The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma

Mayan Khaanate? Also it appears you have posted the same update twice with two paragraphs omitted on the second one.
 
So if the Mayans will become united (into Tlaxcala?), and powerful, and Navatlacas is in 2010 the second-largest nation in the Americas, does that mean Navatlacas has all of the American West in 2010?
 
So if the Mayans will become united, and powerful, and Navatlacas is in 2010 the second-largest nation in the Americas, does that mean Navatlacas has all of the American West in 2010?

The Māyās will become temporarily united under the figure
Nakan Khaan, a founder of one of the many foreign dynasties set up in Tenoxtitlana. I don't know whether I want them united since there's historical precedent against it but you'll see some minor conglomeration of smaller states into larger ones as a response to the threat of the likes of Spain, the new independent regime Cortés will set up, other European powers and of course rival Māyā states.

And Navatlaca is the second largest nation in North America. And as for your question concerning what would be our time-line's American Southwest, yes, considerable portions of it would eventually fall into the orbit of Tenoxtitlana though it'll be dotted with small little vassal states.

edit: Tlaxcala is going to be an important ally of Cortes and they're a separate people from the Maya.
 

The Māyās will become temporarily united under the figure
Nakan Khaan, a founder of one of the many foreign dynasties set up in Tenoxtitlana. I don't know whether I want them united since there's historical precedent against it but you'll see some minor conglomeration of smaller states into larger ones as a response to the threat of the likes of Spain, the new independent regime Cortés will set up, other European powers and of course rival Māyā states.

And Navatlaca is the second largest nation in North America. And as for your question concerning what would be our time-line's American Southwest, yes, considerable portions of it would eventually fall into the orbit of Tenoxtitlana though it'll be dotted with small little vassal states.

edit: Tlaxcala is going to be an important ally of Cortes and they're a separate people from the Maya.

Oh, that explains it.

However, regardless of whether it survives/stays united or not, I suggest you call it the Nakanid Khaanate.


EDIT: Actually that's superbly unlikely, and the substitution of a cool name for realism resulted in the death of one of my timelines.

EDIT2: You'd obviously know that though.

EDIT3: Actually that wasn't a timeline, and since this timeline is written from a perspective of retrospect, I suppose Nakanid Khaanate could be the name. Hell, if Byzantine Empire is the official name of the Eastern Roman Empire...
 
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Oh, that explains it.

However, regardless of whether it survives/stays united or not, I suggest you call it the Nakanid Khaanate.


I might. I plan on Nakan Khaan (a figure who is going to appear in ATL 1756) as the closest thing the Mesoamerican section of the New World has to an unholy combination of Julius Caesar and his nephew Caesar Augustus. And you apparently missed the references to a long-lasting Iberian Union between Spain and Portugal.

EDIT: Actually that's superbly unlikely, and the substitution of a cool name for realism resulted in the death of one of my time-lines.
Which one?

EDIT2: You'd obviously know that though.
Yup.


EDIT3: Actually that wasn't a time-line, and since this time-line is written from a perspective of retrospect, I suppose Nakanid Khaanate could be the name. Hell, if Byzantine Empire is the official name of the Eastern Roman Empire...[/QUOTE]


The Nakanid Khaanate is what the Western scholars of the Common World Encyclopedia and other big institutions call it. It has a different name in the Maya languages.
 
It seemed very interesting to me. Anyways an update shall be posted soon.
No, the reason it died was because I insisted on calling something that, realistically, should have been called the Brutian League, but I called it the Caabrian league. That angered the number one contributor to the thread which slowly made it die.

Anyway that thread is long dead and isn't worth clogging up this thread with.
 
The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma

Arrival at the Yokatlān
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The Surrender of Potonchan, Acolmiztli Maxixcatzin 1675, in the National Museum of Tenoxtitlana.

After departing from the island of Kùutsmil , Cortés continued around the tip of theYokatlān and landed at Potonchan, where he and his expeditionary force found very little gold after they subjugated the Yokot'anob Māyā [1]. Yet Cortés discovered a far more important and valuable asset in the form of a woman whom the Spanish conquistador called Doña Marina. She is often called Malintzin or Malinali. Upon his meeting with Azteca diplomats sent by Montezuma, they would come to call him too Malintzin by dint of his close association with her which in turn inspired the title Tlàtoānitzin [2].

Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote in his historical narrative The True History Behind the Conquest and Loss of Mexico that Doña Marina was "an Azteca princess sold into Māyā slavery." She was in actuality not an Azteca princess but was of noble lineage being the first born child of the lord of Paynala who ruled a frontier region between the Azteca empire and the various Māyā states of the Yokatlān. In her youth, her father died and her mother remarried and bore a male child. Now an inconvenience to her son's chances of inheriting Paynala, the girl was sold to Māyā slave traders from Xicalango, an important trading center further south and east along the Mesoamerican coast.

Malinali was first introduced to the Spaniards in the April of 1519 when she among the twenty slave women surrendered by the Yokot'anob Māyā of Potonchan. Her age then is unknown though it is assumed that she was somewhere around late adolescence to early adulthood. The Spanish historian remarked on the woman's beauty and graciousness; in fact Malinali is the only one among the slave women who are ever identified, the rest lost to history.

Cortés singled her out as a gift for Alonzo Hernando Puertocarrero, the most well-born member participating in the expedition. Yet Puertocarrero and a couple of men were sent back on a vessel destined to Spain to act as the representative of Cortés to Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, while the expedition would continue on advancing. Cortés became very close to the woman once Alonzo was far away as he saw the value in keeping her close to him.

Her lineage not withstanding, Cortés had stumbled upon an important key to realizing his ambition. He would communicate to Geronimo de Aguilar in Spanish who would then translate to Māyā for Malinali. Malinali would then translate from Māyā to Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecas. With the pair of translators by his sides, Hernán Cortés could communicate to the Aztecas quite effectively.

Baptized into the Roman Catholic faith by Aguilar and then christened as Marina by Cortés, she later learned the Spanish language, became Cortés' mistress, and bore him multiple children; prominent among them being her son Martin. Native speakers of Nahuatl, her own people, would call her "Malintzin." This name is the closest phonetic approximation possible in Nahuatl to the sound of 'Marina' in Spanish. Over time, Malintzin became a term that was denoted to the wife and/or mother of the reigning Tlàtoānitzin

Malinali would be made legendary through her multiple depictions in historical fiction, television and cinema.

[1]
Yokot'anob Māyā - The Chontal Maya.

[2] Tlàtoānitzin - The new title that is used by the locals in reference to Cortés and his successors who eventually adopted it as a formal title. It roughly translates into the English language as "lord king." It is a combination of Tlàtoāni and Tzin.


 
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The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma

Foundation of a New City
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The Totonaca Market, Acolmiztli Maxixcatzin 1679, in the Fyirācrox Cosmopolitan Museum of Art.

Hernán Cortés moved his expeditionary force further north and landed on the coast of what would be the modern day province of Fyirācrox [1]. He learned of an indigenous settlement called Cempoala [modern day Zimpoala] and marched his soldiers there. On their arrival outsides the gates of Cempoala, they were greeted by twenty dignitaries and welcomed into the town by its cheering townsfolk.


In the two months that Cortés and his troops spent in Cempoala, a significant portion of the population, estimated between twenty and thirty five percent, converted to Roman Catholicism including the Totonaca chief Chicomecoatl. In contrast to the methods used in Kùutsmil, the conversion was far more peaceful. At most, the statues of the local pagan deities were destroyed though the old temples were not demolished; instead they were converted to be used as churches. The chief was quickly convinced to help Cortés against the Aztecas with food and extra soldiers in exchange for a promise to help them win their independence from Tenochtitlan.

Meanwhile Cortés was concerned over the severity of his situation. He was faced with imprisonment or possibly death for defying the orders of his superior the Spanish governor of Cuba. His only alternative was to not look back and to continue on with his enterprise in the hopes of redeeming himself with the Spanish King. To do this, he directed his expanded army to establish a settlement called La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. The legally constituted "town council of Villa Rica" then promptly offered him the position of adelantado[2].

This strategy was not new nor unique. Velásquez had used this same legal mechanism to free himself from Diego Colón's [3] authority in Cuba. In being named adelantado by a duly constituted cabildo [4], Cortés was able to free himself from Velásquez's authority and continue his expedition. To insure the legality of this action several members of his expedition, including Francisco Montejo, returned to Spain to seek royal acceptance of the cabildo's declaration.

The Totonacas helped Cortés build the town of La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, which was the starting point for his attempt to conquer the Aztec empire. This settlement eventually grew into the modern cosmopolitan port city now known as Fyirācrox.

[1] Fyirācrox - OTL Veracruz - the name change occurred during the early to mid 1600s when Muslim immigration from North Africa, the Balkans and the Near East to the Mesoamerican coast. It is a combination of an Arabic transliteration-derived form of Vera meaning True and the Latin word for Cruz - Crox meaning Cross.

[2] Adelantado was a military title held by some Spanish conquistadors of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Adelantados were granted directly by the King the right to

become governors and justices of a specific region which they would be charged with conquering in exchange for funding and organizing the initial explorations, settlements and pacification of the target area on behalf of the Crown. These areas were outside the jurisdiction of audiencias or viceroys and adelantados were authorized to communicate with the Council of the Indies.

[3] Diego Colón Moniz was the second Viceroy of the Indies, second Admiral of the Indies and third Governor of the Indies. He was the firstborn son of famous explorer Christopher Columbus and wife Filipa Moniz. He would later be assigned by Charles to head an army to reconquer Mesoamerica and arrest Cortés. Diego was defeated and captured by Tlaxcalan soldiers in the aftermath of Battle of Veracruz in 1522. He and the survivors of his army would be given back to Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez, second duke of Alba as per the terms of the Treaty of Madrid in 1524. Diego was sent on a vessel to Spain where he would commit suicide by hanging.


[4] cabildo - a former Spanish and later Iberian colonial administrative council that governed a municipalityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of all land-owning household heads. The colonial cabildo was essentially the same as the one that had developed in medieval Castile. The cabildo was the legal representative of the municipality—and its vecinos —before the crown, therefore it was among the first institutions established by the conquistadors themselves after, or even before, taking over an area.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelantado#cite_note-0




 
Another good update.

If it's an 'attempt' to conquer the Aztec Empire, does that mean he fails? So he tries again later?
 
The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma

Scuttling the Fleet
conquistador.jpg


The Lone Conquistador, Juan Bernardo de Xacayatzin 1873, in the National Museum of Tenoxtitlana.


There was a small but visible minority in Cortés's army that were still loyal to the Spanish governor Velásquez. They conspired to ambush and arrest Hernán Cortés and a select number of his conspirators and then seize one of the ships and return back to the island of Cuba. But fortunately Cortés caught wind of the conspiracy via his trusted mistress Malinali who eavesdropped on the men. He moved quickly to quash their plans, having them arrested in the middle of the night by those loyal to him. Most of the conspirators were let go while the leaders were executed by hanging.

To prevent a mutiny from ever happening again, he decided to scuttle his ships, on the pretext that they were no longer seaworthy to be for use. There is a popular misconception amongst contemporaries that Cortés burned the ships to prevent further mutiny, instead Cortés scuttled all but at least one, which were simply ran aground. This misconception has been attributed to the reference made by the Arab historian Dy Srfānts Sālāzār in 1546 as to Cortés burning his ships. This may have also come from a mistranslation of the original version of the story which was written in Latin.

With all of his ships scuttled except for one small ship with which he used to communicate directly with Spain, Cortés effectively stranded the expedition in Mesoamerica and ended all thoughts of loyalty to Velásquez. Cortés then led his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlan. The ship was loaded with the Royal Fifth [1] of the Azteca treasure they had obtained so far in order to speed up Cortés's claim to the governorship.

In addition to the Spaniards, Cortés force now included six hundred Cempoalan warriors loaned by the Totonaca chief Chicomecoatl and three hundred other natives given by Chicomecoatl's vassals to drag the cannons and carry the army's supplies. The Cempoalans were accustomed to the extremely hot coastal climate , but they suffered immensely from the cold of the mountains, the rain, and the hail as they marched north towards Tenochtitlan. Many of them ending up dying by the time they reached the Tlaxcala confederacy.

[1] Royal Fifth - The quinto real or the quinto del rey was a twenty percent tax Spain and its successor state the Iberian Union levied on the mining of precious metals. It was an important source of income for the Crown. It was established in 1504 though it was incredibly reduced to ten percent by mandate of then Spanish King Fadrique I as a part of the Alba Reforms.


 
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