Blog Post 5: Tenochtitlan vs. Mexico City

Today’s post examines modern day Mexico City, which was originally Tenochtitlan, the capital city of Aztec culture.  The best way to compare the two sites is with an aerial shot from Google Earth and historic replication of Tenochtitlan (see images below).  I hope to explain the relationship between the size and scale of the two sites, reasoning for building the Spanish colony on top of the Aztec city, and importance of such an undertaking.

Aztec City

Mexico City

To begin we will examine the relationship between the historic and modern site.  The site was considered a strange geographic location to be settled due to marshy soil and proneness to earthquakes. However, they believed that the symbology of an eagle eating a bird on top of a cactus was god choosing it as a place the Aztecs must settle.  The Aztec city was large in size housing approximately 200,000 people in 10 square kilometers.  The old city had bridges that could be raised to protect them from invaders.  Today, Mexico City has been build on top of the ruins of the Aztec city.  We also notice the water has been drained and Mexico City is much more sprawled out form compared to the original settlement.  Largely, the extended cityscape is due to the 8.8 million that live in the City and 21.2 million that live in the Metropolitan of Mexico.

Next, two questions come to mind: “why did the Spanish decide this location to build a colony?” and “What is its significance?”  Given the time frame, the Aztecs had clearly accomplished something great.  The size and control of Tenochtitlan was impressive, and was likely the reason the Spanish created Mexico City on top of it.  They knew that the city would be able to provide room for many people given the geographic size and relatively high-density design.  Furthermore, the island was barricaded from enemies and other people.  This was a very attractive tool to control the population and fortify its civilians from enemies. The majority of the Tenochtitlan architecture was destroyed and built over, to clearly display the wealth and new power of Cortes.  Mexico City has clearly benefited from the location, today being one of the largest cities in the world.