Moctezuma II.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Representation of Moctezuma II in the Codex Mendoza , 1541/42

Moctezuma II. (Spanish; actually Motēcuhzōma Xōcoyōtzin [ moteːkʷˈsoːma ʃoːkoˈjoːtsin ], in German texts mostly Montezuma ; * around  1465 - †  June 30, 1520 in Tenochtitlán , Mexico ) was the ninth ruler of the Aztec empire from 1502 until his death in 1520 . During the first seventeen years of his rule he continued the rigid expansion policy of his predecessors; However, he is much better known for his role in the fight against the Spaniards under Hernán Cortés during the last two years of his life.

The name Motecuzoma means in Nahuatl "He looks dark like a prince"; He was nicknamed Xocoyotzin "the younger" to distinguish it from his predecessor Moctezuma I. His name gradually became Moctezuma and Montezuma through phono-semantic alignment and simplification .

Life

Moctezuma's early reign

Moctezuma was the son of the ruler Axayacatl , who ruled Tenochtitlán from 1471 to 1482 . Little is known about his career before his accession to the throne, apart from the fact that he was high priest of the highest Aztec deity Huitzilopochtli until the death of his uncle Auítzotl in 1502 . During the first ten years of his rule, Moctezuma completed and led the conquest of his predecessors in the mountainous country of what is now the Mexican state of Oaxaca . On the one hand, he pursued the goal of securing the passageways, which had been conquered before his rule, and the Oaxaca valley, which delivered rich tributes . On the other hand, the already subjugated peoples should be intimidated by the demonstration of his military power.

After the campaigns against the peoples in the area of ​​today's Oaxaca, especially the Mixtecs and Zapotecs , Moctezuma concentrated on the weakening of the Tlaxcalc and their allies. He succeeded in cutting off the Tlaxcalteks from almost all trade connections. As warriors from the neighboring city of Tlatelolco , conquered by the Aztecs in 1473, also took part in these ventures , Moctezuma waived all tribute payments imposed since then in 1519, ended the rule of the military governors and appointed his cousin Cuauhtémoc as the new ruler.

The expansion of the empire of the Aztecs with the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519 (the area subject to Moctezuma II is highlighted in light green.)

When Nezahualpilli died in 1515 , the ruler of the city of Texcoco , which was a member of the Aztec Triple Alliance , Moctezuma intervened directly in the line of succession in the absence of a clear succession plan and arbitrarily appointed one of Nezahualpilli's sons, Cacamatzin, as the new ruler. His half-brother Ixtlilxochitl felt ignored and rebelled. The resetting by Moctezuma continued during the struggle against the Spaniards and was Ixtlixochitl's motive for an alliance with the Spaniards, which helped him to power.

Domestically, Moctezuma strengthened the nobility by dismissing non-aristocratic officials who competed politically with the nobility. The assertion that this separation of nobility and people was part of a treaty concluded decades earlier to fight the Tepaneks is, according to Hans J. Prem, an invention of Moctezuma in order to be able to legitimize these decisions.

First contacts with the Spanish

According to reports by Bernal Díaz del Castillo , the Spaniard Francisco Hernández de Córdoba led an expedition from Cuba to the west in 1517 and discovered the Yucatán peninsula . Although the Spaniards did not advance further west, Moctezuma received detailed reports about the foreigners and knew exactly where their journey was going. He ordered that if the strangers returned, they would trade with them and question them carefully about their intentions. When the ships under the command of Juan de Grijalva arrived in the following year, the Spaniards, who first set foot in the Aztec-ruled country, were welcomed by official representatives of the Moctezuma and bartered with the inhabitants.

On Maundy Thursday 1519, a third expedition landed on San Juan de Ulúa , this time under the leadership of Hernán Cortés . They were in turn received by envoy from Moctezuma, who had immediately learned of the return of the Spaniards. Seven days after landing, the envoy Tendile informed them Moctezuma's wish not to meet him face to face. Since the Aztecs also brought rich gifts of gold and valuable fabrics for the newcomers at this second encounter, their urge to get to Tenochtitlán only increased. In addition, according to the historian William H. Prescott, the deep conviction of the Spaniards - at least as far as their leaders were concerned - to bring Christianity closer to “unbelievers” for their own salvation was a decisive driving force. Moctezuma tried several times in a row to dissuade the troops from “visiting” Tenochtitlán by sending generous gifts; His implicit refusal to speak to Cortés personally was also taken as an insult by the Spanish.

Meeting with Cortés

Hernán Cortés . Contemporary drawing by Christoph Weiditz from Augsburg, who was in Spain in 1529 and drew Cortés there as well as a troop of Aztec performers and acrobats that Cortés had brought with him from the New World.

Even while the Spaniards were advancing to Tenochtitlán , Moctezuma was constantly informed of their whereabouts. He was very shocked by the reports, especially the efforts of the Spaniards to obtain more detailed information about him by interviewing local people. He also felt unable to make decisions about the Spaniards, asked the Aztec gods for advice with every new message and had people sacrificed to them so that they could provide him with an answer to his questions. He also got angry when his wizards failed to give him good prophecies and had them and their families killed.

On their way to Tenochtitlán, the Spaniards were involved in a few skirmishes, especially with the Tlaxcaltec people, who were hostile to the Aztecs . In particular, the superior Spanish weapons technology, which caused immense losses among the Tlaxcalteks and also caused fear due to the noise and the unknown smell of the gunpowder, was responsible for the fact that the Spaniards won in every battle with practically no deaths in their own ranks. The Spanish riders also played a role because they gave the troops an advantage in terms of mobility - riding animals or even horses were completely unknown in America at the time. Of course, this also led to a certain psychological effect on the locals. Cortés deliberately displayed the effects of his weapons and his horses in order to openly demonstrate the superiority of the Spaniards. Accordingly, rumors of the invincibility of the Spaniards spread in the region.

Moctezuma tried by all means to dissuade the Spaniards from their plan to visit him: He promised them the richest gifts that his empire could offer if they only withdrew. Ultimately, however, the strangers arrived in Tenochtitlán on November 8, 1519. Despite all the previously shown rejection, Moctezuma greeted the arriving Spaniards. Bernardino de Sahagún reports that he first gave a speech; then he touched the ground in front of Cortés and raised his hand to his face. This greeting was customary between people of higher rank, but Sahagún interprets it as symbolic submission. According to him, Moctezuma mentioned in his address that Cortés had "returned" as an emissary from an ancestor of the Aztecs. Subsequently, Moctezuma quartered the Spaniards in the palace of his father Axayacatl and literally showered them with gifts. Over the next few days he showed Cortés the marketplace and the great temples of Tenochtitlán.

During the establishment of a small chapel in the palace of the Axayacatl, which they had been allowed to do after a request to Moctezuma, the Spaniards suddenly came across Moctezuma's treasury. Since the men of Cortés were concerned about the possibility of being attacked and trapped by Aztec warriors in the city at any time, these two facts led them to the decision to take Moctezuma prisoner. The killing of some Spaniards near Veracruz took away the aura of invincibility they had previously possessed due to their superior weapons and forced Cortés to execute his plan quickly. The next day, accompanied by some soldiers, he came to Moctezuma and, on the charge that he had ordered the attack on the Spaniards near Veracruz, he was forced to come to the Spanish quarters, where he was held from now on. On November 14, 1519, Moctezuma was captured by the Spaniards to stop the Veracruz attackers.

Captivity and death

For the following months Moctezuma was little more than a puppet of the Spaniards, although nominally he still had all his power and was even allowed to receive subordinates. He showed great indulgence towards them, such as the demand that Christian images of saints be erected in the Aztec temples and the images of the Aztec gods removed, whereby he showed little resistance. He also left all his treasures to the Spaniards and even handed over nobles who showed open hostility to the Spaniards. This gradually led to an immense loss of authority among the residents of Tenochtitlán, which Moctezuma did not miss. Finally, he also changed his attitude and in April 1520 demanded the withdrawal of the Spaniards from the city.

At the same time, a troop of soldiers under Pánfilo de Narváez from Cuba landed in Mexico with orders to arrest Hernán Cortés. Moctezuma found out about this before Cortés himself, despite his imprisonment, and tried to negotiate with the newcomers, but this failed. After the latter had set off for the coast with a large part of his troops and had only left a small group behind in Tenochtitlán, the atmosphere heated up again, because his deputy Pedro de Alvarado had the noble participants in the Aztec Spring Festival killed and provoked a revolt by the locals - without that Moctezuma had given some order to riot. The angry crowd drove the Spaniards into their quarters and besieged them there until the return of Cortés and his men, who moved into the apparently lifeless and deserted city at the end of June without being attacked.

There he first asked for the markets to be reopened so that the Spaniards could replenish their supplies, which Cortés only achieved after the promise to release Cuitláuac , the brother of Moctezuma. This, however, immediately placed himself at the head of the rebels and on June 30th again besieged the trapped Spaniards. At Cortés' urging, Moctezuma stepped before his subjects, who, however, threw stones at him. According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo , he was hit four times and succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards after refusing any medical treatment. According to another version, he was stabbed from behind by the Spanish.

The breakout, which the Spaniards attempted the following night, only succeeded with very serious victims (see Noche Triste ). Nevertheless, Cortés managed to gather his forces through reinforcements from Cuba and, with the support of the Tlaxcalteks , with whom he had allied himself, to besiege Tenochtitlán. After three months of fighting, the last resistance was extinguished on August 13, 1521.

family

Moctezuma II. (Motēcuhzōma Xōcoyōtzin) had several main wives and concubines, plus a few concubines , the number of his children was correspondingly large. Contemporary chroniclers sometimes give up to 100 children. These differed according to the social position of the respective mother in rank and succession. The names of the mothers and children are only partially transmitted. Only the most famous of the children with grandchildren are mentioned below.

rating

Fantasy representation of Moctezuma II, copper engraving by Antonio de Solis from 1699

In Aztec mythology, the tradition is said to have existed that the creator Quetzalcoatl  - a deity with a light complexion and a long beard - would have announced on his embarkation and departure for the mysterious Tlapallan that one day he would return across the Atlantic Ocean with his entourage to regain his empire to take possession. At the time before Cortés' landing, natural events and other phenomena had accumulated, which the Mexican priesthood had interpreted as harbingers. In view of the reports about the origin and appearance of the Spaniards, Moctezuma could not rule out having to do with the messengers of the god - especially when you consider the unlikely penetration of this numerically small force and their "fire-breathing" weapons. Later - when he had already given the newcomers quarters in the capital - he justified his docility (despite all the power over which he commanded) by saying that they were evidently descendants of the god. As Bernardino de Sahagún reports, Moctezuma formally handed over rule to Cortés in a speech at their first meeting . This is doubted in recent research. Cortés invented both the speech and the identification with the returned Quetzalcoatl in order to be able to present himself to the king as the legitimate governor. Nevertheless, this historical myth is still widespread as an explanation for the rapid subjugation of the Aztec Empire in the 21st century.

Moctezuma's hesitant and indecisive attitude was soon interpreted by his own people as a weakness; but especially from the Spaniards themselves. Francisco López de Gómara , the biographer of Hernán Cortés, wrote about him: “Moctezuma must have been a weak and faint-hearted man, because he let himself be captured easily and as a prisoner he never tried to be released not even when Cortés offered him his freedom and his own people begged him for it. ”However, he had no explanation for Moctezuma's motives. The Bulgarian-French scientist Tzvetan Todorov sees his refusal to establish contact with the Spaniards themselves due in part to an old law that forbade his subjects to speak to him directly or even to look at him: a violation of this rule would open him up lowering the level of his subjects and thus making him vulnerable. Why Moctezuma really acted so indecisively is still controversial in research.

But there were also positive voices. The chronicler Petrus Martyr von Anghiera , who lived in Spain at the time of the conquest of Mexico, wrote of Moctezuma's relationship to the deeds of the Spaniards during his captivity: “These measures, which hit him worse than giving schoolboys grammatical rules to memorize, wrote he apparently only went there with equanimity and endured them all calmly, in order to avoid a rise of his subjects and vassals. Every personal burden seemed easier to him than a revolt of his own. "

The memory of the Aztec defeat hurts the Mexican historical consciousness to this day. The memory of Moctezuma's successor Cuauhtémoc , the last Aztec ruler who put up stubborn resistance to the Spanish to the end, is held in high esteem. But the locals, who actively or at least passively supported Cortés at the time, are considered non-persons, especially Moctezuma and Malinche , Cortés' interpreter. Moctezuma's passivity was one of the decisive factors in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and the success of this venture prompted other conquistadors in other places to do the same.

reception

Moctezuma is the subject of several operas:

Discovered on March 16, 1972, the asteroid of the main inner belt (2272) Montezuma was named after him.

Also the plant genus Montezuma DC. from the Mallow family (Malvaceae) is named after him.

Trivia

Aztec feather headdress ( reproduction ), attributed to Moctezuma II, Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia , Mexico
  • Since the conquest of Tenochtitlán, in which Moctezuma finally died, was facilitated by the fact that many natives fell ill with smallpox brought in by the Europeans and, according to a legend, Moctezuma is said to have cast the curse shortly before his death that all invaders in his country would his revenge get to feel, one speaks of the diarrhea , which many tourists in Central America get sick from traveling , in such cases (jokingly) of "Moctezuma's revenge" or mostly "Montezuma's revenge". Since then, this phrase has also been used increasingly in connection with travelers' diarrhea in other countries.
  • The headdress, erroneously known as “ Moctezuma's feather crown ”, which originally consisted of at least 459 feathers from the Quetzal bird, was first detectable in 1575 in Duke Ulrich von Montfort's southern German art chamber in Tettnang as “Mörsche armor from Federwerk” and arrived in 1806 via Ambras Castle to Vienna , where it is exhibited today in the Weltmuseum Wien (formerly Museum für Völkerkunde Wien ). A copy of the headdress made in 1940 can be seen in the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City.
  • Neil Young addressed the fight between Cortés and Moctezuma in 1975 in the song Cortez the Killer from the album Zuma .

literature

swell

Secondary literature

Web links

Commons : Moctezuma II.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erik Velásquez García, Enrique Nalda, Pablo Escalante Gonzalbo, Bernardo García Martínez, Bernd Hausberger: Nueva historia general de México . El Colegio de Mexico AC, ISBN 978-6-07462379-6 ( com.ph [accessed July 1, 2020]).
  2. ↑ H. Micheal Tarver Ph.D, Emily Slape: The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO, 2016, ISBN 978-1-61069-422-3 ( com.ph [accessed July 1, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Hanns J. Prem : The Aztecs: History - Culture - Religion. 4th edition. C. H. Beck, Munich 2006, p. 103.
  4. ↑ Bernal Díaz del Castillo : History of the Conquest of Mexico (edited and edited by Georg A. Narcissus , Spanish original title: Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España ). Insel-Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 42 f.
  5. ↑ William H. Prescott : The Conquest of Mexico . DBG , Berlin 1956
  6. ↑ Tzvetan Todorov : The Conquest of America. The other's problem. 8th edition. Edition suhrkamp , Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 141.
  7. ↑ Tzvetan Todorov: The Conquest of America. The other's problem. 8th edition. Edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 89.
  8. ↑ Quoted in: Bernal Díaz del Castillo: History of the Conquest of Mexico (edited and edited by Georg A. Narziss). Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 202.
  9. ^ Bernal Díaz del Castillo: History of the Conquest of Mexico (edited and edited by Georg A. Narcissus). Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 294.
  10. ↑ Tzvetan Todorov: The Conquest of America. The other's problem. 8th edition. Edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 74.
  11. ↑ William H. Prescott: The Conquest of Mexico . DBG , Berlin 1956; P. 68 f.
  12. ↑ William H. Prescott: The Conquest of Mexico . DBG, Berlin 1956; P. 213.
  13. ↑ Matthew Restall: Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003, pp. 7 ff. And ö .; Hanns J. Prem: The Aztecs: History - Culture - Religion. 4th edition. C. H. Beck, Munich 2006, p. 111 f .; Daniel Grana-Behrens: The disintegration of the Aztec state in central Mexico 1516–1521. In: John Emeka Akude et al. (Ed.): Political rule beyond the state. On the transformation of legitimacy in the past and present. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 83 ff.
  14. ^ Roland Bernhard: History myths about Hispanoamerica. Discovery, conquest and colonization in German and Austrian textbooks of the 21st century. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, p. 120 ff.
  15. ↑ Quoted in: Tzvetan Todorov: The Conquest of America. The other's problem. 8th edition. Edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 73 f., Based on Francisco López de Gómara: Historia de la conquista de México. P. Robredo, Mexico City 1943.
  16. ↑ Hanns J. Prem: The Aztecs: History - Culture - Religion. 4th edition. C. H. Beck, Munich 2006, p. 112.
  17. ↑ Quoted in: Tzvetan Todorov: The Conquest of America. The other's problem. 8th edition. Edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 73, based on: Petrus Martyr von Anghiera: De Orbe Novo (German translation: Eight decades on the New World. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1972–1975).
  18. ↑ Tzvetan Todorov: The Conquest of America. The other's problem. 8th edition. Edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 78.
  19. ^ Stephan Hoffmann: Psychedelic death: "Montezuma" opera in Mannheim. In: Welt.de. March 31, 2010.
  20. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp.  185 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on November 3, 2017] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “Named in honor of the ninth emperor of the Aztec empire ” .
  21. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 , doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
  22. ↑ What is actually meant by Moctezuma's / Montezuma's revenge? In: Navigator-Allgemeinwissen.de. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  23. ↑ What is Montezuma's Revenge? In: Gesundheit.de.
  24. ↑ Montezuma's Revenge. In: Redensarten-Index.de.
  25. ↑ Sabine Haag, Alfonso de Maria y Campos, Lilia Rivero Weber, Christian F. Feest : The old Mexican feather headdress . ZKF Publishers, Altenstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-9811620-5-9 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 20, 2007 .
personal data
SURNAME Moctezuma II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Motēuczōma Xōcoyōtzin (Nahuatl); Montezuma (Spanish)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ruler of the Aztec Empire (1502–1520)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1465
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1520
Place of death Tenochtitlán , Aztec Empire