Origins of Mexico City

The Aztec legend

After a long walk coming from the Aztlán city located at the western north of Mexico, Mexicas arrived in the valley of Mexico City guided by their god principal Huitzilopochtli and directed by the Tenoch priest. The legend tells that while they were seeking for food, they discovered finally "on an island, the eagle perched on a cactus (Nopal) rooted in a stone, devouring a snake" (the origin of the Mexican flag) so the prophecy of the Huitzilopochtli god was carried out. It was this year in 1325 which the mythical town of Tenochtitlán was founded.

Short history of the Aztecs

But still, Mexicas changed themselves their name for Aztecs into remembering their place of origin: Aztlán. The Aztec ones were fed at the beginning by the practice of fishing and hunting in the marshes and improved then their way of life by cultures carried out on floating gardens ( chinampas ). These people spent only 200 years to impose its large city, with its temples dominating over large pyramids, well traced streets where a multitude of approximately 200 000 inhabitants moved. The Aztec ones had a reputation of warriors to the eyes of their neighbors, because they had better weapons, and went from glory in glory as far as Central America. But the foreigner, the bearded one with the clear eyes overlapping his mounting, confused with Quetzalcoátl (the snake decorated with feathers), whose return was announced by the Aztec religion, came to put an end at this continuous rise of the Aztec ones who had made of Tenochtitlán the most powerful city and the richest of the Mexican plate. Their chief, Moctezuma II, was made prisoner by Cortés into 1519.

Ruined empire

In 1521, Hernán Cortés, invader of Mexico, arrived with its troops, and ordered to its soldiers and to the natives, combined to the Spaniards (approximately 450 000 men ), to invade this city. For 3 months, the Aztec ones resisted but those fell between the hands from the invaders into 1522. At this point Mexico City was founded on the ruins of Tenochtitlán.