Among the many warring tribes in the central valley of Mexico were people from Aztlan known as the Aztecs. The history of the Tenochca, an Aztec group, is among the best preserved of the Mesoamericans. They began their history in 1168 when they inhabited an island in the middle of a lake north of the Valley of Mexico. They say their god, Huitzilopochtli, sent them south to the Valley of Mexico in 1248. They were a harsh people who practiced human sacrifice and dealt with most crimes through capital punishment or mutilation.

They wandered for 100 years and then settled on the shores of Lake Teccoco to build on the current location of Mexico City. Legend has it that they picked this spot because Huitzilopochtli told them to travel until they came to a place where an eagle eating a serpent was sitting on a cactus growning from a rock. It would also be a place were fish would swim.

They named the place Tenochtitlan because tetl is stone, nochtli is nopal cactus and tlan is place It was an inauspicious place to build a city, a shallow lake surrounded by marshes. Nevertheless, the marshes provided an endless supply of wildfowl for food and the lake was as good source of fish and fresh water.

The Aztecs reclaimed the land to build their city though their farming technique, know as Chinampas. They wove reeds, placed them in the water and put soil on them in which they grew crops. They also planted trees on the edge of these man made islands so the roots would hold the soil in.

As they prospered, they expanded their city by piling dirt up to create islands. Long poles were driven into the swampy ground to support one story stone and wood buildings. The canals between the islands acted as streets much the way they do in Venice. The Aztecs understood contamination and maintained a very clean city. Sewage and garbage was not dumped into the lake but put on barges and hauled away to a landfill. They had two aquaducts to bring water into the city. do that the supply would be continuous even when one was undergoing repairs.

When Cortes arrived in 1519, one hundred years before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, about 200,000 people lived in Tenochtitlan. These people were organized into small units called calpulli. Each calpulli was a social and a political unit. The people in each calpulli often did the same type of work, such as leather craft or farming. Each calpulli had its own temple were sacrifices were made.

In the center of Tenochtilan was the main temple. It was the largest temple and could be seen for miles around. The Aztecs preformed frequent human sacrifices. The person to be sacrificed was usually a prisoner taken in battle. They would hold the person down against the alter and the priest would cut open the chest and remove the beating heart. The heart was then offered up to the god Huitzilopochtli. These sacrifices thanked the gods rather than asking them for favors.

When the main temple was dedicated, the priests sacrificed 2,000 people in this manner.

When Cortez came to Mexico he readily enlisted the help of the surrounding tribes to defeat the Aztecs because they harbored resentment for this practice of human sacrifice. Another factor that helped Cortez was the fact that the Aztecs were accustomed to taking prisoners for later sacrifice rather than killing them on the battlefield. The Spanish had superior weapons and killed their enemy on the battlefield.

Despite superior weapons and the assistance of the local people, Cortes had a very difficult time conquering the island city of Tenochtitlan. On his third attempt, he succeeded and the lake was red with Aztec and Spaniard blood. Cortes destroyed the city and began to build what is now Mexico City on its ruins.

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Contents copyright 2004 by Dr. A. V. Persson and ParaComp, Inc. All rights reserved.

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