INTRODUCTION 3Huejotzinco, the Spaniards were surprised to find cosmopolitan and highly politicized
peoples. Their robust kingdoms were populated by over 100,000 subjects each, and
they vied with one another for power by employing elaborate forms of diplomacy, in-
trigue, and warfare. Territories were defended with high walls and fortifications. War-
riors numbering in the tens of thousands were organized into diverse ranks and
squadrons, each with its own insignia and dress code. Cities as large as those in Spain
bustled with people engaged in daily trade, administrative affairs, and religious rit-
ual. The native societies were deeply stratified, not only between noble and com-
moner, but also between rich and poor, freeman and slave.
Cortés, perhaps exaggerating a bit in order to impress the Crown, nevertheless
captured the cosmopolitan nature of these societies with the following description
of Tlaxcala:
The city is indeed so great and marvelous that though I abstain from describing many
things about it, yet the little that I shall recount is, I think, almost incredible. It is much
larger than Granada, and much better fortified. Its houses are as fine and its inhabitants
far more numerous than those of Granada when that city was captured. Its provisions
and food are likewise very superior—including such things as bread, fowl, game, fish and
other excellent vegetables and produce which they eat. There is a market in this city in
which more than thirty thousand people daily are occupied in buying and selling, and this
in addition to other similar shops which there are in all parts of the city. Nothing is lack-
ing in this market of what they are wont to use, whether utensils, garments, footwear or
the like. There is gold, silver and precious stones, and jewelers’ shops selling other or-
naments made of feathers, as well arranged as in any market in the world. There is earth-
enware of many kinds and excellent quality, as fine as any in Spain. Wood, charcoal,
medicinal and sweet smelling herbs are sold in large quantities. There are booths for
washing your hair and barbers to shave you; there are also public baths. Finally, good
order and an efficient police system are maintained among them, and they behave as
people of sense and reason: the foremost city of Africa cannot rival them. (Cortés
1962:50–51)The Tlaxcalas, Cholutecas, and other peoples of the area were able to describe
for Cortés what the Aztec heartland was like. Nevertheless, the Spaniards were un-
prepared for what they saw when in November of 1519 they finally reached the Basin
of Mexico and entered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Cortés later wrote glow-
ingly of the Aztec capital (Figure A.1):
The great city of Tenochtitlan is built in the midst of this salt lake, and it is two leagues
from the heart of the city to any point on the mainland. Four causeways lead to it, all
made by hand and some twelve feet wide. The city itself is as large as Seville or Córdova.
The principal streets are very broad and straight, the majority of them being of beaten
earth, but a few and at least half the smaller thoroughfares are waterways along which they
pass in their canoes. (Cortés 1962:86)Cortés, a boastful but astute observer, attempted to place the Aztec capital in
the wider context of Mesoamerica as a whole and even of the Old World. He de-
scribed in great detail the pomp and ceremony surrounding Motecuhzoma, the ruler
of the Aztec empire, who, he said, rivaled “the sultans themselves or other eastern po-
tentates.” Cortés recounted how Motecuhzoma was attended by literally thousands