The Undeservedly Obscure Dead

Today's instalment of The Undeservedly Obscure Dead features a truly obscure man--though at the time of his death 530 years ago he was arguably among the most powerful people on the planet. I give to you: Tlacaelel, the Cihucoatl of the Mexica Triple Alliance.
[Real quick: T'lah-cah-ell-ell the See-hoo-koh-ah-tel of the Mey-shee-kah]. Or, if you prefer, the Prime Minister of the Aztec Empire. Born in 1398 (10-Tochtli by the Mexica calender) to a Mexica noble family, he acted as the supposedly less powerful, domestic affairs oriented member of the two-person executive of the Triple Allinace (a more correct term for the Aztecs, as they themselves did dot refer to the polity as an Empire, or their people as Aztecs). His counter-part, the Tlatoani, or (at least to the Europeans) "emperor" was the foreign affairs and millitary ruler--as such he is the one that Europeans naturally dealt with, thus they assumed he was supreme--was first his uncle Itzacoatl.

Tlacaelel was something of a political genius. And his track record would make Machiavelli shrink like a modest little girl. Among other things, he thought up and organized the 10,000 memeber civil work force that kept Tenochtitlan, the Mexica capital at the center of a lake (Where Mexico City now stands), the cleanest, safest city in the world. When Cortes came upon a metropolis bigger than Paris, that was sparkling clean (no ankle-deep raw sewage in the street!) he was dumfounded.



Tlacaelel also secured the public works, and handled things such as assuring a steady maize supply and the like. More importantly, Tlacaelel was the animating genius of the Alliance. He came up with the Manifest Destiny-like argument that the Mexica were destined to rule a vast empire that would bring peace to the Earth. To that end Tlacaelel did two brilliant, nearly Orwellian things:
First, he had burned all the historical codices of the Mexica, and invented a new past where they were imperial descendants of the ancient Toltec people north of the Mexica lands. He went so far as to have noble families marry women from the Toltec's area.
Second, he promoted the blood cuilt of Huitzilopochtli (Weet-zee-lo-pokt-lee). Huitzilopchtli was the martial god who was currently winning the cosmic struggle with his celestial brothers, and because of this temporary preeminence was responsible for fueling the sun and keeping the world going. (Thus the Meixca Long Count--a suppliment to the cyclical calendar which only keeps track of 52 year periods--is divided into extremely long "suns" when a differnt brother succeeds in gaining the advantage and the previous sun is extinguished. We, and the Mexica, are in the Fifth Sun; it ends December 23, 2012.)
The Mexica, Tlacaelel said, were responsible for providing the maize and blood Huitzilopochtli needed to sustain. Thus, their national mission: conquer the world and sustain the cosmos through blood sacrifice of prisoners from said conquest.
Oh, and it almost worked. The Triple Alliance was a volitile empire and it was only the combination of small pox and rebellious provices that defeated the Mexica, most assuredly not any alleged superiority of Spanish arms or tactics (the conquistadores quickly laid down their steel armor and guns when native armor and weapons proved lighter and more effective, and their military training was nil.)

Pretty bad ass, no?

We salute you, Tlacaelel architect and Cihucoatl of the Triple Alliance, and we know that if you hadn't been long dead when the Spanish came, things might have been different because you were hardcore.