Tenochtitlán before Mexico City

For this week’s blog, I studied the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. What I did not know was Tenochtitlán was exactly where Mexico City is located today; more specifically, it is buried under the city because of the Spanish conquering. 

But before the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan, the city was one of the largest at the time (1400s) and it was a massive centre of political, religious and economic power. It was laid out in a grid pattern (very similar to Teotihuacan) and more compressed in scale. All of the main markets, complexes, and buildings were pushed together so the city had a distinguished core. At the centre, in the precinct (enclosed by the Coatepantli or the Snake Wall) were pyramids, temples and sacrificial altars. Also at the centre of this Aztec universe was the Templo Mayor, a dual palace that represented the zone of man, the 13 levels of Heaven and nine levels of the Underworld. 

Map of Tenochtitlán
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/tenochtitlan-color.jpg
(accessed March 8, 2013).

Model of Tenochtitlán
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Model_of_Tenochtitlan.jpg
(accessed March 8, 2013).

All of this shows how Tenochtitlán was tied and centered around religious beliefs and practices, deities, cosmology and power. Of all the Aztec sites, Tenochtitlán was the most divergently planned to show its grandeur and to distinguish it from the other cities. 

When Tenochtitlán fell, the Spanish razed most of Tenochtitlán to the ground before building Mexico City. As Mexico City was built, it was done so in European style and traditions. 

Mexico City- The Angel of Independence
http://www.mtwmexicocity.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Mexico_City.jpg
(accessed March 8, 2013).

Mexico City Cathedral (built by Spaniards over ruins of Tenochtitlán's main temple, Templo Mayor)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mexico_City_Zocalo_Cathedral.jpg
(accessed March 8, 2013).

But why would the Spanish raze and rebuild their colonial capital on a city that represented power? 

To destroy such a monumental city seems unimaginable, however, there is a significance in the Spanish (and most conquering nations) doing this. The Spanish shared a similar set of beliefs with the Mesoamericans when conquering another city; this included destroying the temples and ideological structures belonging to the conquered people and rebuilding upon the razed territory to signify a new order. 

To rebuild the city showed their control, power and superiority as the rulers of Mexico City. I can understand that to conquer, to gain that power, and to set in stone that you were the rulers made it necessary to rebuild a new empire. The Greeks, Romans and other empires exemplified this in their own efforts to become more powerful nations. It was necessary to show that they, in the end, were in control.  

That's it for now!

I'm off.