“Prepare for war, rouse the brave; let all the warriors rise up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your sickles into spears; let the weak say: "I am strong."
(Joel 3: 9)
Well, now that we have become acquainted with the written sources of information (except for artifacts in museums) about the life of the Indians of Mesoamerica, we can continue our story about how they fought. And again, let's start with doubts about the number of Indian troops. Let's make a reservation right away that - yes - many scientists doubt that the Aztec troops were as numerous as it is written in the Spanish colonial chronicles. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the estimate of their numbers given by them is quite plausible and here is why: it was the Aztecs who could create stocks of food and equipment in such quantities that other civilizations of the New World never dreamed of. And we know about this again from the codes, in which the volumes of tribute to the Aztecs from the conquered peoples are carefully recorded. There is another reason that explains the large population of the Aztec state. This is a high yield of maize - their main grain crop. True, the original, wild maize, had too small grains, and this prevented it from becoming the main food crop of the Indians. But when they domesticated it, maize spread very widely and over time became available to all pre-Columbian cultures, which changed the occupation of hunting and gathering to agriculture and, accordingly, a sedentary life. The Aztecs invented many ways of cultivating the land: for example, they gouged terraces on the slopes of mountains, and drenched them with canals, and even grew plants on reed rafts that floated on Lake Texcoco. Maize was to them what wheat and rye were to Europeans and rice to Asia. It was thanks to maize, as well as beans and zucchini, that Mesoamericans received food rich in protein, for which they practically did not need meat.
Rice. Angus McBride: Mixtec standard bearer (3), priest (2), war chief (1). The warlord is based on the drawing in the Nuttal Codex, the priest is the Bodleian Codex.
But the Indians had problems with meat. Of all the domesticated animals, only dogs and turkeys were known to the Aztecs. Of course, they hunted deer and bakers (wild pigs). It is known that in some places the Indians even milked reindeer. But that was not enough to feed everyone with meat. At the same time, the division of labor was as follows: women worked in vegetable gardens and looked after domestic animals, men worked in the fields. And nowhere in the world has so much time and effort been invested in the domestication of plants, so we should be grateful to the ancient Aztecs for giving us corn, beans, zucchini, tomatoes and much more. Even cotton and that Aztecs were grown already dyed in different colors!
Jaguar warrior head.
As for the Aztec army, its supply was carried out from two sources: the calpilli reserves themselves and those reserves that, on their instructions, were created by the conquered peoples and states along the path of their army's movement. Most of the food that the warrior took on the campaign was prepared by his family or received from the market traders on account of the tax. This approach was a guarantee that the damage to the economies of subordinate states would not be very large. The Aztecs wisely tried not to damage the crops and unnecessarily kill those who grew it. All people who were not warriors were required to work in the communal fields in their kalpilli. In October, the harvest ripened, and the maize was then husked, dried and ground into flour in home mills. Then water was added to the pounded flour, and six-pointed flat cakes were molded from the resulting dough, baked on hot ceramic discs. On the eve of the beginning of the war season, in November, the wives, mothers and sisters of the Aztec warriors prepared a huge amount of such cakes, dried beans, peppers and other spices, and also dried meat - venison, bakers' meat, cooked smoked turkey. On the campaign, all this was not carried by a warrior, he had something to carry - his own weapon, but a teenager from Telpocalli who accompanied him, appointed for the duration of the campaign to be his porter. This was followed by a four-day fast and prayers to the gods for the granting of victory. The warrior's father all these days made a penitential sacrifice with his blood, pierced the tongue, ears, hands and feet with the thorns of the cactus so that the grateful gods would return his son safe and sound in the spring. The commander of the detachment - nakon, on top of that, all the time that he was in this position, he did not know women, including his own wife.
The ruler of the Aztecs, Hikotencatl, meets Cortez. "History of Tlaxcala".
In the first long campaigns, the troops of the Aztec triple alliance between the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan relied on Tlamemeque porters, who dragged most of the food and equipment after the warriors. So, on the campaign to Coistlahuaca in 1458, their army was accompanied by 100,000 porters, each carrying at least 50 pounds (approx. 23 kg) of only one piece of equipment. Later, the empire demanded that the conquered tribes and cities create permanent storage facilities for them, in those cases when they walked through their territories. Therefore, in the XVI century. the Aztecs had little problem feeding an army of tens of thousands of warriors. And the codes again say that this is not an exaggeration, naming as a mobilization unit the Meshiks (another name for the Aztecs) shiquipilli - a corps of 8,000 people, which was exhibited from each of the 20 calpillis of Tenochtitlan. So that the daily life of the city was not disturbed, the troops went on a campaign not at one time, but within several days, detachment after detachment. During the day, the army covered from 10 to 20 miles (16-32 km), which depended on the location of the enemy and the desirability of a surprise attack. Considering the fact that the army of Tenochtitlan would then join forces with the allies of approximately equal numbers, it was necessary to choose at least three or four routes of movement. At the same time, the rule, which was also known in Europe, was in effect: move separately, and beat the enemy together! That is, the Aztec commanders had maps of the area and could accurately calculate who, where and at what time would appear. It was believed that a corps of this size possessed sufficient power to cope with any enemy it encountered that would stand in its way to the place of connection. If the forces turned out to be unequal, Nakon could always send messengers for help, and then other parts of the army in a few hours approached the battlefield and could attack the enemy from the rear or flank. Since the Aztec army consisted of lightly armed infantry, the speed of movement of any unit was the same, so it was very easy to calculate the time for the arrival of reinforcements.
"Captain" with a spear, the tip of which is seated with obsidian blades. "Code of Mendoza".
The coordination of the actions of such large formations was directly related to the training of their "officers". Way Tlatoani was considered the commander-in-chief, who often himself participated in the battle, like many generals of the Ancient World in Europe and Asia. The second most important was Sihuacoatl (literally - "woman-snake") - a priest of the highest level, traditionally bearing the name of the very goddess whose cult he led. The first Sihuacoatl was Montezuma's half-brother Tlacaelel, from whom she was inherited by his son and grandson. Zihuacoatl was responsible for the administration of Tenochtitlan in the absence of the emperor, but could also be the commander-in-chief. During the war, a supreme council of four commanders was responsible for the army. Each of them was engaged in their own business - organizing supplies, planning transitions, strategy and directly managing the battle. Then came the "officers", who can be equated with our colonels, majors, captains and so on, who carried out the orders of the Supreme Council. The highest rank a commoner could achieve was cuaupilli - a kind of commander with a title award.
Palace of Montezuma Shokoyocin. "Code of Mendoza"
When supply lines were stretched directly from Tenochtitlan over a long distance, the army had to rely on warehouses set up by the dependent city-states along the indicated route. But the uniqueness of the Aztec empire was precisely that it did not try to control vast territories, but preferred strategic points along important trade routes. Noble foreigners, placed in high positions by the Aztecs, had tremendous power in their lands, but at the same time they were indebted to the empire, which supported their power at the cost of an exorbitant burden on their subjects. Therefore, the Aztecs considered it necessary to appoint tax collectors to the vassal kingdoms, accompanied by the Aztec troops stationed there. After the conquest of Coistlahuaca, the empire developed several methods to destroy the confederations of the city-states of the eastern Nahua, Mixtecs and Zapotecs. Initially, these methods were extremely ruthless. Under Montezuma I, the inhabitants of the conquered lands were either sold into slavery without exception, or brutally executed in the square in front of the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan. The loss of workers was made up for by the Aztec settlers, who established a system of governance in accordance with local standards. Particularly indicative is the example of Washyacaca (present-day Oaxaca, the main city of the Mexican state of the same name), where even its own ruler was appointed.
In other cases, the Aztecs subjugated local political systems, playing on discord among the local nobility. The Aztecs skillfully used the weaknesses of their neighbors when choosing a contender for power. Pictographic evidence from Coistlahuaca, for example, shows that after the death of Atonal, an heir was chosen from a rival dynasty, while one of Atonal's wives was appointed … a tax collector. In other cases, those of the applicants who, in desperation, were ready to make a deal with the devil himself, invited the Aztecs themselves, in order to use them to decide the case in their favor. The destruction of political foundations could have gone in more insidious ways. Among the Eastern Nahuas, Mixtecs, Zapotecs and their allies, royal marriages were often planned for generations to come. When the Aztecs subjugated one of the members of this confederation, the Way Tlatoani or someone from the highest nobility could demand a woman from the local ruling clan for his wife. This not only connected the defeated with the Aztec ruling house, but also violated the entire system of already predetermined marriages. Whatever strategy the conquerors chose, they strove to constantly increase the network of subordinate states that could supply the Aztec army if it needed to pass through their territory.
The Spaniards and their allies Tlaxcoltecs (among them the heron warriors - a squad of elite warriors, since the heron was one of the patrons of Tlaxkala). "History of Tlaxcala". Even such a trifle as a brand on horse groats has not been forgotten!
In the methods of warfare among the Aztecs, not the last place was occupied by … witchcraft! And they were doing it quite seriously and, probably, many believed in all these magical rituals and sacrifices that took place before the battle and called upon the anger of the gods on the enemy and this encouraged them! However, they burned plants like oleander, which gave off a poisonous smoke that caused nausea, pain and even death - if it was blown in the right direction by the wind. A slower but no less effective method was to mix poison in food and water - especially when the enemy was ready to withstand a siege. If necessary, even palace messengers could become murderers - when it became necessary to resolve a conflict between representatives of one ruling house and another.
This image clearly shows that the Indians use two types of arrows: with wide points and narrow, serrated. "History of Tlaxcala".
