Aztec Sources/ Intro facts

when does Cortes seize Mocetezuma

14th November 1519

When did the Siege of Tenochtitlan begin?

28th of April 1521

When were the Aztec’s finally defeated?

13th of August 1521

Who was Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin ?

Hey Tlatoani (Great Speaker) of Tenochtitlan

(1466-1520)

Tenochtitlan population

200,000 - 750,000

What are the main problems with understanding Aztec society ?

• availability/ dates

• Eurocentric / catholic / colonial perspectives

• static point of view, idealising, homogenising, collective

• variation and change over time

• whose PoV is represented? Hint: Elite men

• cyclical mythical histories

types os sources

• archeology

• pictorial codices

• conquistador accounts

• missionary chronicles

• later alphabetic Indigenous and mestizo writings

• descendants - living language and culture

conquistador accounts

• earliest and only eye witness sources

• including: letters of cortes, bernal diaz, true account, the anonymous conquistador, Francisco de Aguilar

missionary chronicles

• religious perspective

• first missionaries arrived 1524

• earliest accounts lost

Bernardo de Sahagun

• travelled to New Spain in 1529

• 13 volume Florentine codex

• hundreds of Indigenous informants

• latin, spanish and nahuatl

• illustrations by indigenous artists

Caroline Pennock on Aztec people

• tenochtitlan not especially violent

• it was how they were presented by the Spanish to justify the conquest

• viewed as patriarchal but mothers seen as equivalent

Berdan on Aztec sources

• not entirely reliable due to the conquest, a lot of Spanish accounts

• still can look at archaeology and oral tradition

Bowles on ‘Aztec’ as a name

• modern and inaccurate to use the name Aztec for a group of interrelated nations

• more accurate to refer to them as Nahuas

Berdan on ‘Aztec; as a name

• particularly troublesome

Who was Hernando Cortes

• led the expedition that causes the fall of the Aztec empire

When was Hernando Cortes’ letter published

1524

what was Hernando Cortes’ letter

• to Charles V

• not a personal letter, worked up for publication

• wanted to make money

• they only true eyewitness source

Who was Bernal Dias

governor of Eucatan

when and what did Bernal Dias write

• The True History of the Conquest of New Spain

• written 1550s-84 and published in 1632

what did Bernal Dias’ famous work involve

• put emphasis on ordinary soldiers

• writing for publication

• playing to a popular audience

• published a while after the event - potentially faulty memory

• justified the conquest

what did Bernado de Saharan write

Florentine Codex

when was the Florentine Codex completed

1577

what are some features of de Sahagun’s work

• worked with hundreds of indigenous informants

• came after conquest

• evangelical

who was Diego Duran

• Dominican friar

• lived under Spanish colonial rule

• can speak Nahuatl

• stronger grasp of culture, beliefs and the people

when and what did Diego Duran write

• History of the Indies of New Spain, completed 1581