Archaeology Magazine - July 1977 - 17

was aggressive expansion. By granting highly
visible and desirable status clothing, the Aztecs
effectively motivated young men to perform
military feats. Indeed, the pageantry of Aztec
warfare worked very well both as a visual
ordering device and as an incentive system so
long as their battles were conducted against
like-minded opponents.
It is a measure of the military genius of
Hernán Cortés that he perceived the integrative
function of Aztec military attire, as he
demonstrated at the decisive battle of Otumba,
July 7, 1520. The conquistadors had just
suffered a devastating defeat at the hands
of the Mexicans and had been driven out of
Tenochtitlan in the famous rout of Noche Triste.
Wounded and exhausted, the Spaniards were
attempting to make their way back to their
Indian allies in Tlaxcala. However, when they
reached the plains of Otumba, near the great
pyramids of Teotihuacán, the amassed military
forces of the Aztec empire were awaiting them.
Woefully outnumbered, Cortés realized that the
Spaniards' only hope lay in an unexpected move.
He scanned the battlefield and identified the
Aztecs' commanding officer, who was easily
recognizable not only by the rich panoply of his
entourage and his own magnificent costume but
also by the huge, distinctive feather and silver
crest strapped on his back. Under Cortés'
direction the remaining Spanish troops and
cavalry drove through the tightly massed Indian
forces and succceeded in reaching and killing
their conspicuous commanding officer. Panic
quickly spread among the Aztecs even though
they vastly outnumbered the Europeans. The
loss of their leader and his symbolic emblem
quickly caused demoralization among the
warriors, and the tide of the battle turned. Thus,
by capturing the Aztec imperial standard, the
conquistadors survived the battle of Otumba and
were able to reach Tlaxcala where they mounted
the final devastating assault on Tenochtitlan.
This is only one example of the decisive role
played by the contrasting Indian and European
concept of warfare. In the two years between the
initial contact with the Spaniards and the final
conquest in 1521, the Indians were repeatedly
caught off balance because the invaders did not
follow Aztec martial conventions; they did not
negotiate before battle, nor did they prefer
capturing enemies to killing them. When the
long siege of Tenochtitlan finally ended, there
was no bargaining about tribute to be paid the

European conquerors. What followed instead
was a cataclysm the Aztecs could never have
imagined: the abolition of their political
institutions, the destruction of their gods and the
complete overthrow of their civilization. With
their defeat came the destruction of the complex
social network that had made possible the
pageantry of Aztec warfare. Gone were the
sumptuary laws and the ranking of warriors.
Gone, too was the tribute system that supported
the regular transport of tropical feathers, gems,
silver, and gold from the lowlands to the altipiano
of central Mexico, where skilled artisans had
fashioned the valuable materials into the status
goods necessary for a sharply stratified society.
Today all that is left of Aztec warfare are the
accounts of the Spanish chroniclers, the
depictions in the Indian codices and a few
surviving artifacts. These are sufficient however,
to suggest the theatrical grandeur of what must
have been one of the most magnificently attired
armies ever assembled. Unfortunately for the
Aztecs, the ideology reflected in their pageantry
made them vulnerable to the Europeans'
contrasting view of warfare and defeat and
eventually led to their final destruction.
For Further Reading on the Aztecs: Nigel
Davies, The Aztecs (New York 1974), a political
history of the Aztecs from their nomadic origins
to rulers of the mightiest empire in the Western
world. An interesting account of the Spanish
Conquest is also included. Fray Bernardino de
Sahagún, The Florentine Codex: General History of
the Things of New Spain, translated by Arthur J.O.
Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe
1950-69). Sahagún, a Franciscan missionary, was
the foremost ethnographer of sixteenth-century
Mexico. Using Indian informants, he compiled a
twelve volume compendium of the religion,
customs and natural history of the Aztecs.
Jacques Soustelle, Daily Life of the Aztecs (Stanford
1961), a lively general summary of Aztec life on
the eve of the Spanish conquest.
On the conquest of Mexico: Patricia de
Fuentes, The Conquistadors (New York 1963), an
English translation of a collection of seven
firsthand accounts of the Spanish conquest of
Mexico. W.H. Prescott, The Conquest of Mexico
(New York 1922), a well researched and
enthralling account of the conquest which
remains one of the world's greatest adventure
stories. Included in this two volume edition are
outstanding illustrations by Keith Henderson.
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Archaeology Magazine - July 1977

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