Hello and welcome to a history of the United States, membership feed, Episode 2, The Rise of the Aztecs.

We begin today in the year 1111, supposedly the date the Aztecs left Aztalan and began their journey to Tenochtitchlan.

Over two centuries of travelling.

It's worth briefly mentioning what I said last week about the difficulties

of establishing Aztec history. Much of the dating is suspect, and a lot of what we're going

to talk about are legends. This is often the case with societies for which a written history

hasn't survived.

The information is coming through the lens of both 16th century Aztecs and the Spanish who were interviewing them.

Two particular accounts which this section will be using are the history of the Indies of New Spain by Diego Duran,

a friar who did much to preserve Aztec culture,

who wrote in the later 16th century, and the Chronica Meshichalapel, which was written in 1609

by Don Fernando di Alvarado Tezosomok, grandson of Motikazuma, king of the Aztecs during the conquest.

These accounts largely agree on events. There are other sources, such as the Aztec codices.

These were created in the decades after the conquest and are largely pictorial, although

sometimes written, and offer an insightful,

indigenous perspective on their history. The artwork is also rather beautiful. The story starts with

Aztlan. It was known as facts by all Aztecs that they came from Asterlan, but not where it was. It's agreed that it was in

some direction to the northwest, but not if that was in central Mexico, right next to the

basin of Mexico, which is a term I'll use interchangeably with the Valley of Mexico. It refers to a plateau in central Mexico,

which is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. It was the location of Tenoctitlan and Tihwotiwakan,

and is the location of the modern Mexico City, if you're looking for it on a map.

If you go to the website, the history of podcast.com, and look at the web page

...