Mexico before it was Mexico

Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Mexica people ruled Aztec Empire with Culhua Toltec descendants (Florentine Codex)

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Magnificent floating capital of the empire

Tenochtitlan, which became Mexico City, was built on an island on then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico.

• The language of Mexico is NOT Spanish but Nahuatl/Aztecan

The city was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century until it was captured by Spanish invaders from Europe in 1521.

Aztec patron god Huitzilopochtli (codex)

At its peak it was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. It subsequently became a cabecera of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

Today, the ruins of Tenochtitlan are in the historic center of Mexico's capital. The World Heritage Site of Xochimilco contains what remains of the geography (water, boats, floating gardens) of the capital of the Mexica tribe.

Tenochtitlan was one of two Mexica city-states (āltēpetl) on the island, the other being Tlatelolco.

The Mexica established Mexico-Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island on Lake Texcoco.

A dissident group from Mexico-Tenochtitlan separated and founded the settlement of Mexico-Tlatelolco with its own dynastic lineage.

The Aztecs
The name "Aztec" was coined by Alexander von Humboldt, who combined "Aztlan" ("place of the heron"), their mythic homeland, and tec(atl), "people of" (Frances F. Berdan "Mesoamerica: Mexica," Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture, Michael S. Werner (ed.), Routledge, 1998).

• The Aztec's Aztlan was Atlantis and/or Hollow Earth

The term "Aztec" is often used very broadly to refer not only to the Mexica people, but also to the Nahuatl-speaking peoples or Nahuas of the Valley of Mexico and neighboring valleys. More

Why is it called "Mexico"?

The Mexica (plural Mēxihcahs, singular Mēxihcatl) are a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico -- who were the rulers of the Aztec Empire, part of which became modern "Mexico."

This group was also known as the Culhua-Mexica in recognition of its kinship alliance with the neighboring Culhua, descendants of the revered Toltecs, who occupied the Toltec capital of Tula from the 10th through 12th centuries. More