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The Tlaxcaltecs were originally a conglomeration of three distinct ethnic groups who spoke Nahuatl, Otomi and Pinome that comprised the four city-states (altepetl) of Tlaxcallān or Tlaxcala. Each of the four cities supposedly had equal say in this confederation, but eventually, the Nahuatl speakers became the dominant ethnic group. By the time of European contact, the city of Tizatlan was effectively controlling Tlaxcala.[1]
Despite early attempts by the Aztecs, also known as Mexica, the Tlaxcaltecs were never conquered by the Triple Alliance. Later wars between the Tlaxcallans and the Aztecs were called xochiyaoyatl (flower wars), as their objective was not to conquer but rather to capture enemy warriors for sacrifice.[2]
Eager to overthrow the Aztecs, their hated enemies for a century, the Tlaxcaltecs allied with Hernán Cortés and his fellow Spanish conquistadors and were instrumental in the invasion of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, helping the Spanish reach the Valley of Anahuac and providing a key contingent of the invasion force.[3] At the time, their Tlatoani or king was a man named Xicotencatl, and his son, named Xicotencatl the Younger, was prince and heir to the throne.
The leaders of the four cities of Tlaxcala agreed to accept Christianity, and in July of 1520 were baptized.[4]
Conquistador Bernal Castillo described the younger Xicotencatl as greatly suspicious of the Spanish and repeatedly interfering with their plans. He stated that Cortés eventually had Xicotencatl secretly executed, allowing noblemen from the city of Ocotelolco to assume power over Tlaxcala.[5]
Due to their alliance with the Spanish Crown in the conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Tlaxcaltecs enjoyed exclusive privileges among the indigenous peoples of Mexico, including the right to carry guns, ride horses, hold noble titles, maintain Tlaxcaltec names and to rule their settlements autonomously. This privileged treatment ensured Tlaxcallan allegiance to Spain over the centuries, even during the Mexican War of Independence, though Tlaxcala did host a strong pro-independence faction.[6]
The Tlaxcaltecs were also instrumental in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, and a significant number of Guatemalan place names, including the name “Guatemala” itself, derive from Tlaxcallan Nahuatl.[7] Tlaxcallan colonists also founded a number of settlements in Northern Mexico (including parts of present-day southeastern Texas), where conquest of local tribes by the Spaniards had proved unsuccessful.[8] They settled areas inhabited by nomadic bellicose tribes (known as the Chichimeca) to pacify the local indigenous groups hostile to the Spanish Crown.
Before embarking on their journeys, the Tlaxcalans demanded and received numerous rights and privileges for their service to Spain.[9]
Number
Capitulacion
1
The Tlaxcalan settlers and their descendants would be Hidalgos (noblemen) in perpetuity, free from tribute, taxes, and personal service for all time.
2
They will not be compelled to settle with Spaniards. They will live in their own districts (barrios).
3
They will live separately from the Chichimecas, and this will apply to their lots, pastures, and fishing rights.
4
No grants of land for the largest livestock (ganado mayor: cattle, horses, mules, oxen) shall be allowed within three leagues (9 miles) of Tlaxcalan settlements.
5
The markets in new settlements shall be free from, exempt from sales tax, and all forms of taxation, for 30 years.
6
The chief men (principals) of Tlaxcala who go to new settlements -- and their descendants -- shall be permitted to carry arms and ride saddled horses without penalty.
7
For two years, the Tlaxcalans going north should be given the necessary provisions and clothing for up to two years.
8
They would receive aid in cultivation of their fields for two years.
In return for their assistance in toppling the Aztec Empire and other conquests, in 1534 the governor of Tlaxcala, Diego Maxixcatzin, was granted a personal audience with the King of Spain, Charles V. Tlaxcala is given several special privileges, among them being a coat of arms and the right to petition the king directly to address grievances. Charles also declared that Tlaxcala should answer to no one but himself.[12]
Though nominally subjects of the Spanish Empire, in practice Tlaxcala and the Tlaxcallans were largely free of Spanish authority, and jealously guarded their own independence and autonomy.[13] The Spanish government recognized Tlaxcala as an allied city instead of a conquered one.[14]
"It is more inhabited than other provinces; and its inhabitants, who are the least oppressed of any in New Spain, owe this favour to the alliance that their republican ancestors made with the disciplined robbers whom Cortés commanded, and who subdued the Mexican empire. They are the most intelligent of all the Americans subject to Spain."
-Thomas Kitchin, The Present State of the West-Indies: Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe, 1778[15]
Post-colonial history
Following Mexican independence, from 1885-1911 the Governor of Tlaxcala was Prospero Cahuantzi, himself of native Tlaxcaltec heritage. Cahuantzi promoted the preservation of indigenous Mexican culture and artifacts. He also possessed an indigenous Nahuatl surname, uncommon in post-colonial Mexico but prevalent in Tlaxcala due to their previous alliance with Spain, which protected them from imposed Spanish baptismal names.[16]
As the Mexican government does not recognize ethnicity by ancestry but by language spoken, the number of Tlaxcaltec people in Mexico is difficult to estimate.[17] They are instead broadly grouped with other Nahuatl-speaking people known as Nahuas. As of the 2010 Mexican census, there were estimated to be more than 23,000 Nahuatl-speakers in Tlaxcala.[18] By 2020, that number had risen to over 27,000.[19]
Thousands of people, descended from 16th century Tlaxcallan colonists, live in Texas today, as well as a smaller number of recent immigrants from Tlaxcala living in California, the American Southwest and New York City.[20]
Notes
↑ Charles Gibson (1952), Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century, New Haven:Yale University Press, p. 1.
↑ Hassig, Ross (1988). Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 130. ISBN0-8061-2773-2.
Marina or Malintzin, more popularly known as La Malinche, a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, became known for contributing to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), by acting as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. She was one of 20 enslaved women given to the Spaniards in 1519 by the natives of Tabasco. Cortés chose her as a consort, and she later gave birth to his first son, Martín – one of the first Mestizos in New Spain.
Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, referred to retroactively in European sources as Moctezuma II, was the ninth Emperor of the Aztec Empire, reigning from 1502 or 1503 to 1520. Through his marriage with Queen Tlapalizquixochtzin of Ecatepec, one of his two wives, he was also king consort of that altepetl.
Pedro de Alvarado was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés. He is considered the conquistador of much of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The Nahuas are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and El Salvador. They are a Mesoamerican ethnicity. The Mexica (Aztecs) are of Nahua ethnicity, as are their historical enemies, the Tlaxcallans (Tlaxcaltecs), and the Toltecs which predated both groups are often thought to have been as well. However, in the pre-Columbian period Nahuas were subdivided into many groups that did not necessarily share a common identity.
Tlaxcala, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala, is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipalities and the capital city is Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl.
Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a Spanish conquistador who participated as a soldier in the conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés and late in his life wrote an account of the events. As an experienced soldier of fortune, he had already participated in expeditions to Tierra Firme, Cuba, and to Yucatán before joining Cortés.
The fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was an important event in the Spanish conquest of the empire. It occurred in 1521 following extensive negotiations between local factions and Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. He was aided by La Malinche, his interpreter and companion, and by thousands of indigenous allies, especially Tlaxcaltec warriors.
The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance was an alliance of three Nahua city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan. These three city-states ruled that area in and around the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until the combined forces of the Spanish conquistadores and their native allies who ruled under Hernán Cortés defeated them in 1521.
La Noche Triste was an important event during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, wherein Hernán Cortés, his army of Spanish conquistadors, and their native allies were driven out of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mēxihcah.
The altepetl was the local, ethnically-based political entity, usually translated into English as "city-state," of pre-Columbian Nahuatl-speaking societies in the Americas. The altepetl was constituted of smaller units known as calpolli and was typically led by a single dynastic ruler known as a tlatoani, although examples of shared rule between up to five rulers are known. Each altepetl had its own jurisdiction, origin story, and served as the center of Indigenous identity. Residents referred to themselves by the name of their altepetl rather than, for instance, as "Mexicas." "Altepetl" was a polyvalent term rooting the social and political order in the creative powers of a sacred mountain that contained the ancestors, seeds and life-giving forces of the community. The word is a combination of the Nahuatl words ātl and tepētl. A characteristic Nahua mode was to imagine the totality of the people of a region or of the world as a collection of altepetl units and to speak of them on those terms. The concept is comparable to Maya cah and Mixtec ñuu. Altepeme formed a vast complex network which predated and outlasted larger empires, such as the Aztec and Tarascan state.
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire, ultimately reshaping the course of human history. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, and his small army of soldiers and indigenous allies, overthrowing one of the most powerful empires in Mesoamerica.
Tlaxcala was a pre-Columbian city and state in central Mexico.
The Battle of Otumba was fought between the Aztec and allied forces led by the Cihuacoatl Matlatzincátzin and those of Hernán Cortés made up of the Spanish conquerors and Tlaxcalan allies. It took place on July 7, 1520, in Temalcatitlán, a plain near Otumba during the development of the Conquest of the Aztec Empire. The result of the battle was a victory for the Spanish, which allowed Cortés to reorganize his army, having suffered casualties a few days before in the episode known as La Noche Triste. A year later, by reinforcing his army with new men and supplies, and creating alliances with the indigenous peoples who had been subjugated by the Aztec, Cortés managed to besiege and conquer Tenochtitlan.
Xicotencatl I or Xicotencatl the Elder was a long-lived teuctli of Tizatlan, a Nahua altepetl (city-state) within the Confederacy of Tlaxcala, in what is now Mexico. According to one source, Xicotencatl was instrumental in allying the Tlaxcaltecs with the Spanish to overthrow the Aztec Empire.
The Mexica were a Nahuatl-speaking people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Triple Alliance, more commonly referred to as the Aztec Empire. The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island in Lake Texcoco, in 1325. A dissident group in Tenochtitlan separated and founded the settlement of Tlatelolco with its own dynastic lineage. In 1521, their empire was overthrown by an alliance of Spanish conquistadors and rival indigenous warriors, led by the Tlaxcaltec leader Xicotencatl the Elder and the Spaniard Hernán Cortés. The Mexica were subjugated under the Kingdom of Spain for 300 years until they liberated themselves in the Mexican War of Independence in 1821.
Xicotencatl II Axayacatl, also known as Xicotencatl the Younger, was a prince and warleader, probably with the title of Tlacochcalcatl, of the pre-Columbian state of Tlaxcala at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Indian auxiliaries were those indigenous peoples of the Americas who allied with Spain and fought alongside the conquistadors during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These auxiliaries acted as guides, translators and porters, and in these roles were also referred to as yanakuna, particularly during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. The term was also used for formations composed of indigenous warriors which were used by the Spanish for reconnaissance and combat duties. Indian auxiliaries continued to be used by the Spanish to maintain control over their colonies in the Americas; frequently stationed on the frontier, they were often used to suppress anti-colonial revolts such as Arauco War.
Xicomecoatl, Chicomácatl, or as he was referred to as by the Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo, "Cacique Gordo", was the ruler of the city of Cempoala while it was under control of the Mexica Empire.
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