercise selfcontrol and to behave with dignity.
Sahagun has left a word-portrait of the perfect
nobleman, a person who is serious and modest,
who 'wishes no praise', who is 'solicitous of
others', chaste and devout, eloquent but
discreet in his conversation, diligent, wise,
polite, 'a follower in the ways of his parents',
and an example to other people. This, of course,
is an idealized picture, and the high standard of
behavior may have been more often sought
after than achieved.

76. • The same emphasis on moderation,
responsibility, and selfrestraint is found in
the Precepts of the Elders, a class of
literature written in a high-flown and wordy
style to instruct young people in behavior
and manners. Here is one Aztec father talking
to his son:

77. • Revere and greet your elders; console the poor and the afflicted
with good works and words. . . . Follow not the madmen who
honor neither father nor mother; for they are like animals, for
they neither take nor hear advice. . . . Do not mock the old, the
sick, the maimed, or one who has sinned. Do not insult or abhor
them, but abase yourself before God and fear lest the same befall
you. . . . Do not set a bad example, or speak indiscreetly, or
interrupt the speech of another. If someone does not speak well
or coherently, see that you do not the same; if it is not your
business to speak, be silent. If you are asked something, reply
soberly and without affectation or flattery or prejudice to others,
and your speech will be well regarded. . . . Wherever you go, walk
with a peaceful air, and do not make wry faces or improper
gestures. (Zorita)

78. • There is much more in the same vein, and
near the end inevitably comes the sentence
which every young man has heard at some
time or other: 'Son, if you do not heed your
father's advice, you will come to a bad end,
and the fault will be yours.'

79. • The Mexicans were addicted to making
speeches and giving advice, often at great
length, and many of their songs and poems
have a philosophical theme which gives
further insight into the 8 Pectoral ornament
in the shape of a double-headed serpent.
Turquoise mosaic on a wooden base

80. • Aztec temperament. One obsession is with the
transitory nature of life and the difficulty of finding
anything permanent on earth:
• It is not true, it is not true that we come on this earth
to live. We come only to sleep, only to dream. Our
body is a flower. As grass becomes green in the
springtime, So our hearts will open and give forth
buds and then they wither.
• Even the search for philosophical truth ends only in
failure and doubt.
• How many can truthfully say that truth is or is not
there?

81. • Some people found a solution in epicureanism, the
enjoyment of life while it lasts, but even their
pleasure was tinged with melancholy:
• Only in passing are we here on earth. In peace and
pleasure let us spend our lives; come let us enjoy
ourselves. . . Would that one lived forever; Would
that one were not to die!
• The same fatalistic acceptance can be seen in man's
relationship with the gods, when the love of
pageantry and ceremony which affected every part of
Aztec life reached its climax in the ritual of worship.

82. • Generalizations about national character are always
dangerous and likely to be misleading, but the typical
Aztec (who must have been as rare as the typical
Englishman) seems to have been a good citizen,
rather conservative and tied to tradition, with his
competitive and aggressive instincts held in check by
good manners and self-control, ceremonious in his
dealings with other people, sensitive to beauty and to
the symbolism which underlies philosophy and
religion, inclined to be pompous and perhaps a bit
humorless, honest and hard- working, proud of his
position in society, superstitious and fatalistic in his
attitude towards life.

83. Aztec Personal Cleanliness
• Andres de Tapia comments (with some
astonishment) that Montezuma washed his
body twice a day, but this love of personal
cleanliness was general among the Aztecs,
and everybody bathed frequently in the
rivers and lakes. True soap was unknown. but
among the substitutes available were the
fruit of the soap-tree and the roots of certain
plants which could produce a lather.

84. • Besides these cold-water baths, a kind of sauna or steam bath was
in use everywhere in the Valley of Mexico. Almost every dwelling
had its bath-house, a little hemispherical building shaped rather
like an igloo with a low doorway. Against it was constructed a fire-
place, and the blaze warmed the adjacent wall of the bath-house
until it glowed red-hot. At this stage, 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
full benefit from the treatment, the bather switched himself with
twigs or bundles of grass. 'Soap' was used for washing, and the
process might be completed with a massage, followed by a period
of relaxation, lying stretched out on a mat. Both men and women
used the steam baths, not only for ritual purifications and the
treatment of certain diseases but as a normal part of everyday
hygiene.

85. The Aztec's Cosmetics
• The Aztec skin was naturally brown or bronze-
colored, but the fashionable shade for a
woman's complexion was yellow. To achieve this
effect the cheeks were either rubbed with a
yellow earth or anointed with a cream
containing axin, a waxy yellowish substance
obtained by cooking and crushing the bodies of
fat-producing insects. Travelers also used axin
ointment as a salve to prevent the lips from
cracking in frosty weather, and to protect the
skin from the effect of cold.

86. • Sahagun has left a description of the kind of
make-up worn by fashion-conscious women,
in particular by the courtesans who were the
companions of the young warriors:

87. • Their faces were painted with dry, colored powder;
faces were colored with yellow ochre, or with
bitumen.
Feet were anointed with an unguent of burned copal
incense and dye. . . . Some cut their hair short, so
that their hair reached their noses. It was cut and
dyed with black mud so did they place importance
upon
their heads; it was dyed with indigo, so that their
hair shone. The teeth were stained with cochineal (a
red dye);
• the hands and neck were painted with designs.

88. • Perfumes, rose water and incense were popular, and
a kind of chewing gum (made of chicle – tree gum -
mixed with axin and bitumen) was used to sweeten
the breath. As always, the appearance and manners
of the young people did not meet with the approval
of the older generation, and this father's admonition
to his daughter has a familiar ring: 'Never make up
your face nor paint it; never put red on your mouth to
look beautiful. Makeup and paint are things that light
women use shamelessly. If you want your husband to
love you, dress well, wash yourself and wash your
clothes.'

89. • Men painted their faces and bodies on
ceremonial occasions, but it is not certain
whether the Aztecs followed the example of
their Otomi neighbors who covered their
arms and chests with tattooed designs.
Sahagun reports, however, that the fifth
month of the year was the time when
incisions were made on the chests of children
as a mark of citizenship or tribal
identification.

90. • Mirrors were made from pieces of burnished
iron pyrites or from obsidian, a kind of black
volcanic glass, which was cut and polished
into discs up to a foot in diameter. These
were provided with wooden frames or with
loops of cord so that they could be hung on
the wall.

91. Note!!
• All of the Aztec codices and stele depicting Human
sacrifice that we see today - were made after the Aztec
had been conquered!!! Even at the Cenotes of sacrifice at
Chichen itza, where there are so many stories of people
being thrown in as sacrifices to the gods. Modern day
dredging has recovered many items of gold and jade as
well as pottery – “But” no Human remains. The
explanation for this is that the Spanish destroyed all of the
original Aztec Books and stele. Which seems pretty
strange, when you consider that the Spanish were very
keen to study the Aztec. Why then too, allow such a great
abundance of it to be re-created after the fact. If it wasn’t
right for them to exist before, why was it right afterward?

92. • The likely answer is the “vile hypocrisy” of the
Europeans. Remembering that the Spanish monarchy
considered itself to be model and devote Christians. It
wouldn’t “do” for them to murder and enslave
ordinary Humans, so a way would have to be found to
de-humanize them. To make them so ferocious and
depraved as to justify the atrocities that were to be
done to them, (they had already done the same thing
to the Caribe Indians with their allegations of
cannibalization). It is therefore quite plausible that
the Spanish forced or coerced the Aztec into making
bogus artifacts depicting atrocities to others, as a way
of justifying what was to happen to them.