The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma
- Thread starter Cuāuhtemōc
- Start date
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma
Alliance with Tlaxcala
The Tlaxcalteca Lords, Teodoro Stephano-Mictlana 1903, in the National Museum of Tenoxtitlana.
Hernán Cortés and his ever expanding army of conquistadors and natives had trudged through the Mesoamerican jungles and mountains, leaving many dozens dead. And yet they arrived at another town - Tlaxcala. It was the main city of a large confederation of about two hundred towns and villages yet without much of a central government. The confederation was though politically dominated by four main cities - Ocotelolco, Quiahuiztlan, Tepeticpac and Tizatlan - which each took turns providing a ruler for Tlaxcala as a whole.
The Tlaxcaltecas were fierce enemies and rivals of the Aztecas. After almost a century of fighting the Flower Wars [1], there was a great degree of hatred, anger and bitterness that had developed between the two peoples. The Tlaxcaltecas knew that eventually the Aztecas who had the advantage of sheer numbers would eventually conquer and enslave them. It was only a matter of time before the embittered tension would spark into another devastating war. Much of the territory surrounding Tlaxcala was already conquered by the Aztecas. It is very plausible that the Aztecas had left the remaining Tlaxcaltecas independent in order to maintain a constant supply of war captives available for sacrifice to the Azteca gods.
The Tlaxcaltecas initially viewed the Spanish army of Hernán Cortés in the same light as their Azteca foes. They under the leadershipof Xicotencatl II Axayacatl, heir to the city of Tizatlan, greeted the Spanish with hostile action. The two sides fought each other in a series of small scale armed skirmishes, never open battles.
When fighting the Spaniards he used an ambush strategy; he first engaged the enemy with a small force that feigned a retreat, and then lured the Spaniards back to a better fortified position where the main force waited. The Spaniards retreated into a hill when too many of their men were killed or wounded, and they sought a peace treaty with the Tlaxcaltecas. Maxixcatzin, the ruler of Ocotelolco favored allying with them to exact revenge on the Aztecas but Xicotencatl II was opposed to the idea and continued to send wave after wave of his army after the Spaniards, nearly wiping out the entire army and wounding Cortés to an arrow shot to his chest. However, in a crucial moment, the Tlaxcalteca soldiers from Ocotelolco followed the orders of Maxixcatzin and retreated from the battlefield, forcing Xicotencatl II to consider proposing peace..
Various first hand accounts from the surviving conquistadors and natives that date back thirty years after the conquest confirm that Xicotencatl continued to send soldiers to destroy the Spanish until his father Xicotencatl the Elder caught wind of what his son was doing. He persuaded his son to cease and desist, using the argument that the likes of them were far more useful alive than dead.
On September 11 1519, Cortés arrived in Tlaxcala and was greeted with joy by the rulers, who already saw the Spanish as a potential ally to be utilized against the rival Azteca empire. Due to a trade embargo issued and enforced by the Aztecas, Tlaxcala was a lot poorer than Tenochtitlan or any of the coastal cities by comparison, lacking, among other things, both salt and cotton cloth, so they offered Cortés and what remained of his army food, women and thousands of reinforcements to make up for the men killed.
Cortés stayed twenty days in Tlaxcala. Cortés seems to have won the true friendship of the old leaders of Tlaxcala, among them Maxixcatzin and the elder Xicotencatl although he could not win the heart of Xicotencatl the Younger. The Spaniards agreed to respect parts of the city, like the pagan temples, and only took the things that were offered to them freely. Meanwhile Cortés spoke to the leaders about the benefits of converting to Christianity. Legends say that he convinced the four leaders of Tlaxcala to become baptized. Maxixcatzin, Xicotencatl the Elder, Citalpopocatzin and Temiloltecutl received the names of Don Miguel, Don Uriel, Don Gabriel and Don Raphael.
It's difficult to know if they understood the Catholic faith. In any event, they apparently had no problems since they added Dios [2]as lord of the heavens to their already complex pantheon of deities. An exchange of gifts was made and thus began the alliance between Cortés and Tlaxcala.
[1] Flower Wars - Xōchiyāōyōtl in Nahuatl and Navatlaca, refers to the battles and wars fought between the Azteca empire and some of their enemies for the purpose of collecting captives for human sacrifice.
[2] Dios - the Spanish name for God. This is a precedent set for many of the states and empires in Mesoamerica and beyond - especially in what would be considered in our time-line the Great Plains. Expect some pretty interesting things religion-wise popping up from that region.
Last edited:
I have to question these numbers a bit: 4.5 million square miles is more than all of Mexico and Central America, so where
are these other Mesoamerican states/Navatlacaphone states? And 253 million seems rather high: the fact that it is a modern state in 2010 would argue for an earlier demographic transition than OTL Mexico, and the demographics are still going to get gut-punched by European diseases.
Bruce
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
You're probably right. I wasn't really concerned when it came to the amount of land under Navatlaca control. I suppose somewhere between 2-3.5 million is more than enough.
I guess somewhere around 90-110 million is more accurate.
Sorry to fuss, but these sorta little discrepancies are like the annoying bits that get stuck between my teeth while eating the tasty AH popcorn.
Bruce
Sorry to fuss, but these sorta little discrepancies are like the annoying bits that get stuck between my teeth while eating the tasty AH popcorn.
Bruce
Nooo! I wanted Navatlacas to be an epic superpower! What have you done to my popcorn!?!
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Sorry to fuss, but these sorta little discrepancies are like the annoying bits that get stuck between my teeth while eating the tasty AH popcorn.
Bruce
I'll edit the information in tomorrow and thanks for the compliment.
Xōchiyāōyōtl is actually easier to pronounce than it looks. I love the Nahuatl language though, some really crazy looking words.
If you want a really difficult to pronouce language, check out Nuxalk. Or any other Salishan language for that matter...
More on topic, I'm really enjoying this TL. The pictures are a great touch as well. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.
If you want a really difficult to pronouce language, check out Nuxalk. Or any other Salishan language for that matter...
More on topic, I'm really enjoying this TL. The pictures are a great touch as well. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma
March to Cholōllān
Don Manuel and Paco, Lindsey A. Gallo 1853, in the Cholōllān Museum of the Arts.
Meanwhile Montezuma learned of the alliance made between the Aztecas' enemies the Tlaxcaltecas and "pale-skinned foreigners dressed in odd clothing and riding on large monsters and who carried sticks that shot fire" who had hailed from across the sea. He had a great concern of these people and the threat they posed to him and the continued dominance of his empire over the region. He was advised by his generals to send in an army to Tlaxcala and crush them when they had the chance though it is said that he convinced himself to send an unarmed delegation to Tlaxcala.
It arrived within a couple days and upon meeting with the Spanish conquistador, the head of the delegation told him that Montezuma is most displeased at them making overtures to their enemies and that it would be wise for them to depart from Tlaxcala, the "city of poor and thievish barbarians" and head to the neighboring city of Cholōllān which was a city under the Azteca political and economic sphere of influence. Cholōllān, founded in the year 2 CE, was one of the most important cities of Mesoamerica, the second largest, and probably the most sacred. Its huge pyramid made it one of the most prestigious places of the Azteca religion. However, it appears that Cortés perceived Cholōllān as a military power rather than a town of any religious significance. He decided to send emissaries first.
The leaders of Tlaxcala urged Cortés to go instead to Huexotzingo, a city allied to Tlaxcala. Cortés, who had not yet decided to start a war by going to Huexotzingo, decided to make a compromise. He accepted the gifts of the Azteca ambassadors, but also accepted the offer of the Tlaxclateca to provide porters and warriors. He sent two of his most trusted men, Pedro de Alvarado, and Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, on horseback, directly to Tenochtitlan, as his representatives to Montezuma.
On 12 October 1519, Cortés and his men, accompanied by about three and a half thousand Tlaxcalteca, marched to Cholōllān.
-----
That doesn't mean anything about them possibly getting colonies of their own later around.
Thanks for the compliments.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma
The Great Sacking and Massacre of Cholōllān
The Unknown Eagle-Warrior Bust, Juan Xicotencatl 1587, in the Cholōllān Collection of Mesoamerican Art.
There are conflicting, contradicting accounts of what happened at Cholōllān. The Aztec tlatoani Montezuma II Xocoyotzin had apparently attempted to stop the advance of Hernán Cortés and his growing army of Spanish conquistadors and native auxiliaries though that ended in failure. It seemed that he pulled the connections he had with the leaders of Cholōllān to try to stop him. Cholōllān had only a small token force of defenders since as a city considered sacred to the Aztecas, the local citizens put their confidence in their prestige .
According to the Tlaxcalteca Chronicles written by Xicotencatl III of Tizatlan, the temple priest of Cholōllān expected to use the power of the Azteca serpent god Quetzalcoatl against the Spanish invaders and their allies upon their arrival and strangely enough warm welcome to the city.
Malinali spoke to Hernán, after having a conversation with the wives of the lords of Cholōllān, that the locals planned to murder the Spaniards and their allies in their sleep. Cortés was skeptical of his mistress's words, not knowing if the allegation was true or not, but upon the urging of his Tlaxcalteca allies who wanted revenge against their enemies the Cholōllānas, he ordered a pre-emptive strike in the middle of the night while they were sleeping.
The Spaniards rounded up and murdered most of the local nobility to serve as a lesson for the remainder of the native population. Cortés then ordered his troops to seize the main leaders allegedly behind the conspiracy, Tlaquiach and Tlalchiac and upon their arrest, he ordered them to stand witness to his next act. He ordered his troops to set the entire city on fire and to enslave anyone who attempted on escaping from the city. The troops started in the palace of Xacayatzin, and then on to Chialinco and Yetzcoloc. In the few letters that he sent out to the Spanish King,
Cortés claimed that in nine hours, his troops with the aid of the native auxiliaries killed 10,000 people. Other accounts claim that the death toll was much higher; around 35,000 - 69,000 with the remainder sold to slavery.
The Azteca and Tlaxclateca histories of the events leading up to the sacking and massacre differ. The Tlaxcalteca claimed that their ambassador Patlahuatzin was sent to Cholōllān and had been tortured by the city's soldiers. Thus, Cortés was avenging him by setting the city on fire.
The Azteca version put the blame on the Tlaxcalteca claiming that they resented Cortés going to Cholōllān instead of Huexotzingo.
The massacre had a chilling effect on the other Mesoamerican cultures and on the Aztecas in Tenochtitlan who heard about it themselves. The tale of the massacre inclined the other cultures in the Azteca empire to submit to Cortés' demands rather than risk the same fate. Cortés then sent emissaries to Moctezuma with the message that the people of Cholōllān had treated him with disrespect and had therefore been punished. Cortés' message continued that the Aztecas need not fear his wrath if Montezuma treated him with respect and gifts of gold.
Last edited:
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Most of this is just twisted stuff from the OTL stuff posted on Wikipedia and sites that I found using the Google scholar engine. This is going to have a mainly Wikipedia kind of feel so feel free to notice the reference to future events like the Iberian analogue to the UK forming and Muslim immigration to the New World in a large scale.
If Remnants of Rome and Navatlacas Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma were in the same Turtledove poll I would probably vote for Navatlacas.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Oh I would vote for yours because I love the Greeks ridding themselves of their Christian identity and becoming the masters of western Zoharism!
Oh well the reason I would vote for yours is the quality of the writing even though (probably especially because) it's shorter and hasn't gotten 'as alternate' yet. I have to admit that I have not the attention span to even read one of my updates beginning to end (except when I'm checking it over).