Tlaxcala ( 'place of maize tortillas') was a
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
city and state in central
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
During the
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the eve ...
, Tlaxcala allied with the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
against the
Aztecs
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
, supplying a large contingent for and sometimes most of the Spanish-led army that eventually destroyed the
Aztec Empire
The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance ( nci, Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, Help:IPA/Nahuatl, jéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥ was an alliance of three Nahua peoples, Nahua altepetl, city-states: , , and . These three city-states ruled ...
.
History
![Tlaxcalamap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Tlaxcalamap.jpg)
The Tlaxcalans arrived in Central Mexico during the
Late Postclassic. They first settled near
Texcoco in the
valley of Mexico
The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico wa ...
, between the settlement of Cohuatlinchan and the shore of
Lake Texcoco
Lake Texcoco ( es, Lago de Texcoco) was a natural lake within the "Anahuac" or Valley of Mexico. Lake Texcoco is best known as where the Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan, which was located on an island within the lake. After the Spanish con ...
.
After some years the Tlaxcallans were driven out of the valley of Mexico and moved to the east, splitting into three groups along the way. While one group continued north towards the modern state of
Hidalgo
Hidalgo may refer to:
People
* Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility
* Hidalgo (surname)
Places
Mexico
* Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico
* Hidalgo, Coahuila, a town in the north Mexican state of Coahuila
* Hidalgo, Nuevo Le ...
and another remained in the vicinity of Texcoco, a third group arrived in the modern valley of Tlaxcala, where they established the city of
Tepetícpac Texcallan under the leadership of
Culhuatecuhtli Quanex.
Over the subsequent years, the Tlaxcallan state expanded with the foundations of
Ocotelulco and
Tizatlán. The fourth major settlement,
Quiahuiztlan
Quiahuiztlan was one of the four ''altepetl'' (polities) that made up the confederation of Tlaxcala. It is located in the modern city of Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala State, Mexico.
History
Quiahuiztlan in Tlaxcala State shares the same name as a settlemen ...
, was founded by members of the Tlaxcallan group that had initially remained in the valley of Mexico.
Government
Ancient Tlaxcala was a
republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
ruled by a council of between 50 and 200 chief political officials (teuctli
g. teteuctin
l. (Fargher et al. 2010). These officials gained their positions through service to the state, usually in warfare, and as a result came from both the noble (pilli) and commoner (macehualli)
classes.
Contact with conquistadors
Tlaxcala was never conquered by the Aztec empire, but was engaged in a state of perpetual war, the so-called
flower war
A flower war or flowery war ( nah, xōchiyāōyōtl, es, guerra florida) was a ritual war fought intermittently between the Aztec Triple Alliance and its enemies from the "mid-1450s to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519." Enemies included the ...
s or garland wars.
Conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo ( 1492 – 3 February 1584) was a Spanish conquistador, who participated as a soldier in the conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés and late in his life wrote an account of the events. As an experienced ...
describes the first battle between the Spanish force and the Tlaxcalteca as surprisingly difficult. He writes that they probably would not have survived, had not
Xicotencatl the Elder
Xicotencatl I or Xicotencatl the Elder (c. 11 House (1425) – c. 4 Rabbit (1522)) was a long-lived ''tlatoani'' (king) of Tizatlan, a Nahua ''altepetl'' within the pre-Columbian confederacy of Tlaxcala, in what is now Mexico.
Etymology
H ...
, and
Maxixcatzin
MaxixcatlThe Nahuatl name is often used in the honorific form as Maxixcatzin. was the tlatoani (ruler) of the Nahua altepetl (city-state) of Ocotelolco at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Ocotelolco was one of the four towns ...
, persuaded
Xicotencatl the Younger
Xicotencatl II Axayacatl, also known as Xicotencatl the Younger (died 1521), was a prince and warleader, probably with the title of ''Tlacochcalcatl'', of the pre-Columbian state of Tlaxcallan at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Emp ...
– the Tlaxcallan warleader – that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them.
[Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books, ]
Xicohtencatl the Younger was later condemned by the Tlaxcaltecan ruling council and hanged by
Cortés for desertion in April 1521 during the
siege of Tenochtitlan
The Fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was a decisive event in the Spanish conquest of the empire. It occurred in 1521 following extensive manipulation of local factions and exploitation of pre-existing political divisions ...
.
Due to protracted warfare between the Aztecs and the Tlaxcala, the Tlaxcala were eager to exact revenge, and soon became loyal allies of the Spanish. Even after the Spanish were expelled from
Tenochtitlan
, ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...
, the Tlaxcala continued to support their conquest. Tlaxcala also assisted the Spanish in the
conquest of Guatemala.
As a result of their alliance with the Spaniards, Tlaxcala had privileged status within Spanish colonial Mexico. After the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan and the rest of Mexico, Tlaxcala was allowed to survive and preserve its pre-Columbian culture. In addition, as a reward to the Tlaxcalans unyielding loyalty to the Spanish, the city and its inhabitants largely escaped the pillaging and destruction following the Spanish conquest.
![Rodrigo Gutiérrez - The Tlaxcalan Senate - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Rodrigo_Guti%C3%A9rrez_-_The_Tlaxcalan_Senate_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Following the Spanish Conquest, Tlaxcala was divided into four fiefdoms () by the Spanish corregidor
Gómez de Santillán in 1545 (26 years after the Conquest). These fiefdoms were
Ocotelolco
Ocotelolco (sometimes spelled Ocotelulco), in pre-Columbian Mexico, was one of the four independent altepetl (polities) that constituted the confederation of Tlaxcallan. The site is in the present day state of Tlaxcala in central Mexico.
History ...
,
Quiahuiztlan
Quiahuiztlan was one of the four ''altepetl'' (polities) that made up the confederation of Tlaxcala. It is located in the modern city of Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala State, Mexico.
History
Quiahuiztlan in Tlaxcala State shares the same name as a settlemen ...
,
Tepeticpac
Tepeticpac was one of the four ''altepetl'' (polities) that made up the confederation of Tlaxcala in pre-Columbian Mexico. It was the northwest-most altepetl, located west of the Atzompa river and north of Quiahuiztlan.
The site is in the pres ...
, and
Tizatlan
Tizatlan, in pre-Columbian Mexico, was one of the four independent altepemeh (polities, sing. altepetl) that constituted the confederation of Tlaxcallan. Today Tizatlan is a part of the modern city of Tlaxcala, and the Pre-Columbian city is visi ...
. At this time, four great houses or lineages emerged and claimed hereditary rights to each fiefdom and created fictitious genealogies extending back into the pre-Columbian era to justify their claims.
[ Gibson, 1952.]
During the
colonial period, Tlaxcala's "part in the conquest of the Aztec 'empire,' her favored treatment by the Spanish crown, her unique talent for propaganda and litigation, her astonishing enterprise" gave the small state an important place in Mexican history.
See also
*
Tlaxcaltec
The Tlaxcalans, or Tlaxcaltecs, are a Nahua people who live in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala.
Pre-Columbian history
The Tlaxcaltecs were originally a conglomeration of three distinct ethnic groups who spoke Nahuatl, Otomi, and Pinome that compri ...
– Nahuatl for inhabitants of Tlaxcala
*
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...
– the present day
Mexican state
The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...
*
Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala, officially Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl (), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala and seat of the municipality of the same name. The city did not exist during the pre-Hispanic period but was laid out by the Spanish as a center ...
– the present day capital of the state of Tlaxcala
References
Sources
*
Diego Muñoz Camargo
Diego Muñoz Camargo (c. 1529 – 1599) was the author of ''History of Tlaxcala'', an illustrated codex that highlights the religious, cultural, and military history of the Tlaxcalan people.
Life
Diego Muñoz Camargo was born in Spanish colonia ...
's ''
History of Tlaxcala
''History of Tlaxcala'' (Spanish: ''Historia de Tlaxcala'') is an alphabetic text in Spanish with illustrations written by and under the supervision of Diego Muñoz Camargo in the years leading up to 1585.
Muñoz Camargo's work is divided into t ...
'' (''Lienzo de Tlaxcala''), written in or before 1585, is an illustrated
codex
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
describing the conquest of Mexico. It was painted by Tlaxcalteca artists under Spanish supervision.
*
Crónica Mexicayotl
The ''Crónica Mexicayotl'' is a chronicle of the history of the Aztec Empire from the early Nahua migrations to the colonial period, which was written in the Nahuatl language around the 16th century. Its authorship is debated because the earliest ...
was written by
Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc
Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...
, in Nahuatl and Spanish, in the last decades of the 16th century.
Bibliography
*Alvarado Tezozomoc, Fernando (1944). ''Crónica Mexicana''. Mexico: Manuel Orozco y Berra, Leyenda.
*Fargher, Lane F., Richard E. Blanton and Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza (2010). Egalitarian Ideology and Political Power in Prehispanic Central Mexico: The Case of Tlaxcallan. "Latin American Antiquity," 21(3):227–251.
*Gibson, Charles (1952). ''Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
*Hassig, Ross (2001)
"Xicotencatl: rethinking an indigenous Mexican hero" Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl, UNAM.
*Hicks, Frederic (2009). Land and Succession in the Indigenous Noble Houses of Sixteenth-Century Tlaxcala. ''Ethnohistory,'' 56:4, 569–588.
*Muñoz Camargo, Diego (1982)
892
Year 892 ( DCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Summer – Poppo II, duke of Thuringia (Central Germany), is deposed by King Arnul ...
''Historia de Tlaxcala''. Alfredo Chavero. México.
*
*''Our lady of assumption ex convent''. Bienvenidos al INAH. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2021, from
https://www.inah.gob.mx/en/english/4181-our-lady-of-assumption-ex-convent.
External links
Spanish language description of the historiography of TlaxcalaArticle in Sciencemag about archeological findings at Tizatlan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tlaxcala (Nahua State)
Complex altepetl
Former confederations
History of Tlaxcala
Indigenous peoples in Mexico
History of New Spain
Spanish conquests in the Americas