Tenochtitlan and the Aztec world
The Mexica found Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco and build an empire that dominates central Mexico; their capital becomes today's Mexico City.
- Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs — Camilla Townsend, Oxford University Press (2019)
- Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs — Michael D. Coe and Rex Koontz, Thames & Hudson (2013)
- Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020 — INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía) (2021)
According to their own histories, the Mexica migrated from a northern homeland called Aztlan and, around 1325, saw an eagle perched on a cactus on an island in Lake Texcoco, the sign their god Huitzilopochtli had promised. There they built Tenochtitlan. In 1428 they joined Texcoco and Tlacopan in a Triple Alliance that came to dominate much of central and southern Mexico, collecting tribute from conquered peoples.
- Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs — Camilla Townsend, Oxford University Press (2019)
- Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs — Michael D. Coe and Rex Koontz, Thames & Hudson (2013)
By 1519 Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world, with perhaps 200,000 or more people, causeways, canals, floating gardens (chinampas) and the Templo Mayor at its heart. Its religion included large-scale human sacrifice, which Spanish writers later exaggerated to justify conquest and which historians still study carefully. Camilla Townsend and others stress, using sources written in Nahuatl after the conquest, that the Mexica were a people with poetry, history, law and humour, not just the bloodthirsty caricature of European accounts.
- Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs — Camilla Townsend, Oxford University Press (2019)
- Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs — Michael D. Coe and Rex Koontz, Thames & Hudson (2013)
Why it matters today
The Mexica gave the country its name, its capital and its flag: the eagle on a cactus devouring a snake recalls the sign that, in their legend, told them where to found their city. Nahuatl words like chocolate, tomate, aguacate and chile are used worldwide, and some 1.6 million Mexicans still speak Nahuatl.