SECTION I-HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

HISTORICAL SUMMARY

I. BEFORE THE CONQUEST

The Original Inhabitants: When Cortés landed on the red sand plains of Vera Cruz four hundred years ago, he found a country whose inhabitants differed greatly among themselves in language, customs, and cultural development.

A certain degree of unity and a high order of civilization had been attained in the Valley of Mexico, where the Aztecs held sway; but to the north was a large population of uncivilized, or "wild," Indians, such as the Apaches, the Seris, and the Yaquis -tribes whose characteristics and manner of life differed in no respect from those of their kinsmen living in what is now Arizona and New Mexico. South of the Aztec center dwelt a people of another type. Oldest, probably, and in many respects most civilized, most persistent, and certainly most mysterious of all the races of Mexico, were these Mayas of the Guatemalan border and of the Peninsula of Yucatán. Their great stone temples at Palenque, Uxmal, and Chichén Itza were already centuries old when the Spaniards came, and the origin of their civilization was even then lost in the mists of antiquity.

The central part of Mexico was populated by many tribes of varying degrees of civilization. Chief of these at the time of the Spaniards were the Aztecs. But the Aztecs constituted only one branch of a much older and larger family called the Nahua, which occupied most of modern Mexico south of a line running from Tampico on the Gulf to San Blas on the Pacific. Other important branches of this Nahua family were the Toltecs and Chichimecs.

Besides these, there were innumerable other tribes whose origin and racial connection have long been matters of speculation and uncertainty. Indeed, the whole question of the origin of the peoples of Mexico is one that still perplexes archaeologists and ethnologists alike. Some authorities endeavor to trace the Maya and Aztec beginnings back to Asia, to Africa, or even to the fabled continent of Atlantis. And at least one devout, if misguided Englishman, Lord Kingsborough, spent a princely fortune seeking to identify the more highly civilized peoples of Mexico with the lost ten tribes of Israel! Yet to this very day, no one can say definitely from what ancient race these peoples sprang, or whence they began their long migrations to the peninsula of Yucatán and the land of Anáhuac.

It is generally agreed, however, that the various peoples who inhabited Mexico before the Spaniards, came into the country from the north in a series of great waves or migrations. Earliest of all, so far as it is possible to determine, were the Mayas who settled in Yucatán probably about the third century, A. D. Almost contemporaneous with the Mayas were the Zapotecas, a hardy, independent people of Oaxaca and Guerrero. Next came the Otomies, from whom many of the sedentary tribes of central and southern Mexico are sprung. They occupied the region now included in the states of San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Mexico, Querétaro, and Morelos.

Not long after the Otomies, came the first of the Nahua family -the Toltecs, a race much farther advanced than the Otomies, whom they either subdued or drove out of their original possessions. The Toltecs built up a comparatively well organized kingdom, with its capital at the modern city of Tula, about 30 miles northwest of Mexico City. But after a period of ascendancy their power in turn was overthrown. One explanation given for this was the over-indulgence of the tribe in pulque, a drink which it is believed they discovered. About the same time a roving, warlike people, called the Chichimecs, began to dispute their supremacy. The Chichimees, though inferior to the Toltecs. in civilization, were much their superiors in military ability, and soon displaced them as the dominant factor in Central Mexico.

The Aztecs: Lastly came the Aztecs, the most important branch of the Nahua family. The origin and early history of this people is so obscure and interwoven with myth that the historian can do little better than fall back upon the interesting legend which tells of the founding of the Aztec empire. The story, according to one version, runs as follows:

"The Mexicans came also from the remote regions of the north....and arrived on the borders of Anáhuac (Valley of Mexico) toward the beginning of the fourteenth century, some time after the occupation of the land by the kindred races. For a long time they did not establish themselves in any permanent residence, but continued shifting their quarters to different parts of the Mexican Valley. After a series of wanderings and adventures they at length halted on the southwestern border of the principal lake, in the year 1325. They there beheld, perched on the stem of a prickly pear, which shot out from the crevices of a rock that was washed by the waves, a royal eagle of extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in its talons, and his broad wings opened to the rising sun." This legend, it is almost superfluous to add, is still preserved on Mexican coins and the national flag.

Regarding this omen as the fulfillment of prophecy, the wandering Aztecs established a settlement in the swampy margins of the lake, sinking piles for the foundations of their reed or

tule houses, and naming their pueblo Tenochtitlán, or the Place of the Stone-Cactus. From this humble beginning dates the rise of the famous Aztec "Empire." In the course of two hundred years, particularly through the political skill and military ability of the Montezuma dynasty-if such a term may be applied to the ruling family of a semi-civilized people -the crude collection of huts on the lake's margin grew into a populous, ordered city, and the tribe developed into an organized nation, holding sway, not only over the Valley of Mexico, but also over a vast territory beyond.

The Aztec kingdom, embracing about 16,000 square leagues, in reality consisted of a confederation of three separate tribes with their capitals respectively at Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tacubaya, but the Aztecs completely dominated the alliance and controlled both its policies and government. Beyond the actual limits of the alliance, scores of subjugated tribes, conquered from time to time in indescribably savage wars, paid various forms of tribute to the Aztec sovereign. Most oppressive and heartless of these exactions was the annual toll of victims required for the human sacrifices. In various forms this Aztec overlordship extended from one ocean to the other, and from the northern limits of the Valley of Mexico as far south as the Isthmus of Tehauntepec.

Civilization: The civilization of the Aztecs, whether borrowed from the Toltecs or Mayas, or of their origin, was remarkably well developed. Hospitals and public charities existed for the sick and the unfortunate. Trades and crafts, especially among the metal workers, lapidaries, and weavers, were organized under a system not unlike the guild system of mediaeval Europe, with well defined rules and an established order of apprenticeships. There were also regularly graduated social classes, a well organized system of local and national government, an elaborate judicial system, and a rudimentary postal service. There was also among the priests some skill in medicine, and a more correct knowledge of the solar system than that possessed by the Greeks or Romans.

On the other hand, there were certain serious deficiencies of the Aztec civilization almost as marked as were its attainments. Painting and music existed only in the crudest forms. There was no coinage system and no system of phonetic writing. Neither wax nor oil was employed for light. The only domestic animals were rabbits, turkeys and little dogs, all alike used for food.

Government: The Aztec government was theocratic and military. At its head stood an hereditary sovereign; next came the priests; then a very powerful nobility; and finally the army. Slavery and peonage were fundamental institutions. Much of the land was held by the king, the priests, the nobility and the

military chiefs. Village communal holdings, however, were an essential feature of the system of land tenure, and each villager cultivated his own part of the common lands.

The judicial system was organized in a manner partaking of a high degree of civilization. In all the principal cities there were inferior and superior courts, and a sort of police or justice court, corresponding in some degree to the ward magistrate of modern times. Above these stood a supreme court (to which appeals might be taken) consisting of the king and his highest councillors. Laws and court records were preserved by official "stenographers" who made use of an elaborate system of ideographic writing for the purpose.

In the punishment of criminal offenses, little leniency was shown. The theft of gold or silver was punished as an act of sacrilege as well as an offense against society. The culprit was first flayed alive and then sacrificed to the god of precious metals. Other crimes were punished by crushing the head of the prisoner between two stones, or by cutting his heart out as he lay bound alive upon the altar. A young man found drunk was beaten to death, and a young woman stoned. A slanderer was singed with pine torches until the scalp was laid bare.

Court: The court of the emperor, Montezuma, was organized after the style of an oriental monarch. Six hundred nobles and men of rank were his personal attendants; three hundred or more youths served daily at the royal table. The latter was furnished with every variety of fish, flesh, fowl, fruit, and vegetable known to the country. Little chafing dishes, heated with charcoal, stood at each plate to keep the viands warm. Napkins and bowls of water, precursors of the modern finger bowl, were furnished each guest both before and after eating. The table was adorned with ornaments and dishes of gold, silver, and semiprecious stones, curiously wrought to imitate a thousand objects, animate and inanimate, in which the land abounded.

For Montezuma's edification and amusement, there was an aviary containing every species of bird to be found in Mexico. Three hundred servants were assigned to the care of these birds. Besides this aviary, there was also a great zoological garden connected with the palace, and a choice collection of human freaks. Albinos, dwarfs, giants, and the like, were all a part of this royal museum, and each was provided with his separate apartment and his own keeper.

Calendar: One of the highest evidences of Aztec civilization, borrowed perhaps from their Maya or Toltec predecessors, was their accurate and detailed method of reckoning time. The year was divided into 18 months of 20 days each. Both months and days were named, the latter being called after familiar objects, such as Dawn, Wind, House, Lizard, Serpent, Death, and so on.

As there were 365 days in the Aztec year, it was so arranged that 5 intercalary days should come, according to the modern calendar, from February 24 to 28, inclusive. Every 104 years, 25 additional days were added to care for the annual six hour excess over the 365 days-this, of course, on the same principle that accounts for our own leap year. Instead of reckoning by centuries, as we do, the Aztecs dealt in cycles, each of which consisted of 52 years and was divided into quarters of 13 years. The beginning of each new cycle was the occasion of a great religious festival, culminating in the rite of kindling the sacred fire upon the bare breast of a human sacrifice.

The City of Mexico: The City of Mexico, or Mexico as it is more properly called, the old Tenochtitlán of early Aztec days, built as it was in the midst of a marshy lake, was connected with the mainland by four great causeways of stone. The chief of these, still used as a street in the modern city, was four or five miles long and wide enough for ten horsemen (had there been such a thing in pre-Spanish times) to ride abreast upon it. Many of the streets were "very wide and straight," while others were merely canals, built to furnish water to the city and outlying gardens, and to provide a passageway for canoes. The main thoroughfares were regularly lighted, cleaned, and patrolled; while in sanitary provisions the city, numbering between 60,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, was far ahead of its European contemporaries. It has been spoken of as "probably more spacious, cleaner, and healthier than any European town of that time."

Among the most characteristic features of the city, and of Aztec economic life as a whole, were the great market places where the business activities of the people centered. The largest of these was minutely described in the second letter of Cortés to his sovereign, Charles V. In this letter he says:

"There is one square twice as large as that of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than 60,000 souls, engaged in buying and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords-as for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers. There are also exposed for sale wrought and unwrought stone, bricks burnt and unburnt, timber hewn and unhewn, of different sorts. There is a street for game, where every variety of birds in the country are sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild ducks, fly-catchers, widgeons, turtle doves, pigeons, reed birds, parrots, sparrows, eagles, hawks, owls, and kestrels.... There are also sold rabbits, hares, deer, and little dogs, which are raised for eating. There is also an herb street, where may be obtained all sorts of roots and medicinal herbs that the country affords. There are apothecaries' shops where prepared medicines, liquids, ointments and plasters are sold; barber shops, where they wash and shave the head; (razors of obsidian were used) and restaurateurs, that furnish food and drink at a certain price.... There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially leeks, onions, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium, borage, sorrel, artichokes, and golden thistle; fruits also of numerous descriptions....honey and wax from bees.... Different kinds of cotton