MOTECUHZOMA

In 1440, Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina (r. 1440-1469) became the new tlatoani. Motecuhzoma combined noble blood with proven military skill. He was a son of Huitzilihuitl, the second tlatoani, and a cousin of Itzcoatl. He was also a member of the council that chose the next tlatoani. When the election was discussed, he was the natural choice among the possible candidates.

From the start, Motecuhzoma was determined to expand Aztec rule. Like all empires, the Aztecs believed they had the right to rule over their neighbors. They may even have believed that it was their destiny to rule all the land between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Motecuhzoma knew the way to achieve this was by making the gods happy.

As tribute poured into the city of Tenochtitlan, Motecuhzoma put the empire’s wealth to work. He began a long-range plan to address the needs of his people. He richly rewarded his soldiers after their conquests and shared some of the empire’s wealth with the nobles. He made sure his people were fed, had jobs, and were protected. He built close alliances with the peoples who had been conquered earlier. He strengthened the city with many building projects, including more roads into the city and new housing. He also ordered new temples be built throughout the city.

Motecuhzoma honored the history of the Mexica people. He knew the legends of Aztlan and the story of the seven tribes emerging from the seven caves. He sent an expedition of 60 sorcerers to find Chico-moztoc, the Place of the Seven Caves. There, Motecuhzoma believed, they would find the mother of the god Huitzilopochtli. He gave the sorcerers cloth, gems, and other riches to give to the god’s mother.

The expedition backtracked along the path the Mexica had taken. They went to Teotihuacan and Tula—two cities where the Mexica had spent several years as they journeyed south. They continued northward and came to a great lake, where they traveled by canoe to a mountain island. There, they learned that the fortunes of the Aztecs would fall because the god Huitzilopochtli would lose power.

When they returned to Tenochtitlan, the sorcerers told Motecuhzoma of their journey. They reported what they had learned: That the Aztec world was coming to an end. Motecuhzoma was not happy to hear that his people and his favorite god were doomed. Natural disasters that soon struck seemed to lend weight to the sorcerers’ words.

Montezuma or Motecuhzoma?

Nearly all the Aztec names in this book can be spelled in more than one way. That is because the Aztecs did not have an alphabet. the history of the Aztecs was passed on orally or through writing using glyphs. Because each glyph is a symbol for a whole word, Aztec writing does not offer clues to how those words were pronounced.

When the Spanish arrived, they wrote down the Aztec names they heard using Spanish letters and Spanish pronunciations. Not everyone heard the words pronounced the same way, so they came up with different spellings.

Motecuhzoma is probably the most difficult name of them all. in different places, one might find montezuma, moctezuma, motecuhzoma, or mutezuma. today, scholars who study the Aztecs and the Nahuatl language they spoke prefer motecuhzoma. that is the version used in this book.

Unusual events in nature were long considered a sign of unhappy gods or evil human activities. Soon after the sorcerers’ return, a cloud of locusts swept into the valley and ate all the crops. These were most likely cicadas that followed their natural 17-year cycle of life, and not a disaster sent by the gods. Still, whatever their source, the insects ate all the food and the people began to starve. Motecuhzoma had to feed his people from the royal granaries, where grain was stored. To prevent such an event from happening again, many people were sacrificed on the Aztecs’ temple altars.

More disasters followed. In 1449, heavy rains and hail caused the water level of Lake Texcoco to rise. The flooding filled the streets of Tenochtitlan with mud. Hail destroyed many of the crops, while other fields and chinampas lay under water. Nezahualcoyotl came to Motecuhzoma’s aid, and the pair built a nine-mile-long dike (a wall built to prevent flooding) that held back the rising water and reduced the amount of salt in the water. This made farming easier.

The following year, frosts killed the crops. That meant for several years the farmers had not produced enough food to feed the people. The royal granaries were nearly empty, and, with nearly 1 million people to feed, the situation became desperate. Then, after the floods, the Aztecs went through a drought (a long period with no rain). It was so hard to make a living that many people sold themselves into slavery. This was not always a solution, though, since so little food was available that even the wealthy went hungry.

A Delicate Balance

With their military success, the Aztecs turned themselves into an imperial power. (Imperial refers to an empire and its actions.) But that power did not mean others liked or respected them. In the same way that the Aztecs hated the Tepanecs, the peoples who were forced to pay tribute to the Aztecs hated them. The Aztecs found themselves in a difficult position. If they were too demanding, their subjects would rebel. If they were too easygoing, their subjects would ignore Aztec demands. This problem remained a concern for future Aztec tlatoque.

The Aztecs wondered how they could make their gods happy again. A religious ceremony that had once called for the sacrifice of a handful of turkeys or a jaguar now called for the sacrifice of many people. They hoped this human sacrifice would satisfy their gods. The prophecies seemed to be coming true—the world was coming to an end.

The end of the Aztecs’ many troubles came in 1454. In that year, Motecuhzoma started to rebuild the Great Temple, the pyramid that included the major temple dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. Also in 1454, the people celebrated the New Fire Ceremony, which took place when the two Aztec calendars began again on the same day. This ceremony began with a period of fasting (not eating). Then, a new fire was lit in the temple and carried around to light fires in the hearths (fireplaces) of the city’s people. The hearth was the center of family life, where women cooked food and performed religious rituals. The New Fire Ceremony also included human sacrifices to honor the gods.

Work on the Great Temple required building stone. Since the Aztecs’ territory had no suitable building stone, they got it by going to war with people who controlled the best building supplies. Once the Aztecs conquered these other cultures, they took the stone as tribute and the conquered people as labor for the building projects.

The city-state of Chalco, about 20 miles from Tenochtitlan, was known for its building stone. It was not yet part of the empire, but the Aztec army quickly changed that. Human sacrifice to Huitzilopochtli was also part of Motecuhzoma’s military strategy. Captives from Chalco were marched to Tenochtitlan and sacrificed. The Aztecs now had plenty of stone available for Huitzilopochtli’s temple.