Some Remarks On The Term “Aztec Empire”

The enormous native state which Cortés overthrew August 13, 1521, is commonly called the Aztec Empire. This is true more of the English literature than of the Spanish, which sometimes prefers the half-correct “Imperio de los Mexicanos”. The writer has no quarrel with the word “Empire”, which has been questioned from time to time, but he does have with the word “Aztec” used in this connection. This originates, apparently, with Clavijero and was diffused by Prescott, a mere hundred years ago. The latter speaks initially of “the ancient Mexicans, or Aztecs as they were called” and after that uses “Aztec Empire” incessantly. This nomenclature, vulgarized through such dross as Bancroft, has swamped everything else. Nevertheless, neither Cortés nor Bernal Díaz nor Tápia, all actors in the Conquest, ever so much as mention the word “Aztec”, much less say “we conquered the Aztec Empire”. Nor does Sahagun in his encyclopedic work use the term “Aztec Empire”, nor does Motolinía. If it appears in any of these works, or anywhere among the first generation of conquerors and settlers, it is so subordinately mentioned that it has escaped the writer. Below we shall see what its conquerors did call the Empire they overthrew

Ancient history · Art · CONQUEST · Empire · Literature · State (computer science · Classics · History · Latin American history and culture · Mathematics

• The Canonizer De-Canonized

  John E Eipper•Hispania•2000

  Añadir item

• Nahuas and Caesars

  Andrew Laird•Classical Philology•2014

  Añadir item

• Namelore in Latin America III

  Open Access•Jack Autrey Dabbs•Names•1956

  Añadir item

• Tenochtitlan and the Aztecs in the English Atlantic world, 1500–1603

  Maria Fernanda Valencia Suarez•Atlantic Studies•2009

  Añadir item

• Namelore in Latin America II

  Open Access•Jack Autrey Dabbs•Names•1954

  Añadir item

• Colonial Mesoamerican Ethnohistory

  Open Access•Josh Anthony•The Americas A Quarterly Review…•2025

  Añadir item