1966/10/01 by Francisco Guerra · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Latin American history and culture #Computer science #Data science #World Wide Web
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0025727300011455
openalex publication_date 1966/10/01 · openalex created_date 2022/05/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
THE discovery of America placed the European nations in contact with three major civilizations, the Aztec in the Mexican plateau, the Maya in the Yucatan peninsula, and the Inca in the Peruvian Andes.The Mayas had been settled for centuries in the same area and developed a civilization with high cultural manifestations, whereas the Aztecs and Incas, in spite of their political power and strong resistance to the Spanish conquest, were actually cultural parvenues among pre-Columbian people.The Aztecs were the most powerful among Mexican nations at the time of Cortes's arrival, and after a long migration from the north, they had settled in Chapultepecon the shores of the Lake of Texcoco-around A.D. 1267.Historical sources make it possible to trace the evolution of the Aztecs before the European arrival; nevertheless the field of Mexican archaeology is expanding considerably and many ideas are still sufficiently fluid to be subject to correction, as Krickeberg (1961) has pointed out.On the other hand, there is at present a much more critical attitude in the study of American archaeology and its medical aspects. AZTEC ARCHAEOLOGYThe earliest Mexican civilization to leave traces in the central plateau around 955 B.C. was the Olmec.However, most of the Aztec cultural achievements were inherited from the Toltecs who arrived at Colhuacan in A.D. 908 and founded their capital Tula in 977.The Toltecs left a deep impression not only on other Nahuatlspeaking tribes but even on the Maya territories which they invaded around 999.The Toltecs were remarkable for city planning, a solid architecture with use of caryatids; the introduction of bow and arrow for hunting and combat; the adaptation of nets for individual transport of goods in the absence of beasts of burden; the beginning of copper metallurgy and a variety of other contributions, from the ring used in the Mexican ball game to the warriors' fraternities.The Toltecs were overrun in the Valley of Mexico about A.D. 1172 by the more nomadic and aggressive Chichimecs, and it was after that date that a number of Mexican tribes around the Texcoco Lake, each representing the original migrating stocks, increased their cultural intercourse.The Aztec legends assert that their people came from a mythical place, Aztlan, or, like other Nahuatl-speaking tribes, from the seven caves in the north, Chicomoztoc.Only after a migration lasting ninety-nine years were the Aztecs able to reach, in 1267, the Lake ofTexcoco; however, it was not until 1325 that their capital Tenochtitlan was built, known after the Spanish conquest as Mexico City.The Aztecs remained all those years subject to the Atzcapozalco tribe until their city Tenochtitlan joined in a league with the nearby cities of Texcoco of Chichimec and Tlacopan of Acolhuac stock, obtaining their independence under the leadership of Iztcoatl in 1427.After the death of their leader in 1440, the Aztecs elected King Moctezuma I, a monarch