Uncharted Territories
Last week, I took my first week off this year. As a reminder, I take four weeks off per year. Usually, it’s hard for me to predict beforehand when I’ll take these weeks off. I suspect I’ll take another one in August.
This week, I’m looking at the long-term past of Mexico. And aside from the consistent and incredibly useful support of your editors Shoni and Heidi, today I also wanted to thank MajoraZ for their amazing support editing, correcting, and adding to this article. Go look at their content if you want to know more about Mesoamerican history!
Hernán Cortés didn’t conquer Tenochtitlan with a handful of Spanish soldiers, but rather with a bigger army and the help of alliances with indigenous city-states.
Indeed, local politics were a major reason why the Spaniards took control of the region, to the point where it's unclear who played whom the most between the Conquistadors and Mesoamerican kings and officials.
Before and at the same time as the Aztec and Maya, there were dozens of other similarly accomplished civilizations and kingdoms, all of whom were connected to each other via trade and diplomacy.
