Posts Tagged: aztec

Nahuatl – the lingua franca of pre-contact and early colonial Central Mexico

27 October 2019

Back in the pre-hispanic days, even before the hugely important and greatly influential Triple Alliance that we know today as the famous Aztec Empire, the Nahuatl/Nawatl language was spoken widely all across the Mexican Valley and beyond it. Not only the Nahua people used it,... Read More

Part XV: The Conquest of Tlatelolco

28 February 2017

After the unsuccessful night attack on Tenochtitlan described in the Tenochtitlan’s Conquests Part XIV Tlatelolco found itself in a dire dilemma: to try and fight in an open battle that they had not much chances of winning, or to crawl before their powerful but now... Read More

Part XIV: The conflict with Tlatelolco intensifies

28 January 2017

Tlatelolco, indeed, had taken a dubious course when, following the demonstrative competition upon the Great Plaza described in the Tenochtitlan’s Conquests Part XIII, Moquihuixtli and his adviser Teconal began sending messengers to various independent cities of the mainland, asking for help and support against Tenochtitlan.... Read More

Part XIII: What triggered conflict between Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco

28 January 2017

In the mid-15th century, Tenochtitlan‘s influence spread already far and wide, even though it was still nowhere near what it would be only a few decades later, under the rule of the vigorous eighth ruler Ahuitzotl, who would conquer lavishly, stretching Tenochtitlan’s influence almost from... Read More

Metallurgy in pre-columbian Central Mexico

28 October 2016

If dazzling jewelry was your weakness, then you might have found it hard to pass through a marketplace or workshop areas of Tenochtitlan or any other major Mesoamerican altepetl/city-state without spending much of your hard earned goods or local currency – cocoa beans and cotton... Read More

The Rise of the Aztecs Part II, struggling for independence

5 February 2012

In The Rise of the Aztecs Part I, we left the Tepanecs immersed in the dilemma. What to do with their newly acquired neighbors known as Mexica-people-from-Aztlan or the Aztecs. The despised newcomers got themselves into a trouble all right, angering their previous patrons of... Read More

Were the ancient weapons influenced by the acceptable battle practices or was it all the way around?

26 December 2011

The evolution of weaponry is a fascinating progress to follow. Our computer games are straining to invent all kinds of new weapons, to dispense with boredom and make the games more attractive to us. But the reality overpasses the imagination. How the most popular ancient... Read More