Tenochtitlan -The Venice of Mesoamerica (Aztec History)

after having covered the rise of the Aztec empire it's time we take a closer look at its crown jewel the massive capital of Tenochtitlan this marvel of Mesoamerican Urban Development is woefully underappreciated and it will be my goal today to get you acquainted with this amazing story and layout Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 upon an unclaimed marshy island in Lake - cocoa according to legend the very spot was marked by the God Huitzilopochtli who had told the mashiki tribe to seek out an eagle perched on a prickly cactus a second city was also founded 13 years later by a group of dissident mashita who set up camp on a twin island just a few hundred meters to the north this second location would become known miss Litella ko at first both settlements were quite unremarkable as there were meagre building supplies in the area and people had to survive off the local flora and fauna of the lake however due to their position they could exploit waterborne travel to grow as Raiders and traders over the decades the two population centres were able to expand thanks to extensive drainage and construction projects such as the famed chinampas due to their close proximity though the two groups were quite closely intertwined and often worked traded and fought together during the uprising of 14:26 both Tenochtitlan and plata let go with luck arms to take on the city of us kaput Zelko along with their other two allies in the Triple Alliance during the following years of the Aztec empire both cities will get their share of tribute plunder and economic activity that would cause them to expand rapidly while growth would see their cityscapes merge the two did seek to preserve their own identity a quick comparison would reveal that the no state lan had the greater area and population though Plateau loco had by far the largest market and main temple another further distinction would be their individual rulers as both cities maintain separate governments for context here are both of their royal lineages side by side you'll note that the plot ll coline ends in 1473 this is due to the fact that a family quarrel between rulers as collided into open conflict insulting estate lon emerge victorious and assert its dominance over Plata local thus from then on the two cities would formally be joined up until their conquests in 1521 by the Spanish and their allies let's now turn to the details of the cityscape itself this could be a bit overwhelming so let's first begin by looking at things from a macro level before zooming in to deal with the specifics to put things simply the city was located on an island on the western edge of Lake Texcoco and was connected to the mainland by five great cosway's they covered 13 square kilometers and was laid out in a dense grid of canals roads and buildings the city was divided into four quarters known as camp on these were then further subdivided into 15 or so districts known as Cal Poly each of these districts held commoner families led by set of nobles with their own marketplace temple and school with this framework in mind let's now begin filling in the details of the city we can begin with the most important ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan the sacred precinct this walled area encapsulated a wide plaza holding about a dozen important structures dominating the center was the 60 metre tall twin peaked great temple with a blue shrine dedicated to Claude look and a red shrine dedicated to Huitzilopochtli in front of it lay the round temple pyramid of kits aliquot a variety of other temples a ball court and even a school for nobles were arrayed around the remaining ground of the sacred precinct just outside the walls were a host of other important buildings used to run the city these included palaces homes for dignitaries marketplaces and yet more temples at this point we would be remiss to skip over some of the incredible features of moat the kizomba the second palace which included a botanical garden an aviary a zoo and even an aquarium Spanish chroniclers report that the Botanical Garden contained a great many trees sweet scented flowers and aromatic herbs which were pleasure to stroll besides the aviary is said to have had 10 rooms housing many colorful species and birds of prey the zoo featured Jaguars Pumas foxes and snakes amongst hundreds of other exotic animals while the aquarium has yet more creatures in the form of salt and fresh water fish located in separate ponds this is truly something that must have been incredible to behold radiating out from the cluster of buildings are on the sacred precinct were four major roads the East led to the docks of Teta Moselle ago while the north south and west led to the great cause waves of tacuba is the palapa and Tepeyac leading to the mainland these were built to accommodate heavy traffic and were so wide that the Spanish noted you could fit ten horses side-by-side along each of these major highways were located many of the larger city buildings with a series of gates and draw bridges located at the entrances to the city co-located with the cosway's were also aqueducts which brought in fresh water from Springs on the mainland these were lined with terracotta bricks and came in paired ducks such that repairs could take place on one or the other in order to minimize total downtime I'll also note that water management was a huge focus for the Aztecs and something they excelled at as a prime example the 17 kilometer long Dyke of Nozawa coyotes separated the fresher Western Tesh cocoa from the more brackish eastern Tesh cocoa while also contributing significantly to the dike system for regulating water level around the city another important landmark to point out is to the north and select a loco as was stated before it had once been its own city and therefore still contained many of the same plazas temples and palaces as its southern neighbor but what really stands out is the marketplace of plot the loco which was the largest in the American continent Cortes reports that it could hold as many 60,000 people these buyers and sellers would go about their business in an immense open-air market with goods organized by areas and rows one might find corn tomatoes feathers rare animal pelts musical instruments of fine cloth and even bottled fresh water amongst other things these were bartered for using cacao cotton cloaks and gold filled feather quills there would have been a ton more to explore in the city but for now we will have to fill up the remaining blanks with some high-level commentary you can imagine that much of the rest of the cityscape was filled with canals bridges streets squares markets temples workshops and residences you'd find tons of homes built of adobe walls and thatch roofs colorful frescoes and other decorations filled one's vision with color while countless people are going about on foot and by boat breathe life into the scene these included farmers fishermen merchants nobles priests craftsmen soldiers and more for context and the sheer level of activity the population at its peak is estimated to have been in excess of 200,000 individuals with the surrounding small towns pushing the total closer to 300,000 this is astounding and must have been particularly impressive to the Spaniards as the sheer scale of Tenochtitlan rivaled many of the largest contemporary European cities such as Paris at this point I also want to clear up a misconception about the Mesoamericans often they are imagined as being largely made up of unsophisticated tribes scattered across the jungles in reality theirs was a civilization of centralized city-states with impressive levels of development after all Tenochtitlan was just one shining jewel among many it's hard to wrap my head around what a sight this all must have been to behold I'd love to talk more about the various details of Tenochtitlan and other Mesoamerican cities but for now this is where we will leave things I look forward to reading the comments below to see what you all would like to focus on next once again thanks for all your support and feedback and a lot of the comments in the last video were really helpful and help prompt me to do this particular video so that being said see you in the next one you

Channel: Invicta

Views: 1,503,895

Rating: 4.9461761 out of 5

Keywords: tenochtitlan, tenochtitlan documentary, misunderstood moments in history, aztec empire, moments in history, rise of the aztecs, rise of the aztec empire, aztec empire crash course, aztec empire documentary, aztec sacrifice, aztec warfare, aztec war, cortes documentary, invicta history, history of the aztecs, aztec warrior, fall of the aztecs, fall of the aztec empire, the rise and fall of the aztec empire, aztec triple alliance, aztec documentary

Id: fmHVqb6t__8

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 29 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/proxyproxyomega]

I only learned recently that this is where Mexico City would later be found upon.

After the Spanish conquering, the lake was accidentally drained and dried out.

Mexico City was established in the lake basin and ruins of Tenochtitlan still remain in the center of Mexico City.

Edit: it was drained on purpose

[u/Stamone]

I wonder what would have happened if the Americas were never colonized.

[u/Sometimes_Stutters]

I was just go back from there yesterday! Great city! Awesome people! If you're in Mexico City take atleast a 1/2 to visit the anthropology museum. It's incredible.

[u/HeyItsYourDad_AMA]

Wouldn’t the land in a lake basin be extra soft? Add in the earthquakes as well and isn’t that super risky for a city?

[u/CheetoMonkey]

I recommend the book 'Aztec' by Gary Jennings. It basically uses everything mentioned here as a backdrop in his story.

[u/Ratthion]

This city is fucking cool as shit to learn about, makes me annoyed that once the Aztecs were gone the Spanish didn’t Just keep it, Mexico City is cool, but Tenochtitlan is cooler. Way cooler.

[u/Secret4gentMan]

Watch this later, future me.

[u/Melecito]

I get it that most USA people wouldn’t be able to make a reference without saying “The Venice of Mesoamerica “ but Tenochtitlán was a lot more complex than Venice...

[u/[deleted]]

Woah, haha, it's cool seeing Invicta on the front page. I remember when his name was like TFHE Productions or something like that and he just made Total War vids.