"Omne regnum in seipsum divisum
desolabitur..."
In the run up to the Moctezuma exhibition which opens at the British Museum on the 24th of September and has me, eagerly awaiting (being a passionate lover of this subject matter) whichever new light - if at all any - the exhibition may shed on the turbulent relationship that brought together two characters that looked at and thought of one another as if coming from two very alien worlds, I can’t but start to think about the true complexity of this period of history.
The time when one of history’s - in my opinion - least acknowledged “naval” battles brought the still adolescent Mexica (Aztec) empire to a precocious end in the manner of a "Mexican Trafalgar".
An end that came about not just in the hands of a bunch of Spaniards, as is commonly believed, but as the result of a complex military alliance between Spaniards and Mexicans.
Yes, Mexicans.
We can start to spot the strategic superiority of Moctezuma’s nemesis, that of Hernán Cortés, in the Spaniard’s very own words.
When dealing with one of the many ambassadorial delegations that the Aztec ruler sent to greet, charm and meet Cortés in 1519 - that’s two years prior to the final fall of the Aztecs - the Spaniard's’ cocky confidence is suddenly boosted - in one of those historical eureka moments - by the realization that he was in the midst of an empire divided; an empire which he thought to be about to implode. An empire on the brink of a civil war.
Cortés writes to Charles V and spills the beans, telling the Spanish emperor that the Tlaxcalans - archenemies of Moctezuma and all the Aztecs - have warned him - many times - not to trust Moctezuma and his vassals. “When I saw - Cortés writes - the discord and animosity between these two peoples...it seemed to further my purpose considerably.”.
It must have been at that very precise moment that Cortés might have decided to follow in the footsteps of one of his heroes, none other than Julius Caesar and probably thought of one of Caesar’s classic mottos: “diuide et impera” - divide and conquer-.
The Spanish conquistador put pen to paper, turning to the beautifully illuminated pages of his book of hours, to the wisdom and refuge he always found in the Gospels.
He writes to his Spanish emperor: “I remember that one of the Gospels says ‘Omne regnum in seipsum divisum desolabitur".
“Every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation...”
And brought to desolation, indeed it was...
Text & photos of Aztec masks
© Jesús Montero
kind courtesy of the BM
I hope the Moctezuma Exhibition will blow your socks off...I suspect, though, that you know more about the subject than the BM guys.
ReplyDeleteLet's just hope they don't come up with attention grabbing headlines that cannot be substantiated by tangible historical evidence.
ReplyDelete