Tlaxcallan soldiers
Source: “Armies of the Sixteenth Century – The armies of the Aztec and Inca Empires, other native peoples of the Americas, and the Conquistadores 1450-1608” by Ian Heath.
A powerful kingdom in Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest, Tlaxcala was a fierce rival of the Aztecs and gave crucial military and logistical support to the Spaniards in order to destroy their hated enemy.
Tlaxcala was an unusual state. It was located to the east and south of the Valley of Mexico and was ethnically homogeneous, with all the people being Nahua who spoke Nahuatl. In this sense they were ethnically indistinct from their neighbors, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan. But while the latter empire grew to encompass other distinct ethnic groups, the Tlaxcalans did not. The Tlaxcalan “state” was a complex kingdom consisting of four substates. Each component was called an altepetl, which had its own traditions, ruling lineage, judicial apparatus, and territory. According to the oral tradition taken down by the Spaniards, the first altepetl was Tepeticpac. As the altepetl grew, one area split off, becoming the altepetl of Ocotelolco. Later, Tizatlan and Quiahuiztlan broke off as well. Each altepetl was ruled by a tlatoani, or “speaker,” who was a member of the royal family. In contrast with European states, the Tlaxcalans rotated power, meaning that the religious duties, taxes, and administrative expenses for the state were the responsibility of one altepetl at a time. The altepetl fulfilled these duties for a year before they were passed to another altepetl. In times of war, each altepetl provided companies of troops under a local commander. There was no single capital city for the whole, although each altepetl maintained its own capital. The four tlatoani generally ruled in conjunction with one another, although there was one who was “first among equals.” Originally this honor fell to the tlatoani of Tepeticpac, in honor of its position as the original state, but when Ocotelolco became the most powerful altepetl, its tlatoani assumed this responsibility.
The history of Tlaxcala was closely tied to the history of the central Valley of Mexico. After a. d. 1000 the leading center of the region was the city of Cholula, although by the time of the conquest it had lost much of its influence. After 1300 Tlaxcala had expanded its influence and had become one of the leading states of the time, dominating Cholula in turn. It had close ties with the city of Texcoco, which later became one of the founding members of the “Triple Alliance” that formed the Aztec Empire. As time went on the Aztecs and the Tlaxcalans found themselves increasingly at odds. As part of their expansion, the Aztecs systematically attacked a number of Tlaxcalan allies until the kingdom became surrounded by Aztec territory. The two kingdoms then began a slow war of attrition, in which the Aztecs alternately attempted to blockade the state and conquer it outright. In times of peace the two powers initiated the so-called flowery wars, in which both sides staged mock battles with the sole purpose of taking captives for sacrifice. Through the Aztec blockade Tlaxcala became increasingly impoverished, but its army remained formidable. It seems likely that the Aztecs felt that conquering the area would require great effort and provide few economic benefits.
The role of Tlaxcala in the Spanish conquest of Mexico can hardly be overstated. In September 1519, when Hernan Cortés and his soldiers first entered the region on his march to Tenochtitlan, the Tlaxcalans took up arms against him. Cortés survived a series of harrowing battles. The difficulties he faced against the Tlaxcalans made him begin to doubt that he would be able to subdue the Aztecs, who had much larger armies. At this crucial juncture, Maxixcatzin, the lord of Ocotelolco, decided to ally with the Spaniards and destroy the hated Aztecs once and for all. He provided several thousand soldiers who functioned as the front line troops in Cortés’s forces. Maxixcatzin also provided provisions and guides to help the Spaniards’ cause. This alliance survived despite the disastrous Spanish retreat from Tenochtitlan in July 1520. Cortés and his men were again welcomed to Tlaxcala and given shelter, provisions, and more Native warriors. This army of Native auxiliaries greatly strengthened Cortés’s position, helping to offset the great numerical discrepancy between the Spanish and Aztec forces. Using Tlaxcala as a base, Cortés launched attacks on the Aztecs’ territory, slowly cutting off the capital from provisions and support troops. In 1521 Cortés began the siege of Tenochtitlan itself, conquering the city in August.
Because of their unwavering support during the conquest, Tlaxcala enjoyed a privileged status after Cortés’s victory. While most of central Mexico was divided into ENCOMIENDAs to be given to the conquistadores, Tlaxcala remained its own province and was declared to be a ward of the Crown. In 1531 a special CORREGIDOR (administrative overseer) was assigned to Tlaxcala and Cholula, and in 1536 the Spaniards founded the new city of Tlaxcala to serve as the area’s permanent capital. In the first few years after the conquest, Tlaxcalan auxiliaries accompanied the Spaniards on several conquests in the region. For example, Pedro de Alvarado used them in his conquest of Guatemala, where they received substantial land grants and other favors. War and migration served as a substantial drains on the population of Tlaxcala, whose population fell from 120,000 households in 1520 to 60,000 in 1538. This trend was compounded by a disastrous plague in 1545, which killed thousands.
Despite its close cooperation with the Spaniards in the conquest, Tlaxcala adapted to Spanish culture rather slowly. Documents from the 1520s to the 1570s were frequently written in Nahuatl, with only an occasional word borrowed from Spanish. The government was still organized along ancient models of rotating power, although Tlaxcalan officials eventually adopted Spanish titles for their positions. Tlaxcalan merchants understood the Spanish concept of money and in principle accepted the need for a money-based economy, but those in local markets resisted using Spanish coins for transactions, preferring to use the traditional barter system or to fix prices in cacao beans, as they had done before the conquest. The issue of land ownership also demonstrates a slow process of acculturation. Before the conquest most land surrounding a community was held not by individuals, but by the community itself, who parceled it out for individuals to use. As the years progressed, several individuals began to stake claims to the lands they worked, obtaining Spanish titles that could be used in Spanish courts. These attempts were not always successful, and the tension between private and communal ownership of land continued throughout the colonial period.
Tlaxcala’s large role in the Spanish conquest ensured that the region was well documented, providing valuable information for historians about Native cultures at the time of European contact. Additionally, its wealth of colonial documents has allowed scholars to study the process of acculturation during the first years of Spanish rule.
Further reading: Hernan Cortés, Letters from Mexico (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986); Charles Gibson, Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1952); James Lockhart, The Nahuas after the Conquest (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1992).
