Environmental Factors of Societal Collapse in the Aztec Empire - Research Paper Example

? Environmental Factors of Societal Collapse in the Aztec Empire INTRODUCTION In understanding the root causes of the destinies of entire civilized cultures, the ebb and flow of temporal power due to internal politics is subordinate to more natural forces. But even as the shifting tides of military and economic fortunes do not decide the fate of millions overnight, the broad factors that can trigger a society's pestilence or prosperity must exert their influence in a sustained pattern more persistent than any mere earthquake, or flood. It may certainly be possible to locate some isolated instance of a 'culture' dying out due to some localized geologic, or hydrologic spasm, but the doom of a civilization cannot be justified in terms of a single cataclysm of purely physical violence. Civilization can be loosely defined as a social entity with an organizational structure arising from a law code, a codified system of politics, the capacity for physical self-defense, and a food surplus. While many of these factors can potentially exist in a local context at the level of the City-State, the entity discussed in this paper must meet a criteria of personal unfamiliarity. A depersonalization happens when the tribe grows too large. In pre-history, and today with indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures, a familial gerontocracy can often emerge for the purpose of decision-making and overall direction. But a different social structure is needed when a group prospers, and grows to the point that there are many individuals with the same language and cultural norms that do not know each other on an intimate level. Tribes of under a hundred individuals can maintain internal peace through a form of familial consensus. You're much less likely to victimize your community when you personally know everyone, and the group is small enough that everyone knows you. And exile could become a real threat if one were to commit offenses your people regard as a crime. But a culture expansive enough where you do not have a relationship with a man you might meet down the street, even though he speaks the same language, and has the same religious beliefs, requires a professionalized delineation of the business of survival. And at this level, a single incident of natural violence is unlikely to spell the death-knell of that prosperous culture. But any human society must unavoidably find itself linked the interactions of environmental factors that control biology, via ecology. The premise I will demonstrate being that spontaneous catastrophes cannot annihilate an organized civilization, and that only biological factors can determine whether ultimate social collapse is inevitable. THE EIGHT OMENS In the year 1509, ten years prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico, a series of eight portentous omens were rumored amongst the people of the Aztec Empire: 1.) Fire falling from the sky 2.) Fire burning down the temple of Huitzilopochtli 3.) Lightning destroying the straw temple Xiuhtecuhtli 4.) Streaking flames across the oceans 5.) Boiling and flooding of a lake close to the capitol of Tenochtitlan 6.) A woman weeping in the night begging them to flee while they still could 7.) A two-headed man running through the street. 8.) Images seen by Montezuma of fighting men in a mirror on the head of his bird. These unlikely occurrences were explained as portents of an imminent, yet unknown disaster. It was later explained as a forewarning of the Spanish conquest and the military, social, and ecological consequences therein. Omens of this sort are illustrative of the fear primitive cultures felt in the face of shifts in natural forces that could indeed spell their doom. Although, it is possible that these pronouncements were post-conquest, historical revisions made as an attempt to justify the calamity that befell them, and perhaps to curry favor with the conquerors. (Restall, 2003) THE PLAGUE Smallpox has been a scourge of mankind for thousands of years and on multiple continents. Perhaps the location where its influence was felt most strongly was in the decimation of the population triggered inadvertently by the advent of the Conquistadors. From the humble vector of a single African slave, this devastating virus spread invisibly from the invaders, to explode like wildfire among the native populations. The 16th Century expedition of Hernando Cortez was overwhelmingly outnumbered by the Aztecs he is credited with conquering. His expedition nearly ended before it began, when he countermanded orders by a governor to replace him as leader of the expedition in a struggle over who would win the glory of the mainland conquest. (Thomas, 1995 p.141) But it was not Spanish bullets, horsemen, or sailing ships that dealt this deathblow, but rather a pestilence thousands of times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Variola Major is an oval-shaped viral pathogen with a visible pattern on its surface resembling something like barbels. It has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people since the time of ancient Egypt (Tschanz, 1998) The infection which is spread through the air, infected fluids, or physical contact with an infected, non-living fomite such as the infamous blankets give as 'gifts' to the Native Americans. On average, 30% of all the infected perish as a result of damage and bleeding to the internal organs. (Goldsby, et al. 2006, p.408) Visible rash-spots appear on the victim in the early stages, as well as a red, burning sensation as sebaceous glands are destroyed. Red spots become raised and eventually give rise to pimples that swell into the distinctive symptomology. Among those that do survive, one third will suffer blindness. (Tschanz, 1998) While 30% mortality is an average out of those infected worldwide, it is well known that the figures where higher among Native American populations, and not only the Aztec. There were many accounts in which communities suffered 50% casualties. (Tschanz, 1998) Others along the Massachusetts coast in which it appeared that the entire population perished. (Tschanz, 1998) This might be due in part to sampling error. Smaller groups of individuals may represent more susceptibility that would not follow the same pattern in a larger group such as the Aztecs. It was not Cortez' intention to trigger a pandemic that would cause the collapse of a civilization, the more profitable objective being to co-opt the Aztec Empire for ongoing profit and religio-cultural imperialism by way of forced conversions. But with so many dead from plague, he and later Spaniards would then have opportunity to co-opt Mexico into a subordinate satellite colony shackled to Spain. The Conquistadors would give the society the extra push it needed to attain the dissolution of their current social order; both by a physical, political conquest, and in addition replacing their sacrificial polytheistic system with a coercive Catholicism. The survivors would be denied the fragmentary elements of the society they once had, dooming that society to total collapse. Although, It is believed Cortez himself simply wished to subordinate the previously-existing empire, but instead, an empire of 30 million, over the course of 60 years contracted to 1.6 million. (Tschanz, 1998) THE SACRIFICE Cortez' most likely pecuniary motivation would have found additional justification from the native religious practices of the Aztecs. Anyone raised with Western European sensibilities would have been understandably disturbed at the sight of the Altar in the heart of Montezuma's palace, containing a platter filled with human hearts. Any possible exchange that could have followed would be colored with presumptions of religio-cultural superiority from both men. For Cortez, it was an abomination against God, and a waste of life. For Montezuma, while these lives would no longer be available for constructive labor (Or for fighting Conquistadors) for him it was right and good in the hopes that the gods would be placated. But this was all the excuse Cortez would need to press his technological advantage. Add to that the inevitable resentment nearby tribes must have felt over the centuries they had suffered under the burden of Aztec sacrificial rituals. Even if one accepts that there are Mesoamerican deities that would reward the Aztecs for the sacrifice of tens of thousands of captives from neighboring city states, the notion that the Aztecs would be rewarded for your ritualistic demise was hardly a comfort if you happened to live in Tlaxcala. All the easier for Cortez to gain Indian allies for his attack. But to be precise, it would be simplistic to state that the only reason the Aztecs performed these rituals was in the hopes of a unspecified divine blessing; they also believed in a 52-year cycle in which the gods needed to be fed the life-force from human hearts. If the gods were not strong enough then they would not be able to kindle the next cycle, and the entire universe would end. (Matos-Moctezuma, 2006) It is apparent that the average Aztec lacked the historical context to realize that there must have been a time before these sacrifices took place, where the universe continued functioning. To say nothing of how the universe survived after Cortez stopped the practice. There may have been other motivations behind the practice, but many pictographic texts made by the priests, due to a lack of a true writing system on par with the Mayans, were burned by righteously indignant Christian clerics (Holtker, 1965). The preeminence of blood sacrifice is explained in part by another, biological theory - namely that the Aztecs required an additional source of proteins which they obtained through cannibalism. Montezuma is believed from anecdotal reports to have enjoyed human thighs with tomatoes and chilli pepper sauce. But nutritional studies appear to refute the idea that there was a pressing need for human flesh in this regard; the Aztec general population could have survived mostly on a variety of vegetable proteins. (Montellano et. al. 1990) Many would find it easy to attribute Cortez' victory to the superior technologies of steel swords and firearms, but Cortez did not win every military engagement. In the battle to take Technoctitlan, he initially had to flee against a far more numerous force; but after that, Smallpox did its insidious work. But when he realized what was happening, he allowed the pandemic to kill, and waited before entering the capitol until the bodies had an extra sixty days to decompose. While his immediate military advantages gave him eventual victory, that alone was not sufficient to cause the true collapse of the Aztecs. SECONDARY FACTORS In addition to the Variola virus itself, Cortez had additional biological advantages of a far more visible nature. Horses. The trained warhorses where visible, potentially frightening, and unmatched by anything comparable with Native Americans at that time. While it cannot be reasonably argued that mounted cavalry was the Aztec death knell, it contributed to the Spaniard's military edge. It may be speculated that initially, the visible advantages of this swift cavalry beast may have been more frightening than the confusing sounds of gunfire from a distance to someone unfamiliar with firearms. While the Aztecs themselves achieved a prosperity beyond that of North American natives due to their cultivation of corn, and domestication of a wild turkey subspecies, they did not possess any beasts of burden, simply due to the ecological paucity of any such suitable animals. (Hogan, 2008) It is worth noting that the advantages of domestication are difficult to overstate; The Aztecs themselves surpassed other Indian tribes due not to some innate superiority in themselves, but the ability to create a food surplus. Whereas Cortez and the Spaniards originated from societies not only capable of producing surplus food, but surplus labor through the harnessing of more powerful animals than could be found in Mesoamerica. The biological advantage of work and war-animals was a staple of European military and economic strategy, but suitable animals were rare on continents isolated from Eurasia. It is well-known that South America has llamas. It might not be impossible to employ the llama as a military asset, but if it was, the South-American and Meso-American Indians do not appear to have mastered such a use. Whether and what types of animals will be available for domesticating depends on a broad scope of ecological, agronomic, and environmental factors which allowed societies in the Ancient Middle East and later Europe to command an impressive surplus of resources as well as military assets. These environmental factors were part of the background that aided Cortez, to the detriment of the Native Americans, and that was before anyone actually fell ill from Smallpox In addition, while the Aztecs are the primary focus of this work, the preeminence of biological forces over violent cataclysms in explaining social collapse can be illustrated through other examples. There was considerable social upheaval in the wake of the Irish Potato famine; causing dispersal of the population to other countries, and killing nearly a million that failed to escape. All due to the ravages of a fungal-like organism called Phytophthora infestans. But also worth noting are cases where society did not collapse. a cataclysmic eruption in the Roman colony of Pompeii was certainly the end of the world for those caught in the pyroclastic waves from the explosion. But it was by no means a deathblow to the Roman Empire as a whole. In addition, China was invaded and militarily defeated by the British in the 19th century; but never lost its identity, religion, or heritage. Arguably because these latter examples where not accompanied by any environmental or biological shifts that eliminated the population or the basis for prosperity. CONCLUSION In essence, while dramatic, geological or meteorological spasms produce dramatic imagery that burns itself in the consciousness and religious beliefs of many human cultures, it is exceedingly rare that an entire way of life can be stamped out through any singular act of natural violence. Far more critical to both the rise of cultures and the subsequent dissolution of society must be crises that effect the balances of nature that allowed mankind to rise above hunter-gatherer roots in the first place. When these methods fail man, the civilizations that depend upon them cannot help but fail as well. Enhanced scientific understanding of the biological and ecological forces that underpin material prosperity is necessary to limit such collapses on into the future. REFERENCES Goldsby, Richard A. Kindt, Thomas J. Osborne, Barbara A. Kuby, Janis Immunology fifth edition (2006:p.408) W.H. Freeman and Company, New York Holtker, George (1965) "Studies in Comparative Religion", The Religions of Mexico and Peru, Vol 1, CTS Johnson, George. (2008) A Closer Look at Smallpox, Backgrounders. Txtwriter Inc. http://www.txtwriter.com/Backgrounders/Bioterror ism/bioterror6.html Matos-Moctezuma, Eduardo (2006). Tenochtitlan. Fondo de Cultura Economica. pp. 172–73. ISBN 0520056027. Montellano, Ortiz de. Bernard R. (1990). Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813515629. Restall, Matthew.(2003) Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-516077-0 Tchanz, David W. (1998) The War Against Smallpox The New World, © 1998 - 2011 StrategyWorld.com. All rights Reserved Thomas, Hugh. (1995) Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the fall of Old Mexico p. 141 Hogan, Michael C. (2008). Wild turkey: Meleagris gallopavo, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg Read More