Moctezuma II Part I

 

Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (c. 1466 – 29 June 1520; [moteːkʷˈs̻oːmaḁ ʃoːkoˈjoːt͡sin̥] modern Nahuatl pronunciation), variant spellings include Moctezuma, Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma, Motēuczōmah, Muteczuma, and referred to retroactively in European sources as Moctezuma II, was the ninth Emperor of the Aztec Empire (also known as Mexica Empire), reigning from 1502 or 1503 to 1520. Through his marriage with Queen Tlapalizquixochtzin of Ecatepec, one of his two wives, he was also king consort of that altepetl.

The first contact between the indigenous civilizations of Mesoamerica and Europeans took place during his reign. He was killed during the initial stages of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire when conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men fought to take over the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. During his reign, the Aztec Empire reached its greatest size. Through warfare, Motecuzoma expanded the territory as far south as Xoconosco in Chiapas and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and incorporated the Zapotec and Yopi people into the empire. He changed the previous meritocratic system of social hierarchy and widened the divide between pipiltin (nobles) and macehualtin (commoners) by prohibiting commoners from working in the royal palaces.

Though two other Aztec rulers succeeded Motecuhzoma after his death, their reigns were short-lived and the empire quickly collapsed under them. Historical portrayals of Motecuhzoma have mostly been colored by his role as ruler of a defeated nation, and many sources have described him as weak-willed, superstitious, and indecisive. Depictions of his person among his contemporaries, however, are divided; some depict him as one of the greatest leaders Mexico had, a great conqueror who tried his best to maintain his nation together at times of crisis, while others depict him as a tyrant who wanted to take absolute control over the whole empire. His story remains one of the most well-known conquest narratives from the history of European contact with Native Americans, and he has been mentioned or portrayed in numerous works of historical fiction and popular culture.

Name

Headdress traditionally attributed to Moctezuma II in the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna. The object, however, might have not belonged to Moctezuma and, contrary to popular belief; it was not used as his crown. It might have been a religious headdress to represent the god Quetzalcoatl during religious events, a battle standard, or a military device worn in the back.

The Nahuatl pronunciation of his name is [motekʷˈsoːma]. It is a compound of a noun meaning "lord" and a verb meaning "to frown in anger", and so is interpreted as "he frowns like a lord" or "he who is angry in a noble manner." His name glyph, shown in the upper left corner of the image from the Codex Mendoza, was composed of a diadem (xiuhuitzolli) on straight hair with an attached earspool, a separate nosepiece, and a speech scroll.

Regnal number

The Aztecs did not use regnal numbers; they were given retroactively by historians to more easily distinguish him from the first Moctezuma, referred to as Moctezuma I. The Aztec chronicles called him Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, while the first was called Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina or Huehuemotecuhzoma ("Old Moctezuma"). Xocoyotzin (IPA: [ʃokoˈjotsin]) means "honored young one" (from "xocoyotl" [younger son] + suffix "-tzin" added to nouns or personal names when speaking about them with deference).

Biography

Ancestry and early life

Moctezuma II was the great-grandson of Moctezuma I through his daughter Atotoztli II and her husband Huehue Tezozómoc (not to be confused with the Tepanec leader). According to some sources, Tezozómoc was the son of emperor Itzcóatl, which would make Moctezuma his great-grandson, but other sources claim that Tezozómoc was Chimalpopoca's son, thus nephew of Itzcóatl, and a lord in Ecatepec. Moctezuma was also Nezahualcóyotl's grandson; he was a son of emperor Axayácatl and one of Nezahualcóyotl's daughters, Izelcoatzin or Xochicueyetl. Two of his uncles were Tízoc and Ahuizotl, the two previous emperors.

As was customary among Mexica nobles, Moctezuma was educated in the Calmecac, the educational institution for the nobility. He would have been enrolled into the institution at a very early age, likely at the age of five years, as the sons of the kings were expected to receive their education at a much earlier age than the rest of the population. According to some sources, Moctezuma stood out in his childhood for his discipline during his education, finishing his works correctly and being devout to the Aztec religion.

Moctezuma was an already famous warrior by the time he became the tlatoani of Mexico, holding the high rank of tlacatecuhtli (lord of men) and/or tlacochcalcatl (person from the house of darts) in the Mexica military, and thus his election was largely influenced by his military career and religious influence as a priest, as he was also the main priest of Huitzilopochtli's temple.

One example of a celebrated campaign in which he participated before ascending to the throne was during the last stages of the conquest of Ayotlan, during Ahuizotl's reign in the late 15th century. During this campaign, which lasted 4 years, a group of Mexica pochteca merchants were put under siege by the enemy forces. This was important because the merchants were closely related to Ahuizotl and served as military commanders and soldiers themselves when needed. To rescue the merchants, Ahuizotl sent then-prince Moctezuma with many soldiers to fight against the enemies, though the fight didn't last long, as the people of Ayotlan surrendered to the Mexica shortly after he arrived.

Approximately in the year 1490, Moctezuma obtained the rank of tequihua, which was reached by capturing at least 4 enemy commanders.

Coronation

Annotation of Moctezuma’s coronation stone to allow for increased legibility. The primary function of this stone was to commemorate the reign of Emperor Motecuhzoma II. This stone legitimizes Mocteczuma’s rule and contextualizes his reign with the cosmological view of Aztec history. In the annotated image, the 5 suns of the Aztecs are indicated. They are significant in the timeline of Aztec civilization. Each sun represents the belief of the Aztec people that the world has gone through 5 distinct cycles of creation and destruction. One should read the stone starting with the first Sun in the bottom right and moving counterclockwise (following the blue arrows in the annotation). The 5th Sun in the center of the stone represents the present era of the Aztecs. 

The year in which Moctezuma was crowned is uncertain. Most historians suggest the year 1502 to be most likely, though some have argued in favor of the year 1503. A work currently held at the Art Institute of Chicago known as the Stone of the Five Suns is an inscription written in stone representing the Five Suns and a date in the Aztec calendar, 1 crocodile 11 reed, which is equivalent to 15 July 1503 in the Gregorian calendar. Some historians believe this to be the exact date on which the coronation took place, as it is also included in some primary sources. Other dates have been given from the same year; Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl states that the coronation took place on 24 May 1503.However, most documents say Moctezuma's coronation happened in the year 1502, and therefore most historians believe this to have been the actual date.

Reign

Moctezuma's coronation according to the Durán Codex

After his coronation, Moctezuma set up thirty-eight more provincial divisions, largely to centralize the empire. He sent out bureaucrats, accompanied by military garrisons, who made sure tax was being paid; national laws were being upheld and served as local judges in case of disagreement.

Internal policy

Natural disasters

Moctezuma's reign began with difficulties. In the year 1505, a major drought resulted in widespread crop failure, and thus a large portion of the population of central Mexico began to starve. One of the few places in the empire not affected by this drought was Totonacapan, and many people from Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco sought refuge in this region to avoid starvation. Large amounts of maize were brought from this area to aid the population. Moctezuma and the lords of Texcoco and Tlacopan, Nezahualpilli, and Totoquihuatzin, attempted to aid the population during the disaster, including using all available food supplies to feed the population and raising tributes for one year. The drought and famine ultimately lasted three years, and at some point became so severe that some noblemen reportedly sold their children as slaves in exchange for food to avoid starvation. Moctezuma ordered the tlacxitlan, the criminal court of Tenochtitlan (which aside from judging criminals also had the job of freeing "unjustified" slaves), to free those children and offer food to those noblemen. Another natural disaster, of lesser intensity, occurred in the winter of 1514, when a series of dangerous snowstorms resulted in the destruction of various crops and property across Mexico.

Policies and other events during his reign

During his government, he applied multiple policies that centered the government of the empire on his person, though it is difficult to tell exactly to which extent those policies were applied, as the records written about such policies tend to be affected by propaganda in favor of or against his person.

According to Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, among Moctezuma's policies were the replacement of a large portion of his court (including most of his advisors) with people he deemed preferable, and increasing the division between the commoner and noble classes, which included the refusal to offer certain honors to various politicians and warriors for being commoners. He also prohibited any commoners or illegitimate children of the nobility from serving in his palace or high positions of government. This was contrary to the policies of his predecessors, who did allow commoners to serve in such positions.

Moctezuma's elitism can be attributed to a long conflict of interests between the nobility, merchants, and warrior class. The struggle occurred as the result of the conflicting interests between the merchants and the nobility and the rivalry between the warrior class and the nobility for positions of power in the government. Moctezuma likely sought to resolve this conflict by installing despotist policies that would settle it. However, it is also true that many of his elitist policies were put in place because he did not want to "work with inferior people", and instead wanted to be served by and interact with people he deemed more prestigious, both to avoid giving himself and the government a bad reputation and to work with people he trusted better. However, some of his policies also affected the nobility, as he had intentions of reforming it so that it would not pose a potential threat to the government; among these policies was the obligation of the nobility to reside permanently in Tenochtitlan and abandon their homes if they lived elsewhere.

Regarding his economic policies, Moctezuma's rule was largely affected by natural disasters in the early years. As mentioned before, the famine during his first years as tlatoani resulted in a temporary increase in tribute in some provinces to aid the population. Some provinces, however, ended up paying more tribute permanently, most likely as the result of his primary military focus shifting from territorial expansion to stabilization of the empire through the suppression of rebellions. Most of the provinces affected by these new tributary policies were in the Valley of Mexico. For example, the province of Amaquemecan, which formed part of the Chalco region, was assigned to pay an additional tribute of stone and wood twice or thrice a year for Tenochtitlan's building projects. This tributary policy eventually backfired, as some of the empire's subjects grew disgruntled with Moctezuma's government and launched rebellions against him, which eventually resulted in many of these provinces—including Totonacapan (under the de facto leadership of Chicomacatl), Chalco and Mixquic (which were near Tenochtitlan)—forming alliances with Spain against him.

The famine at the beginning of his rule also resulted in the abolishment of the huehuetlatlacolli system, which was a system of serfdom in which a family agreed to maintain a tlacohtli (slave or serf) perpetually. This agreement also turned the descendants of the ones who agreed into serfs.

During his campaign against Jaltepec and Cuatzontlan (see below), he made negotiations with the Tlatelolca to obtain the weapons and resources needed. As a result of these negotiations, Tlatelolco was given more sovereignty; they were permitted to rebuild their main temple which was partially destroyed in the Battle of Tlatelolco in a civil war during Axayácatl's reign, act largely independently during military campaigns, and be absolved from paying tribute.

Many of these policies were planned together with his uncle Tlilpotonqui, cihuacoatl of Mexico and son of Tlacaelel, at the beginning of his reign, while others, such as his tributary policies, were created as the result of various events, like the famine which occurred at the beginning of his rule. His policies, in general, had the purpose of centralizing the government in his person through the means of implementing policies to settle the divide between the nobility and commoners and abolishing some of the more feudal policies of his predecessors, while also making his tributary policies more severe to aid the population during natural disasters and to compensate for a less expansionist focus in his military campaigns.

Most of the policies implemented during his rule would not last long after his death, as the empire fell into Spanish control on 13 August 1521 as a result of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, one year after he died. The new Spanish authorities implemented their laws and removed many of the political establishments founded during the pre-Hispanic era, leaving just a few in place. Among the few policies that lasted was the divide between the nobility and the commoners, as members of the pre-Hispanic nobility continued to enjoy various privileges under the Viceroyalty of New Spain, such as land ownership through a system known as cacicazgo.

Construction projects

Moctezuma's Palace from the Codex Mendoza (1542)

Moctezuma, like many of his predecessors, built a tecpan (palace) of his own. This was a particularly large palace, which was somewhat larger than the National Palace that exists today which was built over it, being about 200 meters long and 200 meters wide. However, little archaeological evidence exists to understand what his palace looked like, but the various descriptions of it and the space it covered have helped reconstruct various features of its layout. Even so, these descriptions tend to be limited, as many writers were unable to describe them in detail. The Spanish captain Hernán Cortés, the main commander of the Spanish troops that entered Mexico in the year 1519, himself stated in his letters to the king of Spain that he would not bother describing it, claiming that it "was so marvelous that it seems to me impossible to describe its excellence."

The palace had a large courtyard that opened into the central plaza of the city to the north, where Templo Mayor was. This courtyard was a place where hundreds of courtiers would hold multiple sorts of activities, including feasts and waiting for royal business to be conducted. This courtyard had suites of rooms that surrounded smaller courtyards and gardens.

His residence had many rooms for various purposes. Aside from his room, at the central part of the upper floor, there were two rooms beside it which were known as coacalli (guest house). One of these rooms was built for the lords of Tlacopan and Texcoco, the other two members of the Triple Alliance, who came to visit. The other room was for the lords of Colhuacan, Tenayohcan (today known as Tenayuca) and Chicuhnautlan (today, Santa María Chiconautla [es]). The exact reason why this room had this purpose remains uncertain, though a few records like Codex Mendoza say the reason was that these lords were personal friends of Moctezuma. There was also another room which became known as Casa Denegrida de Moctezuma (in Spanish, Moctezuma's Black House), a room with no windows and fully painted black which was used by Moctezuma to meditate. Remains of this room have been found in recent years in modern Mexico City. The upper floor had a large courtyard which was likely used as a cuicacalli, for public shows during religious rituals. The bottom floor had two rooms which were used by the government. One of them was used for Moctezuma's advisors and judges who dealt with the situations of the commoners, (likely the Tlacxitlan). The other room was for the war council (likely the Tequihuacalli), where high-ranking warriors planned and commanded their battles.

As part of the construction of Moctezuma's palace, various projects were made which made it more prestigious by providing entertainment to the public.

The Totocalli as depicted in the Florentine Codex

One of the most famous among these projects was the Totocalli [es] (House of Birds), a zoo which had multiple sorts of animals, mainly avian species, but also contained several predatory animals in their section. These animals were taken care of by servants who cleaned their environments, fed them, and offered them care according to their species. The species of birds held within the zoo were widely varied, holding animals like quetzals, eagles, true parrots, and others, and also included water species like roseate spoonbills and various others that had their pond.

The section with animals other than birds, which was decorated with figures of gods associated with the wild, was also considerably varied, having jaguars, wolves, snakes, and other smaller predatory animals. These animals were fed on hunted animals like deer, turkeys, and other smaller animals. Allegedly, the dead bodies of sacrificial victims were also used to feed these animals, and after the battle known as La Noche Triste, which occurred during the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in June 1520 (during which Moctezuma died), the bodies of dead Spaniards may have been used to feed them.

This place was highly prestigious, and all sorts of important people are said to have used to visit this place, including artists, craftsmen, government officials, and blacksmiths.

The Totocalli, however, was burnt and destroyed, along with many other constructions, in the year 1521 during the Siege of Tenochtitlan, as the Spanish captain Hernán Cortés ordered for many of the buildings that formed part of the royal palaces to be burnt to demoralize the Mexica army and civilians. Though Cortés himself admitted that he enjoyed the zoo, he stated that he saw it as a necessary measure in his third letter to the king of Spain Carlos I (also known as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor).

Another construction was the Chapultepec aqueduct, built in 1506 to bring fresh water directly from Chapultepec to Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. This water was driven to the merchant ports of the city for people to drink and to the temples. This aqueduct was destroyed less than a year after Moctezuma's death, during the Siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, as the Spaniards decided to destroy it to cut

Tenochtitlan's water supply. Some Mexica warriors attempted to resist its destruction, but were repelled by the Tlaxcalan allies of the Spanish.

Territorial expansion during his rule, military actions and foreign policy

Celebrations during Moctezuma's coronation according to the Durán Codex

At the beginning of his rule, he attempted to build diplomatic ties with Tlaxcala, Huexotzinco (today, Huejotzingo), Chollolan (Cholula), Michoacan, and Metztitlán, by secretly inviting the lords of these countries to attend the celebrations for his coronation before the continuation of the flower wars, which were wars of religious nature arranged voluntarily by the parties involved with no territorial purposes, but instead to capture and sacrifice as many soldiers as possible. During this period, Mexico and Tlaxcala still weren't at war, but the tension between these nations was high, and the embassy sent for this purpose was put in a highly risky situation, for which he only chose experts in diplomacy, espionage, and languages for it. Fortunately, his invitation was accepted, and Moctezuma used this opportunity to show his greatness to the lords who attended. However, because the invitation was secret to avoid a scandal for inviting his rivals to this ceremony, Moctezuma ordered that no one should know that the lords were present, not even the rulers of Tlacopan (today known as Tacuba) and Texcoco, and the lords saw themselves often forced to pretend to be organizers to avoid confusion. Though Moctezuma would continue to hold meetings with these people, where various religious rituals were held, it did not take long for large-scale conflicts to erupt between these nations.

An important thing to note is that contrary to popular belief, Tlaxcala wasn't Mexico's most powerful rival in the central Mexican region in this period, and it wouldn't be until the final years of pre-Hispanic Mexico in 1518—19. In the opening years of the 16th century, Huejotzingo was Mexico's actual military focus, and it proved itself to be one of the most powerful political entities until these final years, as a series of devastating wars weakened the state into being conquered by Tlaxcala.

During his reign, he married the queen of Ecatepec, Tlapalizquixochtzin, making him king consort of this altepetl, though according to the chronicle written by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, very few people in Mexico knew about this political role, being only a few among his closest courtiers among those who knew.

Early military campaigns

Moctezuma's military victories listed in Codex Mendoza

The first military campaign during his rule, which was done in honor of his coronation, was the violent suppression of a rebellion in Nopala and Icpatepec. For this war, a force of over 60,000 soldiers from Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tepanec lands, Chalco, and Xochimilco participated, and Moctezuma himself went to the frontlines. Approximately 5100 prisoners were taken after the campaign, many of whom were given to inhabitants of Tenochtitlan and Chalco as slaves, while the rest were sacrificed in his honor on the fourth day of his coronation. In Nopala, Mexica soldiers committed a massacre and burned down the temples and houses, going against Moctezuma's wishes. After the campaign, celebrations for his coronation continued in Tenochtitlan. Moctezuma's territorial expansion, however, would not truly begin until another rebellion was suppressed in Tlachquiauhco (today known as Tlaxiaco), where its ruler, Malinalli, was killed after trying to start the rebellion. In this campaign, all adults above the age of 50 within the city were killed under Moctezuma's orders as he blamed them for the rebellion. A characteristic fact about Moctezuma's wars was that a large portion of them had the purpose of suppressing rebellions rather than conquering new territory, contrary to his predecessors, whose main focus was territorial expansion.