Drawn primarily from histories written by the Aztec folks, this ebook shares their views from earlier than, throughout and after the Spanish invasion
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As a toddler, I used to be endlessly fascinated by essentially the most dominant aboriginal civilizations of the Americas: the Incas, Olmecs, Mayas and Aztecs. Sadly, exterior of informal and all-too-brief mentions of them in dusty outdated grade college historical past texts, I used to be unable to pursue my want to be taught extra about any of those teams of indigenous peoples. However I by no means forgot my early ardour. So I used to be thrilled once I lately stumbled throughout Camilla Townsend’s ebook, Fifth Solar: A New Historical past of the Aztecs (Oxford College Press, 2020: Amazon US / Amazon UK).
The writer is a Distinguished Professor of Historical past at Rutgers College, and is an knowledgeable on indigenous peoples of the Americas and their relationships with new arrivals. In Fifth Solar, she writes an informative historic account that could be a advanced and charming revisionist historical past of the Aztecs, drawn solely from their very own texts, instructed in their very own phrases — due to the writer’s deep information of Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec Empire.
Early on, the Aztecs have been intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to their colonizers, they discovered the way to use it to document their oral historical past in detailed accounts in their very own language of Nahuatl. Till Professor Townsend’s translations, these sources remained obscure, solely partially translated, and infrequently consulted by students. We, her curious readers, are the beneficiaries.
The ebook begins with the Aztecs’ origins and rise to energy, a recording of their very own oral traditions, adopted by a recounting (and revising) of the occasions of the Spanish conquest within the center chapters as instructed largely by the Aztecs themselves, with the final chapters dedicated to the a long time instantly after the Spanish conquest and the way the indigenous survivors tailored.
The Aztec, who referred to themselves because the Mexica, started as a gaggle of nomadic peoples who settled on Lake Texcoco in central Mexico across the 12 months 1325. After introducing the reader to the Aztecs, Fifth Solar then examines the historical past of the Mexica folks intimately within the time interval earlier than, throughout and after the Spanish invasion and conquest, which started in 1519 and resulted in 1521. On this ebook, Professor Townsend shares the Mexica oral histories and songs that seize and protect their historic tradition and identification, and document the occasions that occurred when the Spanish arrived, focusing significantly on fifteenth century historical past, which has essentially the most dependable sources. Professor Townsend particularly focuses on Mexica girls: their lives, loves, and fears.
The Mexica have been no strangers to conquest and excessive violence themselves as a result of that is how they constructed their very own empire, which spanned the central valley of the Mexican peninsula. In actual fact, it was this historical past of Mexica violence and oppression of different indigenous folks that motivated many critically necessary allies to help the Spanish invaders’ final conquer the Mexica.
However the European conquerors’ use of maximum violence to attain their targets is gut-wrenching to examine because the Spanish apparently sought to annihilate of their very tradition and identification. The conquerors’ violence even prolonged to Mexica names: for instance, the very phrase ‘Aztec’ was fabricated by European students centuries after the Spanish conquest. (The time period ‘Aztec’ is definitely a poorly outlined time period that denotes the Empire comprised quite a few individuals who spoke a standard Nahuatl tongue, and the peoples conquered by the Mexica.) Professor Townsend states: “No of individuals ever referred to as themselves that.”
Regardless of the atrocities perpetrated by the conquistadors, and the devastating influence of lethal illnesses in opposition to which the Mexica had no immunity, they’re nonetheless with us. Their tradition and language are nonetheless with us.
I used to be most that Professor Townsend overturns or debunks a lot of the pervasive myths that I used to be taught about “the Aztecs” as an intellectually defenceless youngster — that the Mexica believed that Hernan Cortes and his gang of diseased thugs have been the incarnation of Mexica gods, and that Emperor Moctezuma II “gave away” his empire to the Spanish invaders. Bollocks to all of that nonsense! Professor Townsend additionally unmasks the numerous lies that the Spanish conquerors ascribed to the Mexica folks — cowardly, superstitious, and susceptible to huge human sacrifices. In distinction, Professor Townsend reveals that the Aztec Empire boasted some very expert and skilled tradespeople and politicians who constructed in depth intelligence networks and who traded and reformed the empire.
Talking of politics, the political historical past of the Aztec Empire is riveting and completely, surprisingly, trendy: The ability struggles, the constructed economies and commerce items, the household and social constructions, and naturally, the myths and legends that supplied their identification. Components of Fifth Solar gives a window into the world of a folks on the verge of catastrophic change.
Really, all of it sounds eerily like what we’re confronted with now by the every day information.
This participating ebook contains 55 pages of Notes (a veritable treasure-trove of additional readings) the place lots of of references of the first literature are listed, and an 18 web page Bibliography so readers can indulge their ardour to learn additional and extra in-depth about these fascinating folks.
Though I loved this ebook, I do have a couple of complaints. First, the ebook wanted a map of the realm encompassed by the Aztec Empire and it will have benefitted from a historic timeline of the Aztec Empire that emphasised the small time span that the ebook particularly focuses on. The writer additionally ought to have made it clear in a number of sections of the ebook that the feelings and reactions of people — for instance, the experiences of Cristóbal on the Franciscan-run boarding college of Tlatelolco (Pp. 149-150) — are her speculations and, though comprehensible, aren’t drawn from a historic supply. Because it stands, the reader should dig round within the Notes to be taught this was fiction.
General, this enlightening ebook is readable, detailed, and respectful, and it contains a variety of info that the reader will seemingly not run throughout until they’re particularly in search of it. I extremely suggest Fifth Solar to everybody who’s within the historical past of indigenous peoples of the Americas, who desires to catch a glimpse of what colonialism ‘seems to be like’ (yikes), or who, like me, needs to additional pursue their latent ardour to be taught extra in regards to the Aztecs.
Fifth Solar: A New Historical past of the Aztecs gained the Worldwide Cundill Historical past Prize 2020.
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