Itzcoatl
gigatos | March 8, 2022
Summary
Itzcóatl (cōātl, serpent”) 1428-1440 was the fourth tlatoani of the Mexica, priest and religious reformer who defeated the Tepanecas. He was the son of Ācamāpīchtli, first tlatoani, and a daughter of Tezozómoc, lord of Azcapotzalco.
During his government the first great Mexica expansion stage took place. Before being elected tlatoani, he served as tlacochcálcatl (in Nahuatl, chief of the house of arms, that is, the highest military position), and his promotion occurred on October 16, 1427. His ascension occurred on October 16, 1427. Aided by Tlacaélel, his cihuacóatl (snake woman, political and religious position comparable to a vice-regent), he allied himself with Tlacopan and Texcoco. Mexico-Tenochtitlan at that time did not have the military power to defeat the Tepanecas, likewise, the alliance with Texcoco was mainly because Maxtla had clear intentions of conquering it, added to the fact that Nezahualcoyotl had a personal dispute with the King of Tepaneca. Years before, Maxtla had killed his father, Ixtlilxochitl, in front of his own eyes. Nezahualcoyotl had to go to Mexico-Tenochtitlan to ask for political help from his uncle Itzcoatl, since Maxtla was constantly persecuting him. For many years, Netzahualcoyotl was sheltered by the Mexica nobility. Later, Nezahualcoyotl would recover Texcoco against Azcapotzalco. When Itzcoatl makes war on Azcapotzalco, he asks Nezahualcoyotl for an alliance, reminding him of the days that the Mexica kingdom had given him shelter. With this, Tlacopan, which was basically a Mexica town, formed a triple alliance, whose armies Itzcoatl personally led in the battle against the Tepanecas. 15 days after the beginning of the battle, Maxtla was defeated by the Triple Alliance, and at the beginning of 1428 the Tepanec domination in the Valley of Anahuac ended, being Azcapotzalco burned and sacked and turned into a slave market.
At that time the Triple Alliance was formed with Texcoco and Tlacopan as independent altépetl and reserved the military command to Tenochtitlan.
Mexico-Tenochtitlan, under the rule of Itzcóatl and the genius of Tlacaelel, conquered the altépetl of Mixcoac, Atlacohuayan (Tacubaya), Huitzillopochco (Churubusco), Xochimilco, Teotihuacán and Otompan in 1430, Coyohuacan Coyoacán in 1431, Míxquic in 1432, Cuitláhuac (Tláhuac) in 1433 and Cuauhnáhuac in 1439. During this stage, the Tepeyacac causeway that linked Tenochtitlan with the northern shore of the lake and the temples of Cihuacoatl and an additional expansion (stage IV) of the Templo Mayor dual a Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc were built.
The most transcendent action together with the military campaign against Azcapotzalco was the Mexica religious reform, promoted by the Mexica tlamatinime headed by Tlacaelel. In it he carried out a destruction of the amoxtli repositories (books, codices), mainly of the xiuhámatl type, that is, those that consigned historical facts of the Mexica past to create a series of cosmogonic and cosmological concepts supporting the Mexica mythical origin (such as the Legend of the Suns), most of the Mexica theogony and the mythical origin of Aztlan) and as heirs of the toltecáyotl, that is to say, of a Toltec lineage and of the toltequidad, the condensation of the Mesoamerican civilizational advances that included a homogeneous language and iconographic discourse, art, culture and uses and customs inherited from the Mesoamerican peoples of the Altiplano and inherited from a millenary religious nucleus. Among the reformed is also the definitive promotion of the importance of blood and human sacrifice for the very existence of the universe (a fact that began towards the Epiclassic period in Mesoamerican societies and the warlike vocation of the Mexica.
His successor was Moctezuma Ilhuicamina or Moctezuma I, who continued the expansion of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
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