HISTORY TOD ....y

Sun worship: the Calendar Sto ne, o rFifth Sun Wh eel , which o n ce s tood

halfway up the great pyramid o fTe nochti tlan, where the Aztecs

believed their wor ld began .

What would havehappened if thenative Americanshad been left totheir own devices?BrianFaganprobes the riseand fall ofAztecand Mayan societyand proffers someintriguingobservations,

• • •

to the groun d ', repor ted Bishop Zu mar­raga a decade after the Co nquest.

By 1530 , no t only the Aztecs butdozens of o ther Mesoamerican king­doms large and small had crumbled inthe face of the newcomers. More than3,000 years of indigenous civilisationdisin tegrated within a few generations,replaced by totally alien cultural tradi­tio ns. Few civilisations in history haveco me to such an ab rupt full stop, whichprompts a fascinating question; whatwo uld have bappened if the conquista­dors had not arrived, if these remark­able , co mplex socie ties had continuedto flourish and evolve in iso lation ?Some tell ing d ues from prehisto ry pro ­vide at least a partial answer.

By s ix te e n th -c e n t ury standar ds .Aztec civilisation was big business, anempire rul ed by a tiny nobility thatcontrolled the destinies of more than 5million people . Th e boundaries of theempire extended from northern Mex­ico into Guate mala, from the GulfCoast to the Pacifi c Ocean. Aztecdomain s encomp asse d mountainoushighlands, harsh deserts, and lowlandtropical rain forests. When HernanCortes and his conquistadors landed inVera Cruz in 15 I9, the Aztec emperor

saw is overth rown and des troyed'.'No th in g is left standing .. .' Diaz

wrote th e lit eral truth. Today, th earchit ectural , cultu ral, and materiallegacy of the Aztecs lies beneath thes t re e ts of m odern Mex ic o C i ty.Th ousands of Aztecs perish ed from ex ­otic d iseases, others fro m harsh treat­ment and the r tgou rs of forced labour.Zealous friars burned pr iceless codicesand d id all they cou ld to destroy alltraces of th e old o rder. 'Know ye thatwe are much bus ied ... to co nvert th einfide l ... five hundred tem ples razed

IFCOLUMBUSHAD NOTCALLED'T hese great towns . . . and build­

ings rising fro m the water , allmade of sto ne , seemed like an

enc han ted visio n . . . Ind eed so me ofour so ldiers asked whether it was no tall a dream'. Co nquistador Bernal Diazw ro te h is descriptio n of the Azteccap ita l, Tcnu chtitlan, when an old manin his eighties. So viv id were th ememories left by his first glimpse ofAztec civilisatio n that it is as if he badgazed at the gleaming d ty only yester­day . Diaz relished an old man 's memor­ies, then added: 'Today all that I then

30

(Right) A water beastholds a dagger in its jawson thi s vivid ce remonial

shield of feath ers .Possibly a gift &om

Moctezuma to con es, theshield was more like lylooted by the Spaniardsin their quest for Aztec

tr easure.

MAY 199 2

'Today all that I then saw Is overthrown anddestroyed':a 16tb--eentury plan of

Tenochtidan be lieved to havebeen drawn for Co rt es.

Moctezuma presided over a kingdom atthe he igh t of its power and prosperity.He held his emp ire together wi th anetwork of allianc es , by a ru thless sys­tem of trib ute and tax collec ting, byforce, and th rough a compe lling relig­ious ideology. Everything in this un­easy kingdom flowed to the cen tre, toMoctezuma's capital, Tenochtitlan.

Tenochtitlan came as a shock to theconquistadors. Its vast market rivalledthose of Seville and Constan tinople.Diaz estimated that more than 20,000pe ople frequented it daily, 50,000 onmarket days. Canals linked the centralplaza and mar ket with outlying co m­munities and the patchwork of swampgardens that fed mo re than 600,000people in the vic inity of the capital.Products from every com er of theAztec empire flooded into Tenochtit­Ian - gold and silver, brigh t tropicalfeathers, capes and jade ornaments, andfood stuffs of every kind . Brightly pain·ted pyramids and te mples overlookedthe central preci ncts. Atop the highest,stood the bloodstained shrines of Hui t­zilopochtli and Tlaloc, w he re hundredsof human sacrificial victims climbed toth eir deaths each year; the bloo d fromtheir ripp ed-out hearts nourishing thesun in the heavens.

The Temple of Huitztlopochtli stood ,it is said, on the spot where the smallhamlet, known as Te nochtitlan, 'theplace of the pric kly pear cactus' , was

3 1

tu$TO RY TO DAY

founded in about the year 1325. Twocenturies later, Te nochtitlan was thegreatest c ity in th e Americas and one ofth e largest in the wo rld . Like Mayacivilisation, the great City of Teoti­hu ac an , and o ther Mesoamericanstates, Aztec civilisation arose wi th diz­zying speed. Within two cen turies, theAztec rose from complete obscurity tobecome rulers of the Mesoamericanworld. Hardly surprisingly, the Aztecruler s were at pains to legitimi se theirancestry. They promulgated a view ofhistory that took th eir ancestry far backinto the glorious past - the past of th ewarrior Toltecs and of Teotihu acan,where the Aztec world began:

Jr is said that when aU W"4S in darkness,when yet no sun had shone and no dawn

well as to earlier societies on the high­lands. Wh at is remarkable, however , isthe extreme volati li ty of all thesesocieties. Th ere is a cyclical pattern tonative American civilisations, repeatedin many areas, not o nly on th e high­lands and lowlands of Mesoamerica,but in the Andes as well.

A case in point is the Maya civilisa­tion of the tropical lowl ands, wh osepolitical histo ry ranks among the mostvolatile of pre- industrial states. For cen­turies, centres like Copan, Palenque,and Tikal competed ferociously withone another, as the focus of economicand poli tical power shifted from onecity-state to another. Th ese were small ­scale kingdoms, rul ed by competitivelords , unifi ed only by co mmo n reo

masters of the entire world '.By 1519 , the emp ire was in trouble ,

alth ough the pan opl y of Aztec rul egl itte red brightl y o n th e su rface .Te nochtitlan and its gods fed on con­quest, more conquest, and still moreconquest. Th e Aztec rulers were obses­sed w ith prestige, appeaseme nt of thegods , and military prowess. They werelocked into a vicious cycle that forcedthem to expand and conquer simply toobtain more victims and tribu te. By thetime Moctezurna ascended the thronein 1502, the empire was over-extendedand the god Huitzilopochtli in desper­ate need of a more temperate diet.

Part of th e problem was the dualityof Aztec beliefs, wh ich combined ar­dent militarism with profound hurna-

Gueseof honour?Natives presenting

Cortes wttb anecklace from DiegoDuran's Hlstoria delas lndhs oft 880,based In turn o n

16th-cenrory nativedrawings.

had broken - it is said - the godsgathered themselves together and tookcounsel among themselves there inTeo tihuacan. They spoke; they saidamong themselves:

'Come hither , 0 gods! Who will carrythe burden? Who will take it upon him­self to be the sun, to bring the dawn?'

( Florentine Codex)

The Aztecs be lieved that their worldof the Fifth Sun began on the sum mit ofthe Pyram id of the Sun at Teotihuacan.But it was a fin ite wo rld, one destinedto end in a swarm of earthquakes.Th ere was a strong undercurrent offatalism in Aztec thinking, which mayhave played a role in th eir rapid col­lapse at the hands of Hernan Cortes andhis conquistadors.

In many respects, the Aztec rulers'official histories were correct. The eco­nomi c, political, and religi ous institu­tions of both the Aztecs and their high'land predecessors, the To lrecs, and thepeopl e of Teotihuacan , h ave muchearlier roo ts. Th eir cultures and relig­ious beliefs owe much to Maya andOlmec civilisation on the lowlands as

32

ligious beliefs and a symbolic world sopowerful that every ceremonial centre ,however modest, w as a replica of thcspiritual world.

The Aztecs lived in a similarly vola­tile world, but on a larger scale. Theirempire extended from coast to coast,encompassing every kind of environ­ment imaginable. M octezuma and hispredecessors presided over an empiretha t was an un easy pa tchwork of con­qu es ts and alliances, held together byharsh tribute assessments and central­ised government. They used all thedevices open to despots to maintaintheir ho ld on power. In 1487, for ex­ample, th e tlatoani ( ru ler) Ahuitzotldedicated the Te mp le of Huitzilopoch­tli at ceremonies attended by everysubject leader in his domains. Hun­dreds died on Tenochtitlan's sacr ificialaltars. Ahuitzotl showed 'his grandeurto all the nations, the magnificence ofthe empire and the courage of hispeople ' according to Di ego Duran. Hisvassals watched as tribute from all cor­ners of his domains was paraded beforethem . 'They saw that the Aztecs w ere

nis t ic bel iefs. Thousands of young war­riors died to nourish the Sun God asheshone over Cernanaha uc , the world . Atthe same time , Aztec wise men , livingin the shadow of the great symbo l ofMexican wisdom , the Feathered Ser­pent god Quetzalcoatl , pu zzled overthe meaning of life, over the fragilequality of human existence. Th ey con­cl uded that life on earth was tempor­ary, destined to end, in spite of con­stant human sacrifice. Truth was to befound in ' that place which lies beyondus, in the region of the dead and of thegods'.

Mexican historian Migu el Leon-Por­till a believes Aztec w ise men turned towhat he calls 'flower and song', poeticinspiration that contained glimpses ofthe truth. To know the truth was tounderstand the hidden meanings ofth ings, to have sel f-understanding.Aztec culture was onc of metaphorsand mathematical calculations, of ar­dent militarism opposed by a philo­sophic al search for beauty, comb inedw ith more pacifist ideals. Such con­trasting beliefs may have caused deep

Flower and song : lack o f domesticatedanlma1s hindered the long-term

prospects o f Mesoamerican civ ilisations ,neverthelessthe Aztecswere expert

farmers. ( Left) A pan el from the CodexFejervary ·Mayer shows the fluctuating

fortunes o f th e vi tal maize plant.

stress in the educated classes of Aztecsociety, especially when increasinglydistant conquests made prisoners har­der to acq uire. Th us, the appearance ofCortes in the year One Reed, th e yearof Quetzalcoatl's predicted rerum, hada powerful effect on educated menschooled in a world of violence anddeep humanism. Their fatalism mayhave played an important role in thecollapse of Moctezuma's empire in theface of Spanis h steel and fire . In theend, the wise men simply gave up . ' If,as you say, our gods are dead, it isbener th at you allow us to die too', saidthe last of the Aztec philosophers tothe first Catholic friars to arrive amongthem.

On the surface, Aztec society wasintensely militaristic, one where to diein batt le or as a pr isoner of war on thesacrificial altar was an ult imate pri­vilege. Thi s was the 'Flowe ry Death ',the belie f that a young warrior wouldthen ride wi th the sun in the heavens.The Flowery Death was part of anelaborate network of be liefs that boundthe people to their rule r, and to thegods. The Aztec state depended onco nfo rmity an d conquest , on th eanon ymo us labo urs o f te n s o fthousands of people in the servi ce ofthe gods, and of a tin y minoriry ofprivileged ru lers and nobles. In thi srespect, it was no differen t from muchearli er pre-industrial states in distantMesopotami a, whi ch also rose and de­c lined with great rapidity as the author­ity of rulers waxed and waned .

By th e late fifteenth century, the oldstrategies of conquest, tribute gather­ing, and punitive expeditions were run­ning into trouble . Moctezuma 's do­mains were so large that his armiescould no longer campaign effectively ata distance, or feed themselves off theland. They lac ked draught animals orwheeled carts, having to carry not onlytheir weapo ns, bur their food, on theirbacks. It was virtually impossible tomaintain armi es in the field for anylength of time, or to mount sustainedmilitary campaigns far from base.

By all accounts, the Aztecs w erehaughty , ruthless imperialists. Theirarmies were harsh and thei r tributedemands rapacious. Delinquency re·

( Left) A tribute Ust from the CodexMend oza. Closely linked to religious

ideology, tax co llecting - o ften by force­was important In maintainlng power and

co ntro l o ve r the Aztec em pire.

33

HISTO RY TO DAY

'Flo wery death ': the ultimate Aztec privilege wasdeath on the sacrlflclalaltar, whe re thousands Of YOWlg Aztecs offered their lives 10 nourish

bloodthirsty Huitzllopochtll, god of war. (Fro m the Codex Magliabecchi) .

'If, as yo u say , o ur gods are dead, it is better that you allo w us to die too':Fray Bernardine deSaragun's Florentin e Codex depicts MQCtezuma and Aztecs we eping to learn of th e power of

the Spa.n.i.ards.

commodities but people, even armies,over long distances much faster thanon foot. Th ese innovations releasedtrade from the limitations imposed byhuman backs, allowed well o rganisedcaravans to cross deserts and link com­munities near and far. By 1,500 BC, theeastern M editerra nean civilisationswere part of a much larger economicsyste m based on coast ing vessels andcaravans. The same transportation sys­tems allowed neighbouring states toengage in constant diplomacy andarmies to campaign far beyo nd theconfines of Mesopotamia or the NileValley .

Th e domestication of the horse onthe Eurasian steppes by 4,200 BC hadan even more dramatic effect on thecourse of Near Eastern civilisatio n.Horse-drawn chario ts revolutionisedmilitary tactics and e nhanced the abil­ity of kings and pharaohs to imposetheir authority many miles from theircapitals. Wheeled carts and chariotsneeded tracks and roads, formal routesdown which the business of govern ­ments and me rchants flowed. Th eadministration of the state was stillhighly ce ntralised, still relatively ineffi ­cient . But the mechanismsof economicand political control, the potential forconquest and coercion as well as eco­nomic dependency, were greatly en­hanced. The Mesoamericans did nethave these advan tages.

Had Cortes not ar rived at the gates ofTe nochtitlan, we can be certain thatthe Aztec empire wouJdhave collapsedinto its constituent parts w ithin a rel a­tively short time. Th ere were seriousdissensions within Moctezuma's do­mains, SO much so that Co rtes found iteasy to recruit powerful Aztec allies to

as the alpaca and llama in the Andes.TIle future course of American historywas shaped by an event that took place11,000 years ago .

Like all pre-indu strial leaders, Aztecrulers presided over states supportedby th e labour of human hands. In Egyptand Mesopo tam ia, human labour en­gaged in mundane tasks like irtigati on,agriculture and mining, canal building)bricklaying and unskilled labour on ela­borate public works . Long before 3,000BC, the Sumerians and Ancient Egyp­tians had oxen and asses to carry loads ,wheeled carts and large sailing shipsth at enabled them to transport not only

suited in m uch higher assessments andpunitive exp editions. For aLI their harsh­ness, Moctezuma and his predecessorswere at the heJm of a glirt ering empirethat had gon e out of co ntro l, bese t bypotential rebellion on every side. Th esheer logistics of occupying and admi­nistering conquered lands were beyonda state with out wheel ed transport ,beasts of burden, and horses .

ative Americans domesticated atruly asto unding range of p lan ts, no tonly maize, beans, and hundreds ofvarieties of potatoes, but a myriad oflesser crops too. Th ey were among themost expert of farmers in the world in1492. Today, these cro ps and otherslike amaranth, feed millions of peopleall over the world . But the Aztecstam ed only a handfu l of animals - thealpaca, the llama, the tu rkey, and th edog amo ng them . All of th em wererelati vely small, none of them capab leof car ry ing heavy loads or pu lling carts.

Without question, alive Americanswould have domesticated such animalsas wild cattle, horses, and sheep if theyhad flourish ed in their homeland. Butthey were victims of history. In about9,000 BC, dozen s o f species of largeand medium-sized Ice Age mammalsvanished into extinction as a result ofsudden climatic change. Some paleon­tologists believe that human predatorswere at least partly responsible for thismammalian holocaust. Therein Lies oneof the great controversies of the Amer­ican past. Among the animals that van­ished we re both carneHds and equids,which, much later , might conceivablyhave been domesticated assuccessfull y

34

his cause, lead ers who saw politicaladvantage in toppling their hated mas­ters. Over-extended , opera tin g militari­ly at th e oute r limi ts of logistics basedon human backs, and unabl e to imposeits w ill, the empire would have col­lapsed rapidl y, leavin g a politicalvacuum throughout M esoamerica.

In time, the cycle would have re­peated itse lf Another local kingdom ,probably on the highlands, would haverisen to prominence through militaryconquest and coercion , by shrewdtrading and diplom atic manoeuvring,just as the Aztec had done. Again, itw ould have been a tribute state , w ithstrongly centralised go vernment andan elaborate ide ology, modifi ed fromearlier re ligious practices. In du ecourse this empire would bave facedth e same administrative and logisticalproblems as its predecessor . It , too ,would have disintegrated, only for thecycle of conquest and collapse to reopeat itself again .

W ithou t the abili ty to communicateeffective ly over long di stances andvaried terrain , it is diffi cult to see howany Mesoamerican civilisation, how­ev e r so p h is tica te d , w ould haveachieved a high er level of integration,or gr eate r po litical stability . Almostcertainly, the long-term cycles of sud­den prominence and co llapse wouldhave continued indefinitely, not be­cause the Mesoamericans were incap­able of governing larger polities, butsimply because th ey lacked the dom es­ticated animals to free them fro m th elimitations of human porters and thesm alle r scale labours of human hands .

There were other constrain ts, too. Atthe Conquest, bo th M esoamericans andAndeans used go ld, copper, and silverfor o rnamental purposes. These pre­c ious metals w ere highly prestigious,th e perquisites of rulers and nobles.Ornaments in pre cious metal werebadges of rank and social sta tus. Thenative Americans had not yet masteredthe arts of alioying bronze with lead ortin to make tough , utilitarian agricultu­ral implements and weapons. Th eylac ke d t b e metal-tip ped a rd fo rploughing or the slashing sword, sodevastating in hand-to-hand combat.The implements of tillage were ade­quate for slash -and- burn agriculture,for turning over light soils or cultivat­ing and weeding sw amp gardens. Theywere not the tools for intensive dryagriculture, which would enable peo­ple living aw ay from irrigable environ­ments to farm on a large scale. Awayfrom lakesides in the Basin of Mexicoo r th e May a n s wa m p la nds , theMesoamerican farmer was a victim ofthe carrying capacity of the land,which, when cul tivated w ith slash -and-

A Mayan terracottafigure ofa speakeron a rostrum. Boththe aggressive andhumane aspects of

MesoamericancuItureare

reOected in worksof an.

burn techniques, rar ely supportedmore than small village communities.

It is in th e Maya lowlands that theenvironmental realities of Mesoamer­ican civilisation surround one on everyside. Until recently, conventional wis­dom had it that M aya civilisatio n wasbased on the labour of slash-and- bumvillage farmers, w hose efforts sup­po rted large centres like Tikal - whilethe population continued to live in theoutlying co untryside. Then hi-tech sci­ence in th e form of infra- red radarshowed that the Maya had cultivatedthousands of acres of swamp gardens.Using the simplest of technology, theycarved out artificial landscapes in themidst of swamplan d, usin g dugou tcanoes to irrigate the lands and to takeproduce to market. Th ese remarkableagricultural schemes gave the M aya theability to suppo rt thousands of non­farmers and dense urban po pulationswith their elaborate panopLies of lords,pri ests, and nobles.

For centur ies, the lords of the south-

MAY 1~2

ern lowlands waxed prosperous on thelabours of their subjects. As local popu­lations rose, more and more swamp­land was taken under cultivation. Asthe centur ies went on, competitionbetween neigh bo uring po lit ies shar­pened. Co mpeting Maya lords engagedin frenzied diplomacy and constantwar, placing ever harsher demands ontheir subjects, overstressing bo th soci­ety and the enviro nment at every tum .Then Maya society Simply collapsedunder the we ight of its overburden, ascrop yie lds fell and the village farm erwas unable to support his lords .

The facto rs that led to the spectac u­lar Maya co llapse of AD 900 in theso uthern lowlands are still little under­stood, but a combination of ecologicalcollapse and social stress seems to havecaused the struc ture of M aya society tocrumble within a few generations. Dur­ing the heyday of so uthern lowlandcivilisation, a sophisticated, unspokenco ntrac t linked the Maya lords wi ththeir subjects. The rul ers we re shaman-

35

HISTORY TO DAY

Teotlhucan, the great Mayan ca p ital , whose collapse around AD 900 was due to a combination ofecological disaster and social stress. Similarfactors may have threatened the Aztec empire In the mJd·16th cen tury, but were overshadowed by the arrival o f the Spaniards.

kings, indivi duals capable of co mmuni­ca ting w ith the spiritual world andwi th th e gods, of protecting the livingand intcrcedin g with th e ancesto rs.The people supported them w ith foodand labour in return. In time, how eve r.th e lords became arrogant, placingever higher dcmands on their subjects.Whcn the env iro nmental c risis cameand crop yields fell, the people lostfaith in their ru lers. They dispersedinto smaller communities and villages,abandoning th e great centres. Th egravity of Maya power moved into thenorthern Yucatan , to survive in a morecosmopolitan form until the arrival ofthe Spaniards in 1517.

The Aztec rulers pres ided over a vastdomain of co nque red states and alliedkingdoms. In co ntrast, th e Maya livedin a patchwork of city-states , ruled byhighly competitive lords . For centuries,th e patt ern of sudden rise and dramaticcollapse saw the reins of political andeconomic power flow from one centreto the next. In AD 378, for example,Great-Jagu ar-Paw of TikaJ co nqueredneighbour in g Uaxac tu n , then ex­panded his domains th rough conquest,long-distance trade, and judicious poli­tical marriages. At the height of itspowers in the fifth century, Tikal pres­ided over a domain cove ring 965square miles. The great City declinedrapidly whe n its ne igh bours opposedher, for her lords lacked th e resourcesto maintain a standing army . These

36

cycles of po litical VOlatili ty continuedin the northern lowlands right up tothe Spanish Conquest, as Chichen Itza,then Mayapan rose to prominence.

There are interesting parall els be­tween Maya and early Mesopotamiancivilisation . The Sumer ians were gov ­erned by indepen dent rul ers with ex­ceptio nal ri tual powers. They pres idedover independent kingdom s in a con­stan t state of change and interaction. Inbo th Mesopotamia and the Maya low­lands , larger political units forged byrul ers of exceptional ability soon disin­tegra ted into th eir constituent parts.The small , sho rt- lived local kingdo mswere linked to others on the lowlandsand highlands by common religiousbeli efs, alliances, and marri age ties.Despite these ties, h ow ever, the reali­ties of social and economic instabili tymili tated agains t the long-term stabilityof any Maya city-sta te . Their problemswere exactly the same as those as besetthe mu ch larger Aztec empire in latercentu ries . The central institution ofbo th Maya and Aztec civilizatio n waskingship, for it w as th e concept thatunified society as a whole. This institu­tion was insufficient to sustain anythinglarger than a local c ity-stale .

What would have happened if theAztecs and Maya had owned dornesti­cared asses, cat tle, an d horses, wheeledvehicles, and ocean-going sailing ships?Would grea t Mesoameri can empireshave ex tende d across th e northern

Mexican deserts into the south- west?Would seago ing trade routes have link­ed Te nochtit lan wit h the Gulf Coas tand th e powerful chiefdo ms of south ­eastern North Ameri ca? We know thatbalsa rafts from Andean sta tes broughtprecious metal s to Mesoamerica , thatthere were at least tenuous contactsbetween the Andes and central Amer­ica. Wo uld wheeled carts and sailingships have forged a vast nat ive Amer­ican em pire stretching from the high­land Andes to Mexico? Give n the bril­liance and complexity of fifteenth-cen­tury American civilisation, one cancertainly assume that th e future courseoflocal his tory would have been differ­ent. And one can cert ainly be sure thatCor tes and his ragt ag adv e nturerswo uld have been lucky to escape w iththeir lives.

FO R FURTHER READIN G,toga Clc nd lnne n, AzteC5: An interpreta tion(Cam bridge Univers ity Press, 199 1); Bernal Din,The Conquest of N~ Sp2in , translated by ). H.Cohen , ( Pel ican Books , 19(3) ; David Carrasco .QUt:l2a1co;1U ma ine Iron y of Empire (Universityo f Chicago Press , 19 8 2); Geoffrey W. Conrad andArthur A. Demarest, Religion and Empire (Cam­bridge Uni versity Press, 1984): Miguel Leon­Portilla Aztec, Thought and Cultu re : A Study ofth e Ancient Nahaucl M ind ( University o f O kla­ho ma Press, 196 3 ); Uncia Schcle an d DavidFriedl, A Forese of KlnSS ( WlIIlam Morrow ,1990).

Brian Fagan is an archaeologiseand Professor ofAnrhropology ae the University of California. Heis author of Kingdoms of Go ld, Kingdoms of Jad e( Th:un es an d Hudson, 1991).