The birth of Montezuma I, the ruler of the Aztecs, has a legend. Once the lord of the Aztecs Huitsiluitl decided to marry the daughter of the ruler of the city of Cuahunahuaca, but her father ridiculed the leader of a small tribe huddled on an island in the middle of the lake.
- What can he give her? he asked the matchmakers. - Since he was seen in a loincloth of reeds growing in dirty water, will he dress her in the same way?
The rejected groom was rescued by the god Tezcatlipoca - he suggested how to get to the princess. And this was not an easy task, because the girl's father was a magician ruler. He surrounded his daughter with spiders, scorpions, snakes, bats so that no one could enter the palace and dishonor the beauty.
Tezcatlipoca taught the Aztec leader to decorate a dart with a precious stone and shoot near the palace. The dart fell into the courtyard where the princess was resting. She began to examine it, and then decided to try an expensive stone "for a tooth", swallowed it … and became pregnant. After that, the strict father himself was glad to marry his daughter - he hardly believed in the immaculate conception.
The struggle for independence
Thanks to the profitable marriage of their leader, the Aztecs gained access to cotton and abundant granaries, but the main wife was the daughter of the "suzerain" - the Tepanec king. Her son became the new ruler. At that time, two powerful forces fought for power over the Mexico City Valley: the Tepanecs from the western shore of Lake Texcoco, and the Acolua (Tescocci) from the east. The Tepanecs succeeded in subduing the Texcocci and killing their ruler, but his son Nesahualcoyotl fled.
The Aztecs fought on the side of the Tepanecs and got rich booty, but soon became weighed down by their subordinate position. A group has emerged among the nobility, advocating independence and maintaining contact with the fugitive Tescoc prince. Montezuma was a member of this group, but his uncle Itzcoatl, the son of the first leader of the Aztecs from a slave, and another half-brother, Tlacaelel, were the "leaders" in it.
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In the country of the Tepanecs, a king died, and his son Mashtla seized power. The ruler of the Aztecs supported the legitimate heir of Tayatsin and paid for it. It is believed that Itscoatl was involved in his death, who eventually received the supreme power and … a pretext for war with the Tepanecs. According to the vague testimonies of the chronicles, he could have used Montezuma in this case, and then pushed the noble nephew into the background. But he continued to resort to his help.
When Mashtla increased the tribute, Itzcoatl entrusted Montezuma with a dangerous and delicate mission - to conclude an alliance against the Tepanecs with Nesahualcoyotl, who was gathering forces for revenge. But the people admired the exploits of his half-brother Tlacaelel more - he skillfully worked for the public.
In the war that began shortly after Itzcoatl came to power, in 1428, Montezuma fought successfully, but became less famous than his uncle and brother. The Tepaneks were defeated. Mashtla died. The Aztecs gained independence. Nezahualcoyotl - back his power.
For future conquests, the victors entered into the Triple Alliance, the prototype of which was the agreement of Montezuma. The third participant was a representative of the Tepanecs - to ensure the loyalty of the former owners of the Mexico City Valley.
After the successful campaigns of Itzcoatl, the prosperity of the Aztecs increased, the gap between the commoners and the nobility increased. Tlacaelel developed the so-called military-mystical concept: the Aztecs are the chosen people, obliged to feed the Sun with the blood of victims. She served as a good motivation for the warriors - along with a share of the loot from the defeated wealth. Itzcoatl supported his nephew's initiative and burned all the old manuscripts - not enough attention was paid to the Aztecs. He died in 1440, bequeathing to his successor a small, independent, rapidly growing kingdom.
How to return the grace of the gods?
Montezuma managed to outplay Tlacaelel and, at more than 40 years old, finally became the ruler of the Aztecs. But the tests did not end there.
From 1446 to 1455, a number of natural disasters occurred in the Mexico City Valley: a locust invasion, animal pestilence, snowfalls, but the apogee of the disaster was drought.
It hasn't rained for several years. Springs dried up, rivers did not flow, and heat came from the earth, as from fire. Many sought relief in the fertile tropical regions of the Atlantic coast. Local natives - Totonaks - bought people for maize, and then … sacrificed them to the gods so that disasters would pass their lands.
The rulers opened reserve food warehouses for the starving, but the accumulated over the decades was enough for only a year. The decree on the abolition of taxes did not help either - there was nothing to give them. When all earthly means were exhausted, they gathered for a council - to decide how to return the grace of the gods. The priests kept repeating: cataclysms are God's punishment, and only sacrifices can earn forgiveness.
To get them, they invented "flower wars" - ritual battles for capturing prisoners. The opponents of the Templo Major - sometimes called the pyramid of Huitzilopochtli - a complex of cult buildings of the Aztecs in Mexico City, in them became the Tlaxcalans and other peoples of the Pueblo Valley.
The Flower Wars fed not only the gods. Capturing a prisoner in battle received the right … to eat part of his prey. The rest was for the priests, the high aristocracy and the gods.
Perhaps it was thanks to this nightmarish practice that the Aztecs were able to survive a cataclysm, devastating even for more advanced societies. But they did not abandon it after …
New Fire
Montezuma also had another challenge - to ignite the "New Fire" of the new century.
It was believed that at the end of the 52-year period, the world could plunge into darkness. But the gods turned out to be merciful to the Aztecs. It soon began to rain. A rich harvest was gathered. After a few years, the Aztecs recovered from hunger. The army, hardened by the "flower wars", was tasked with conquering the fertile areas outside the valley of Mexico City in order to protect the country from new cataclysms.
First, Montezuma subdued the "wild" relatives of the Maya - Huastecs from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Then he took revenge on the Totonacs of Veracruz for the massacre of the Aztecs, exhausted from hunger. They lived with the hope of revenge and became the first to offer help to the Spaniards.
The Aztecs were also attracted by Oaxaca - the gold-bearing land of the ancient, highly developed civilizations of the Zapotecs and Mixtecs. Montezuma was able to conquer the large shopping center of Coystlahuacu and found a colony now known as the Oaxaca rocks, but he did not have enough strength to conquer the entire valley.
The fight against the closest neighbors, the Chalco Confederation, was no less difficult than the expeditions to distant countries. Victory was achieved only at the end of Montezuma's life, but now the whole valley of Mexico City was under his rule. Around the "ritual enemies" from the Pueblo Valley, a ring of territories controlled by the Aztecs closed.
In his declining years, the son of a poor leader of a small tribe became the godlike ruler of the empire he had created. The capital flowed with wealth from the conquered lands. There were palaces, schools, an aqueduct to supply the city with drinking water, a dam to protect it from floods. The markets delighted the eye with an abundance of exotic goods. The gods were generously nourished with the blood of the victims - thanks to the victorious wars, there were always an abundance of captives. The power of the god Huitzilopochtli grew, his temple grew in the main square of Tenochtitlan.
The ruler who led his people through trials to power, too, could not help but be godlike. Now he appears before people only in exceptional cases. His image is carved on the Chapultepec rock, and the legend of the "divine" birth appears.
A brief description from the Code of Mendoza tells about Montezuma the Man: “This Hueue Motekusoma was a very serious and severe ruler, and full of virtue, and was a man of good disposition and prudence, and an enemy of evil vices … He was not dissolute with women and had two children. He was very moderate in drinking, so never, in his entire life, was he seen drunk … "The people were afraid, but also respected the ruler -" for a good example in the way of life."
Montezuma I died in 1469 - ruler of a flourishing empire. They say that in the waning days he sent priests-magicians to find the ancestral home of the Aztecs called Astlan and tell about the successes that his people achieved, the mother of their patron Huitzilopochtli. In the land of their ancestors, on the contrary, they were surprised at the clumsiness of the Aztecs, the brevity of their life, and decided that the cause of the troubles was the habit of luxury: in Astlan they live poorly, but forever.
Huitzilopochtli's mother asked the priests to persuade her son to return as soon as possible and handed over meager gifts for him and Montezuma. She refused rich offerings, teaching Montezuma a lesson: luxury and effeminacy spoil, press to the ground, lead to death. Now he is at the zenith of fame, but noon is followed by evening and sunset.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 43, Tatiana Plikhnevich
