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Tomaszewski Smith 11 JrHistGeog PDF
Tomaszewski Smith 11 JrHistGeog PDF
Department of Information Sciences & Technologies, Rochester Institute of Technology, 31 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 872402, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Abstract
Historical interpretation of political dynamics in pre-conquest central Mexico from indigenous records is fraught with difculties. Beyond the basic
challenges involved in interpreting fragmentary evidence is the fact that the majority of evidence comes from the dominant imperial polity (Tenochtitlan)
and paints a biased and overly generalized view of political and social dynamics in provincial areas. We present a reconstruction of the political geography
of the Toluca Valley of central Mexico in Aztec times that avoids these biases by focusing not on the events described in native histories, but on the
individual towns and their spatial locations. We nd that a theoretical perspective that denes political entities by networks and relations among people
more adequately captures the historical situation than traditional models that dene polities based on territory and boundaries.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Political process; Polities; Ancient States; Borders; Toluca Valley; Mexico
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: bmtski@rit.edu (B.M. Tomaszewski), mesmith9@asu.edu (M.E. Smith).
1
M.L. Smith, Networks, territories, and the cartography of ancient states, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95 (2005) 832e849; M. Berman, Boundaries or
networks in historical GIS: concepts of measuring space and administrative geography in Chinese history, Historical Geography 33 (2005) 118e133; J. Bintliff, Settlement and
territory, in: G. Barker (Ed), Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Vol. 1, London, 1999, 505e545.
0305-7488/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2010.06.001
23
the waters of the Lerma River have made the Toluca Valley
a productive agricultural area.
Before the arrival of the Spanish in 1519, the Toluca Valley was
known as Matlatzinco, a Nahuatl term that means either Place of
nets or else On the small place of nets.3 This usage is found in both
types of documents used in the present study: native historical
accounts from the Basin of Mexico and early colonial Spanish
administrative documents from the Toluca Valley (see discussion of
24
Fig. 2. Linguistic areas at the time of Spanish conquest, based on Garca Castro. Garca Castro leaves out Nahuatl, whose distribution is unclear. Source: R. Garca Castro, Indios,
territorio y poder en la provincia matlatzinca: la negociacin del espacio poltico de los pueblos otomianos, siglos XV-XII, Mexico City and Toluca, 1999, cited page: 48.
sources below). The term Matlatzinco was also used in two other
ways: as the name of a large and powerful state that ruled the
Toluca Valley before the area was conquered by the Aztec Triple
Alliance empire, and as the name of the city that served as the
capital of the Matlatzinco polity.4
The ethnonym Matlatzincas (Matlatzinca in Spanish and
Nahuatl) is even more complex. Following Nahuatl practice in
central Mexico, Matlatzinca means the people of Matlatzinco. Thus
it can refer to the inhabitants of the city of Matlatzinco, the
members of the polity of Matlatzinco who lived in other towns, or
anyone who lived in the valley of Matlatzinco (the Toluca Valley).
The relationships among places, peoples, and indigenous labels for
both were quite complex in Aztec central Mexico,5 a fact that is not
always understood by modern scholars.
To further confuse the issue, linguists have given the name
Matlatzinca to a language of the Otopamean language group
spoken in ancient and modern times by some inhabitants of the
Toluca Valley.6 In Postclassic times (ca. 900eca. 1519), the Toluca
Valley was a complex linguistic mosaic, home to signicant
numbers of speakers of at least four languages: Matlatzinca,
Mazahua, Otomi, and Nahuatl.7 Fig. 2 shows Ren Garca Castros
map of the locations of three of these languages.
4
The use of a single term to designate both a polity and its capital was widespread in Aztec central Mexico, M.E. Smith, Aztec City-State Capitals, Gainesville, 2008,
and in fact this usage was quite common in city-state systems throughout the ancient world M.H. Hansen, Introduction: the concepts of city-state and city-state culture,
in: M.H. Hansen (Ed), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures, Copenhagen, 2000, 11e34.
5
E. Umberger, Ethnicity and other identities in the sculptures of Tenochtitlan, in: Frances F. Berdan, John K. Chance, Alan R. Sandstrom, Barbara L. Stark, James M. Taggart,
Emily Umberger (Eds), Ethnic Identity in Nahua Mesoamerica: the View from Archaeology, Art History, Ethnohistory, and Contemporary Ethnography, Salt Lake City, 2008, 64e104.
6
F.D. Basalenque, Arte y vocabulario de la lengua matlaltzingo vuelto a la castellana (orig. 1642), Toluca, 1975.
7
R. Garca Castro, Indios, territorio y poder en la provincia matlatzinca: la negociacin del espacio poltico de los pueblos otomianos, siglos XVeXII, Mexico City and Toluca, 1999.
8
M.N. Quezada Ramrez, Las matlatzincas: poca prehispnica y poca colonial hasta 1650, Mexico City, 1972.
25
Fig. 3. The conquest of Matlatzinco as shown in pictorial sources from the Basin of
Mexico. A: conquest of ve towns from the Codex Mendoza. The Mexica emperor
Axayacatl is shown at upper right. The burning temples signify conquest; the ve
towns, all located in the Toluca Valley, are Tlacotepec, Metepec, Capulhuac, Ocoyacac
and Quauhpanoayan (additional Toluca Valley towns conquered by Axayacatl are
shown in other parts of the codex). Reproduction courtesy of Frances F. Berdan. B: The
conquest of Matlatzinco from the stone sculpture known as the Tizoc Stone. The
warrior at left is the Mexica emperor Tizoc, and the defeated gure at right represents
Matlatzinco, as indicated by the net glyph above his head; drawing by Emily Umberger.
C: The conquest of Matlatzinco in the year 8-Rabbit from E. Quiones Keber, Codex
Telleriano-Remensis: Ritual, Divination, and History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript,
University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995: f. 36v.; drawing by Bridgette Gilliland.
9
M.E. Smith, J. Novic, P. Kroefges, and A. Huster, A new map of the Aztec-period city of Calixtlahuaca in Central Mexico, Antiquity 81 (2007); M.E. Smith, J. Novic, A. Huster,
P.C. Kroefges, Reconocimiento Supercial y Mapeo en Calixtlahuaca, Expresin Antropolgica (Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura) 36 (2009) 39e55.
10
R. Hernndez Rodrguez, Documentos relacionados con San Bartolom Tlatelolco, Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropolgicos 9 (1950) 233e251.
11
R. Garca Castro, M.T. Jarqun Ortega (Eds), La proeza histrica de un pueblo, San Mateo Atenco en el valle de Toluca, siglos VIIIeXIX, Toluca, 2006.
12
Litgio entre Atenco y Toluca, 1540e1635. Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Escribana de Cmara, Leg. 161-A. Unpublished transcription by Ren Garca Castro, f. 339.
13
The Triple Alliance, in this context, refers to the three city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan that formed into an alliance. All were located in the Basin of
Mexico.
26
14
27
Fig. 4. Map of the imperial provinces in the Toluca Valley from F. Berdan, Richard E. Blanton, Elizabeth H. Boone, Mary G. Hodge, Michael E. Smith, Emily Umberger (Ed), Aztec
Imperial Strategies, Washington, DC, 1996, page 326.
27
come from Tenochtitlan. The reason for recording and telling native
history was to glorify dynasties and ethnic groups, not to preserve
an accurate record of past events. These sources thus contain
a strong component of bias in the form of propaganda and ideological discourse. There is a clear tendency for historical accuracy
and reliability to decline as one moves back in time. Smith argues
elsewhere that most events purported to happen more than two
centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519 are most
usefully viewed as mythical accounts with dubious historical
validity.31
For the most part the native historical record for the Toluca
Valley consists of accounts written in Tenochtitlan and other cities
in the Basin of Mexico. Events in the Toluca Valley are only
preserved as they relate to the history and politics of the polities in
the Basin. Our approach for the earliest periods is to largely ignore
the events depicted (generally migrations, conquests, and ceremonies) and focus instead on the specic places mentioned. We
assume that those places were most likely important towns during
the general period covering the events included in the histories.
Administrative documents from the Toluca Valley
In contrast to the Basin of Mexico, very few native historical sources
from the Valley of Toluca have survived. Local administrative
documents from the Spanish legal system, however, do preserve
some useful historical information. The documents that have been
NGIA, National Geospatial-Intellegence Agency GEOnet Names Server (GNS): Names Files of Selected Countries (Mexico), 2005.
B. Tomaszewski, The reconstruction of Aztec political geography in the Toluca Valley of Mexico, MA Thesis, Department of Geography, State University of New York at
Buffalo, 2005; B. Tomaszewski, Reconstructing Aztec political geographies, ArcUser 9 (2006) 24e26.
29
E.E. Calnek, The analysis of prehispanic central Mexican historical texts, Estudios de Cultura Nhuatl 13 (1978) 239e266; E.H. Boone, Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial
Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs, Austin, 2000.
30
F.D. Durn, The History of the Indies of New Spain, Norman, 1994.
31
M.E. Smith, Comments on the historicity of Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, Tollan, and the Toltecs, Nahua Newsletter 36 (2003) 31e36; M.E. Smith, Tula and Chichn Itz: are we
asking the right questions? in: C. Kristan-Graham, J.K. Kowalski (Eds), Twin Tollans: Chichn Itz, Tula, and the Epiclassic-Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, Washington, DC,
2006, 559e597.
28
28
32
29
Table 1
Periodization of Postclassic history in the Toluca Valley
Code
Period
Approximate dates
A
B
C
D
E
F
Legendary
Early Tepanec
Tezozomoc reign
Early Triple Alliance
Triple Alliance reign
Spanish colonial
Pre-1300
ca. 1300e1370
ca. 1370e1428
1428e1475
1475e1519
After 1519
44
In the Basin of Mexico, the fourteenth century saw the rise to power
and prominence of the Tepanec kingdom of Azcapotzalco, based in
the western part of the Basin. Tepanec history is particularly difcult
to reconstruct because the dominant Mexica of Tenochtitlan
systematically destroyed historical documents and repressed information about this imperial power that preceded their own rise to
glory. Careful historiographic analysis by Carlos Santamarina,49
however, has brought to light the contours of the rise and demise
of the kingdom of Azcapotzalco. In addition to the rise of Tepanec
power, the fourteenth century prior to ca. 1370 also witnessed the
founding of Tenochtitlan and the establishment of a situation of
warfare and competition among numerous city-states.50 The polities
of the Toluca Valley were drawn into the political dynamics of this
period, and thus their names turn up in the native historical accounts.
Towns in the Toluca Valley are mentioned less frequently in the
native historical record during this period. The four towns included
in these sources (Cuahuacan, Matlatzinco, Mazahuacan, and Tollocan) are shown in Fig. 5B. The location of Mazahuacan is
30
Fig. 5. Locations of major polities in four periods before 1475. These maps are based on our analysis of major native historical sources that discuss events prior to 1475. Source:
R. Hernndez Rodrguez, Los pueblos y las genealologas en el Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados, in: X. Noguez, R. Hernndez Rodrguez (Eds), Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados
(edicin facsimilar), Toluca, 1992, 49e59, A. Saurwein, Autenticidad de los glifos toponmicos del Crculo del Tepanecotl del Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados, in: X. Noguez,
S. Wood (Eds), De tlacuilos y escribanos: Estudios sobre documentos indgenas coloniales del centro de Mxico, Zamora and Toluca, 1998, 69e98; C. Santamarina, El sistema de dominacin azteca: el imperio tepaneca, Madrid, 2006.
51
Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo Francisco de San Antn Mun, Relaciones originales (note 46), cited page: 54.
52
31
Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo Francisco de San Antn Mun, Codex Chimalpahin (note 46).
Noguez, Hernndez Rodrguez (Eds), Cdice Techialoyan (note 39).
54
R. Hernndez Rodrguez, Los pueblos y las genealologas en el Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados (note 39), 49e59; A. Saurwein, Autenticidad de los glifos toponmicos
del Crculo del Tepanecotl del Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados, in: X. Noguez, S. Wood (Eds), De tlacuilos y escribanos: Estudios sobre documentos indgenas coloniales del
centro de Mxico, Zamora and Toluca, 1998, 69e98; Santamarina, El sistema (note 49).
55
C. Santamarina, El sistema de dominacin azteca (note 49), cited page: 278.
56
See note 25.
57
C. Herrejn Peredo, La pugna entre mexicas y tarascos, Cuadernos de Historia (Toluca) 1 (1978) 11e47.
58
R. Nieto Hernndez, Toluca prehispnica: datos sobre su historia, Expresin Antropolgica (Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura) 8/9 67e76.
53
32
Fig. 6. Locations of Toluca Valley towns subject to Tezozomoc of Azcapotzalco in Period C, based on the Cdice Garca Granados. Source: X. Noguez, R. Hernndez Rodrguez (Eds),
Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados (edicin facsimilar), Toluca, 1992. We follow the following analysis of that document: M.T. Jarqun Ortega, El Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados y
las congregaciones en el altiplano central de Mxico, in: X. Noguez, S. Wood (Eds), De tlacuilos y escribanos: Estudios sobre documentos indgenas coloniales del centro de Mxico,
Zamora and Toluca, 1998, 49e58; A. Saurwein, Autenticidad de los glifos toponmicos del Crculo del Tepanecotl del Cdice Techialoyan Garca Granados, in: X. Noguez, S. Wood
(Eds), De tlacuilos y escribanos: Estudios sobre documentos indgenas coloniales del centro de Mxico, Zamora and Toluca, 1998, 69e98; C. Santamarina, El sistema de dominacin azteca:
el imperio tepaneca, Madrid, 2006.
59
60
The best analysis of these events is that of Carlos Herrejn Peredo, whose chronology and interpretations we follow. Herrejn Peredo, La pugna (note 57).
.M. Garibay K, Axaycatl, poeta y seor de Tenochitlan, Estudios de Cultura Nhuatl 6 (1966) 29e45.
33
Fig. 7. Locations of Toluca Valley towns conquered by Axayacatl in the 1470s as shown in the Codex Mendoza.
61
62
34
Fig. 8. Locations of Toluca Valley towns subject to the Triple Alliance Empire through the tributary provinces of Tollocan and Cuahuacan. Source: Codex Mendoza, The Codex
Mendoza, Edited by Frances F. Berdan and Patricia R. Anawalt, Berkeley, 1992.
63
C. Herrejn Peredo, La pugna entre mexicas (note 57); Hernndez Rodrguez, El Valle de Toluca (note 34).
35
Fig. 9. Locations of towns and lands distributed by Axayacatl after 1478. Source: Hernndez Rodrguez, El Valle de Toluca: poca prehispnica y siglo XVI, Toluca, Mexico, 1988.
64
P. Carrasco, The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico: the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan, Norman, 1999; Berdan, Blanton, Boone, Hodge, Smith, and
Umberger, Aztec Imperial (note 25).
36
Fig. 10. Locations of Toluca Valley towns whose nobles attended imperial ceremonies in Tenochtitlan in 1481 and 1487. Source: F.D. Durn, The History of the Indies of New Spain,
Norman, 1994, cited pages: 302 and 330.
65
66
Archivo del Hispotal de Jess, Leg. 277, Exp. 2, Cuaderno 4, ff. 1126e1128.
Hernndez Rodrguez, El Valle de Toluca (note 34), 251; The map is also published in Umberger, Presence and material remains Aztec Imperial (note 38), 151e180, on page
157.
67
68
Garca Castro, Indios, territorio y poder en la provincia matlatzinca (note 7), cited pages: 74e86.
de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Obras histricas (note 46), cited section: volume 2, page 145.
37
Fig. 11. Locations of Toluca Valley towns subject to Tlacopan in period E. Source: this is based on the Memorial de los Pueblos list Memorial de los Pueblos, Memorial de los Pueblos,
in: F.d. Paso y Troncoso (Ed), Epistolario de Nueva Espaa, 1505e1818, Vol. 14, Mexico City, 1940, 118-122. As analyzed by Pedro Carrasco P. Carrasco, The Tenochca Empire of Ancient
Mexico: the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan, Norman, 1999., and lists of 16th century Spanish labor drafts, discussed by Charles Gibson C. Gibson, The Aztecs
Under Spanish Rule: a History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519e1810, Stanford, 1964.
69
70
See note 7.
See note 10.
38
Fig. 12. Relations of domination among Toluca Valley towns in the early Spanish colonial period. Source: R.H. Barlow, Documentos relacionados con San Bartolom Tlatelolco,
Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropolgicos 9 (1950) 233e251.
Valley nobles attended state ceremonies in Tenochtitlan. Coronations, royal funerals, and temple dedications provided settings
where the nobles of the empire gathered for feasting, gift exchange,
and ceremonial activities that promoted social and political solidarity among the imperial elite class.71
Fig. 10 shows the towns whose nobles were invited to two of the
major imperial ceremonies in Tenochtitlan: the coronation of Tizoc
(Axayacatls immediate successor) in 1481, and the dedication of
the Templo Mayor in 1487 by Ahuitzotl (who ruled 1486e1502).
71
M.E. Smith, The role of social stratication in the Aztec empire: a view from the provinces, American Anthropologist 88 (1986) 70e91.
39
72
Although the term tribute is typically used by Aztec scholars, these payments in fact correspond to the common denition of a tax (regular, institutionalized, and
recorded payments), rather than tribute (a one-time lump-sum payment). D. Tarschys, Tributes, tariffs, taxes and trade: the changing sources of government revenue, British
Journal of Political Science 19 (1988) 1e20.
73
Carrasco, The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico (note 64). Another recent study of Aztec imperialism focused almost exclusively on the Triple Alliance and its towns and
processes Berdan, Blanton, Boone, Hodge, Smith, and Umberger, Aztec Imperial (note 25).
74
For discussion, see: M.E. Smith, Review of the Tenochca empire of central Mexico, by Pedro Carrasco, Ethnohistory 49 (2002) 451e453.
75
C. Harris, How did colonialism dispossess? Comments from an edge of empire, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94 (2004) 165e182. Beatriz Albores
discusses the changing uses of the terms Matlatzinco and Toluca Valley during the colonial period. Albores Zrate, Una travesa conceptual (note 45).