Tenochtitlan in 1519

[jcmaine72]

It was said that when Hernán Cortes first laid eyes on Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire, he was left speechless. The city had an estimated population of about 250,000, which was somewhere between 150,000-175,000 larger than Spain's largest city at the time, Toledo. Tenochtitlan had broad avenues, probably the largest urban marketplace in the Americas featuring a dizzying variety of foodstuffs and trade goods, and even a zoo. There were barges all along the city's waterfront filled with soil where maize was grown. And then there was the city's stunning temple district, with the Templo Mayor at its center.

Sadly, almost nothing of Tenochtitlan prior to the Spanish invasion survives today. Mexico City would easily be one of the most architecturally impressive cities on earth if just part of the fabled Temple District had survived.

Here's a video (albeit an old one) with accurate 3D recreation of Tenochtitlan's fabled Temple district.It;s nothing short of magnificent.

[rickyhall]

1. The Armed Robbery of the Americas.

[Karadeniz]

3. Good phrasing.

[Kaiserguy]

7. Sadly it is still going on today

Thanks in part to the greed of America's 1% and the GOP

[Karadeniz]

2. Thanks...really, really hate, loathe, detest and abominate the conquistadores.

[a la izquierda]

4. There's quite a bit that survived today.

You just have to know where to look.

[aggiesal]

5. As beautiful as this looks, ...

there is lots of stone and very little greenery.

[wnylib]

8. In a college Spanish course, we read some of

the original Spanish descriptions of Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards were awestruck by the city and compared it to Venice due to the city's waterways for travel, which also had roads beside them for land travel.

The zoo was maintained by the royal family, as well as an institution for people born with physical disabilities.

They had a class system maintained by different schools by class to train people in skills and general knowledge needed for their class. Only the upper classes of priests and royals got a complete education. Class divisions extended to clothing, similar to European sumptuary laws that regulated clothing by class. Upper clsses wore soft, refined cotton while lower classes wore a coarser cotton cloth.

Interestingly, though, the emperor was required to marry a woman from the lower classes.

[defacto7]

11. Inadvertent healthy gene pool mixing. Can't say that for european aristocrates.

[wnylib]

12. Yes, I wondered about that when

I first learned of it. Don"t know the reason for the requirement to marry a woman from the lower classes. Might have had origins in religious mythology, or might have been a symbol that the emperor was ruler of all the people, or for some other reason. Most cultures, past and present, have customs snd rules to prevent inbreeding. Europeans did, too. The royals and nobles just ignored the rules and got religious dispensations when a marriage between relatives was politically or financially advantageous.

[maxsolomon]

9. Biological warfare was an effective tool.

Even if it was inadvertent.

It conquered for the Europeans all throughout the Americas - it basically emptied the PNW prior to settlement.

[BootinUp]

10. Always interested in history info. Yes I think about

What was lost there, and how little remains.

[oasis]

13. I'm glad I came across this. Mexico's history is fantastic. Thanks!