In the lapse of over five years, the beautiful city and its enormous
population were destroyed. And this astonishing destruction
was carried out by an army of under six hundred spaniards, with the
help of their numerous indian allies.
Contrary to what has been believed, the Aztec people were not an empire
in the full extension of the word. True, nobody could
disobey an order by the Great Speaker or HUEY TLATOANI- correct name
of the Aztec Emperor-, though, he could be
dismissed, just li it happenned to Moctezuma during the Spanish invasion:
he was dismissed and in his place the young Warrior
Cuahutemoc was placed.
The son of the Great Speaker not always was the heir. It was a Council
of Wise Men- very similar to the Roman Senate- that
decided in a democratic way who would be the next ruler of Tenochtitlan.
In a way, the election of the Great Speaker was very
similar to the election of the Byzantine Emperor (coincidentaly, these
two cultures are contemporary, the Byzantine ending years
before the discovery of America).
Once the Great Speaker was elected, he was obeyed in everything, since
he was the representant of the god Huitzilipochtli on
the Earth. The Great Speaker was also head of the government, and the
main priest of the Great Temple.
The heart of the Mexica Empire was the Calpulli. Even before the empire
existed, the Calpulli existed already. This was
generally formed by relatives or people of the same profesion, in this
manner there were Calpullis for priests, warriors,
carpenters, clay workers, etc...
Each Calpulli was a form of autonomous government, with its own Speaker
or governor, who was elected by the oldest men
living in the Calpulli. Just to give us an idea, we will say that each
Calpulli had its own school, its own temple, and if the Calpulli
was important sometimes it had its own garrison.
In the Aztec society there were no closed societies. Anyone could get
to be a member of the Council of Wise Men. Though,
only the men belonging to the nobility could be Great Speakers. There
is an Aztec story that narrates how a Tlaxcalteca,
Najahuatzin- called the same way as the god who gave life to the Fifth
Sun-, was caught by Moctezuma stealing wood from his
private forest.