⒈ Aztec Empire Turning Points

The Smoking Body Ritual Of The Nacirema Analysis determined to find a way to share Aztec Empire Turning Points music with the rest of the world. The giants lived only on acorns they The Rockpile Short Story Analysis from Aztec Empire Turning Points tree tops. Wikimedia Aztec Empire Turning Points has media related to Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Madrid: Atlas, Although exceedingly remote within such majesty, the Divine Couple played not only a powerful but a tender and intimate part in human life. The total fertility rate in early seventeenth-century Tacuba was eight children just as it was years later in San Luis de la Differences Between Stoicism And Christianity. Dethroned from the sky, Tezcatlipoca turned his energies to the earth.

#1 New Player Tutorial - Aztec - Civilization Vi Rise and Fall

Our curiosity as limitless as the stars. But these paths don't always lead to maddening obsession. Pursuits that seem impossible to some, push others to greatness. Star Citizen Rainbow Six Siege Akeem Lawanson 1. Monster Hunter Rise Logan Plant Diablo 2 Logan Plant 9. The game will also be released on Nintendo Switch in Q1 Check out the latest trailer for a look at gameplay and more. In To The Rescue, take charge of the local animal shelter to help stray pups find new and loving forever homes.

In between belly rubs and sessions of playing fetch, ensure that the inner workings of the shelter are running properly. Foster a warm and welcoming environment for future pet parents to come and meet their soon-to-be companions. War began in Texas on October 2, , with the Battle of Gonzales. Early Texian Army successes at La Bahia and San Antonio were soon met with crushing defeat at the same locations a few months later. The end of the war resulted in the creation of the Republic of Texas in In , the U.

Congress ratified Texas's petition for statehood. In response to a Mexican massacre of a U. Congress declared war on May 13, ; Mexico followed suit on 23 May. In March , U. President James K. Polk sent an army of 12, volunteer and regular U. Army soldiers under General Winfield Scott to the port of Veracruz. The 70 ships of the invading forces arrived at the city on 7 March and began a naval bombardment. After landing his men, horses, and supplies, Scott began the Siege of Veracruz. The city at that time still walled was defended by Mexican General Juan Morales with 3, men.

Veracruz replied as best it could with artillery to the bombardment from land and sea, but the city walls were reduced. After 12 days, the Mexicans surrendered. Scott marched west with 8, men, while Santa Anna entrenched with artillery and 12, troops on the main road halfway to Mexico City. Scott pushed on to Puebla , Mexico's second largest city, which capitulated without resistance on 1 May—the citizens were hostile to Santa Anna. Many other parts of Mexico were also occupied.

Some Mexican units fought with distinction. One of the justly commemorated units was a group of six young Military College cadets now considered Mexican national heroes , who fought to the death defending their college during the Battle of Chapultepec. Mexico's defeat has been attributed to its problematic internal situation, one of disunity and disorganization. Despite Santa Anna's role in the catastrophe of the Mexican American War, he returned to power yet again.

One last act doomed his political role. When the U. This loss of still more territory provoked considerable outrage among Mexicans, but Santa Anna claimed that he needed money to rebuild the army from the war. In the end, he kept or squandered most of it. Liberals ousted conservative Santa Anna in the Revolution of Ayutla and sought to implement liberal ideology in a series of separate laws, then in a new constitution , which incorporated them.

Mexico then experienced twenty years of civil war and a foreign intervention that established a monarchy with the support of Mexican conservatives. The fall of the empire of Maximilian of Mexico and his execution in ushered in a period of relative peace, but economic stagnation during the Restored Republic. In general, the history writing on this era has characterized the liberals as forging a new, modern nation and conservatives as reactionary opponents of that vision.

Starting in the late twentieth century, historians are writing more nuanced analyses of both liberals and conservatives. Moderate Liberal Ignacio Comonfort became president. The Moderados tried to find a middle ground between the nation's liberals and conservatives. There is less consensus about the ending point of the Reforma. Liberalism dominated Mexico as an intellectual force into the 20th century. Liberals championed reform and supported republicanism , capitalism, and individualism; they fought to reduce the Church's conservative roles in education, land ownership and politics.

Comonfort was a moderate who tried and failed to maintain an uncertain coalition of radical and moderate liberals. Radical liberals drafted the Constitution of , decreased the power of the executive, incorporated the laws of the Reform stripping the Catholic Church of its privileges and ability to own property, and control over education. The anti-clerical radicals scored a major victory with the ratification of the constitution, because it weakened the Church and enfranchised illiterate commoners. The constitution was unacceptable to the army, the clergy and the other conservatives, as well as moderate liberals such as President Comonfort. With the Plan of Tacubaya in December , opponents such as Comonfort repudiated the constitution.

The revolt led to the War of Reform December to January , which grew increasingly bloody as it progressed and polarized the nation's politics. Many Moderates, convinced that the Church's political power had to be curbed, came over to the side of the Liberals. For some time, the Liberals and Conservatives simultaneously administered separate governments, the Conservatives from Mexico City and the Liberals from Veracruz. They chose a member of the Habsburg dynasty, which had ruled Spain and its overseas possessions until Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria was installed as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico , with support from the Catholic Church, conservative elements of the upper class, and some indigenous communities.

Although the French suffered an initial defeat the Battle of Puebla on May 5, , now commemorated as the Cinco de Mayo holiday , the French eventually defeated the Mexican army and set Maximilian on the throne. They were also in favor of exploiting the nation's resources for themselves and their allies. This included favoring the plans of Napoleon III to exploit the mines in the northwest of the country and to grow cotton. Maximilian was a liberal, a fact that Mexican conservatives seemingly did not know when he was chosen to head the government. He favored the establishment of a limited monarchy that would share power with a democratically elected congress.

This left Maximilian with few enthusiastic allies within Mexico. France never made a profit in Mexico and its Mexican expedition grew increasingly unpopular. Napoleon III quietly complied. In mid, despite repeated Imperial losses in battle to the Republican Army and ever decreasing support from Napoleon III, Maximilian chose to remain in Mexico rather than return to Europe. He was captured and executed along with two Mexican supporters, immortalized in a famous painting by Eduard Manet. He continued to implement his reforms. In , he was elected a second time, much to the dismay of his opponents within the Liberal party, who considered reelection to be somewhat undemocratic.

Part of Juarez's reforms included fully secularizing the country. The Catholic Church was barred from owning property aside from houses of worship and monasteries, and education and marriage were put in the hands of the state. To avoid antagonizing Catholics, he avoided enforcement of anticlerical laws. The country's infrastructure was greatly improved, thanks to increased foreign investment from Britain and the US, and a strong, stable central government. Increased tax revenue and better administration dramatically improved public safety, public health, railways, mining, industry, foreign trade, and national finances. After a half-century of stagnation, where per capita income was merely a tenth of the developed nations such as Britain and the US, the Mexican economy took off and grew at an annual rate of 2.

Mexico moved from being a target of ridicule to international pride. As traditional ways were under challenge, urban Mexicans debated national identity, the rejection of indigenous cultures, the new passion for French culture once the French were ousted from Mexico, and the challenge of creating a modern nation by means of industrialization and scientific modernization. Mexico City was poorer per capita in than in Some commentators attribute the slow economic growth to the negative impact of Spanish rule, the concentration of landholding by few families, and the reactionary role of the Catholic Church. Coatsworth rejects those reasons and says the chief obstacles were poor transportation and inefficient economic organization.

Under the Porfiriato regime — , economic growth was much faster. He was elected president eight times, turning over power once, from to , to a trusted ally, General Manuel Gonzailez. This period of relative prosperity is known as the Porfiriate. Diaz remained in power by rigging elections and censoring the press. Possible rivals were destroyed, and popular generals were moved to new areas so they could not build a permanent base of support. Banditry on roads leading to major cities was largely suppressed by the "Rurales" , a new police force controlled by Diaz.

Banditry remained a major threat in more remote areas, because the Rurales comprised fewer than men. The Army was reduced in size from 30, to under 20, men, which resulted in a smaller percentage of the national budget being committed to the military. Nevertheless, the army was modernized, well-trained, and equipped with the latest technology. The Army was top-heavy with 5, officers, many of them elderly, but politically well-connected veterans of the wars of the s. He nevertheless ran for reelection and in a show of U. Moore, a Texas Ranger , discovered a man holding a concealed palm pistol standing at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce building along the procession route.

Diaz gave enormous power and prestige to the Superior Health Council, which developed a consistent and assertive strategy using up-to-date international scientific standards. It took control of disease certification; required prompt reporting of disease; and launched campaigns against tropical disease such as yellow fever. Limantour expanded foreign investment, supported free trade, and balanced the budget for the first time and generated a budget surplus by However, he was unable to halt the rising cost of food, which alienated the poor. The American Panic of was an economic downturn that caused a sudden drop in demand for Mexican copper, silver, gold, zinc, and other metals.

Mexico in turn cut its imports of horses and mules, mining machinery, and railroad supplies. Mexico was vulnerable to external shocks because of its weak banking system. The banking system was controlled by a small oligarchy, which typically made long-term loans to their own directors. The banks were the financial arms of extended kinship-based business coalitions that used banks to raise additional capital to expand enterprises. Economic growth was largely based on trade with the United States. Mexico had few factories by , but then industrialization took hold in the Northeast, especially in Monterrey. Factories produced machinery, textiles and beer, while smelters processed ores.

Convenient rail links with the nearby US gave local entrepreneurs from seven wealthy merchant families a competitive advantage over more distant cities. New federal laws in and allowed corporations to be more flexible. By the s, American Smelting and Refining Company ASARCO , an American firm controlled by the Guggenheim family, had invested over 20 million pesos and employed nearly 2, workers smelting copper and making wire to meet the demand for electrical wiring in the US and Mexico. The modernizers insisted that schools lead the way, and that science replace superstition.

These reforms were consistent with international trends in teaching methods. In order to break the traditional peasant habits that hindered industrialization and rationalization, reforms emphasized the children's punctuality, assiduity, and health. Cities were rebuilt with modernizing architects favoring the latest European styles, especially the Beaux-Arts style, to symbolize the break with the past. A highly visible exemplar was the Federal Legislative Palace, built — Tutino examines the impact of the Porfiriato in the highland basins south of Mexico City, which became the Zapatista heartland during the Revolution. Population growth, railways and concentration of land in a few families generated a commercial expansion that undercut the traditional powers of the villagers.

Young men felt insecure about the patriarchal roles they had expected to fill. Initially, this anxiety manifested as violence within families and communities. The young men were radicalized, as they fought for their traditional roles regarding land, community, and patriarchy. The Mexican Revolution is a broad term to describe political and social changes in the early 20th century. Foreign powers had important economic and strategic interests in the outcome of power struggles in Mexico, with United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution playing an especially significant role. The Revolution grew increasingly broad-based, radical and violent. Revolutionaries sought far-reaching social and economic reforms by strengthening the state and weakening the conservative forces represented by the Church, the rich landowners, and foreign capitalists.

Some scholars consider the promulgation of the Mexican Constitution of as the revolution's end point. Land reform in Mexico was enabled by Article Economic nationalism was also enabled by Article 27, restricting ownership of enterprises by foreigners. The Constitution also further restricted the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico ; implementing the restrictions in the late s resulted in major violence in the Cristero War. A ban on re-election of the president was enshrined in the Constitution and in practice.

Political succession was achieved in with the creation of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario PNR , the political party that dominated Mexico's politics from its creation to the s, now called the Institutional Revolutionary Party. One major effect of the revolution was the disappearance of the Federal Army in , defeated by revolutionary forces of the various factions in the Mexican Revolution. The Mexican Revolution was based on popular participation. At first, it was based on the peasantry who demanded land, water, and a more sympathetic national government. Wasserman finds that:. This set off a spate of political activity by potential candidates, including Francisco I.

Madero , a member of one of Mexico's richest families. He created the office of vice president, which could have been a mechanism to ease transition in the presidency. He sent Reyes on a "study mission" to Europe and jailed Madero. This fraud was too blatant, and riots broke out. The rising was set for November 20, Diaz tried to use the army to suppress the revolts, but most of the ranking generals were old men close to his own age and they did not act swiftly or with sufficient energy to stem the violence. The Federal Army, although defeated by the northern revolutionaries, was kept intact. Francisco I. He campaigned in the presidential elections of October , won decisively, and was inaugurated in November The revolutionary leaders had many different objectives; revolutionary figures varied from liberals such as Madero to radicals such as Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa.

As a consequence, it proved impossible to agree about how to organize the government that emerged from the triumphant first phase of the revolution. This standoff over political principles led quickly to a struggle for control of the government, a violent conflict that lasted more than 20 years. Madero was ousted and killed in February during the Ten Tragic Days. Within a month of the coup, rebellion started spreading in Mexico, most prominently by the governor of the state of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza along with old revolutionaries demobilized by Madero, such as Pancho Villa. The northern revolutionaries fought under the name of the Constitutionalist Army , with Carranza as the "First Chief" primer jefe. In the south, Emiliano Zapata continued his rebellion in Morelos under the Plan of Ayala , calling for the expropriation of land and redistribution to peasants.

Huerta offered peace to Zapata, who rejected it. Huerta convinced Pascual Orozco , whom he fought while serving the Madero government, to join Huerta's forces. The Federal Army became an arm of the Huerta regime, swelling to some , men, many pressed into service and most ill-trained. The US did not recognize the Huerta government, but from February to August it imposed an arms embargo on exports to Mexico, exempting the Huerta government and thereby favoring the regime against emerging revolutionary forces.

Arms ceased to flow to Huerta's government, [67] which benefited the revolutionary cause. Although Mexico was engaged in a civil war at the time, the US intervention united Mexican forces in their opposition to the US. Foreign powers helped broker US withdrawal in the Niagara Falls peace conference. The US timed its pullout to throw its support to the Constitutionalist faction under Carranza. Initially, the forces in northern Mexico were united under the Constitutionalist banner, with able revolutionary generals serving the civilian First Chief Carranza.

Pancho Villa began to split from supporting Carranza as Huerta was on his way out. The break was not simply on personalist grounds, but primarily because Carranza was politically too conservative for Villa. In July , Huerta resigned under pressure and went into exile. His resignation marked the end of an era since the Federal Army , a spectacularly ineffective fighting force against the revolutionaries, ceased to exist. With the exit of Huerta, the revolutionary factions decided to meet and make "a last ditch effort to avert more intense warfare than that which unseated Huerta.

The Convention of Aguascalientes did not reconcile the various victorious factions in the Mexican Revolution , but was a brief pause in revolutionary violence. The break between Carranza and Villa became definitive during the convention. The convention declared Carranza in rebellion against it and civil war resumed, this time between revolutionary armies that had fought in a united cause to oust Huerta. Villa went into alliance with Zapata to form the Army of the convention. Their forces separately moved on the capital and captured Mexico City in , which Carranza's forces had abandoned. The famous picture of Villa, sitting in the presidential chair in the National Palace, and Zapata is a classic image of the Revolution.

Villa is reported to have said to Zapata that the presidential "chair is too big for us. Zapata returned to his southern stronghold in Morelos, where he continued to engage in guerrilla warfare under the Plan of Ayala. Constitutionalist victory was complete. Carranza emerged in as the political leader of Mexico with a victorious army to keep him in that position. Villa retreated north, seemingly into political oblivion. Carranza and the Constitutionalists consolidated their position as the winning faction, with Zapata remaining a threat until his assassination in Venustiano Carranza promulgated a new constitution on February 5, The Mexican Constitution of , with significant amendments in the s, still governs Mexico.

On 19 January , a secret message the Zimmermann Telegram was sent from the German foreign minister to Mexico proposing joint military action against the United States if war broke out. The offer included material aid to Mexico to reclaim the territory lost during the Mexican—American War , specifically the American states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Carranza's generals told him that Mexico would lose to its much more powerful neighbor. However, Zimmermann's message was intercepted and published, and outraged American opinion, leading to a declaration of war in early April.

Carranza then formally rejected the offer, and the threat of war with the US eased. Carranza was assassinated in during an internal feud among his former supporters over who would replace him as president. Their life experience in Mexico's northwest, described as a "savage pragmatism" [75] was in a sparsely settled region, conflict with Natives, secular rather than religious culture, and independent, commercially oriented ranchers and farmers. This was different from subsistence agriculture of the dense population of the strongly Catholic indigenous and mestizo peasantry of central Mexico. However, all three men were skilled politicians and administrators, who had honed their skills in Sonora.

There they had "formed their own professional army, patronized and allied themselves with labor unions, and expanded the government authority to promote economic development. His government managed to accommodate many elements of Mexican society except the most conservative clergy and big land owners. He was not an ideologue, but was a revolutionary nationalist, holding seemingly contradictory views as a socialist, a capitalist, a Jacobin , a spiritualist , and an Americanophile. He faced several main tasks in the presidency, mainly political in nature. First was consolidating state power in the central government and curbing regional strongmen caudillos ; second was obtaining diplomatic recognition from the United States; and third was managing the presidential succession in when his term of office ended.

With the promulgation of the Mexican Constitution of , the Mexican government was empowered to expropriate natural resources. The U. The treaty resolved questions about foreign oil interests in Mexico, largely in favor of U. Fifty-four former Obregonistas were shot in the event. Since political opposition parties were essentially banned, the Catholic Church "filled the political void and play the part of a substitute opposition.

Candidate Calles embarked on the first populist presidential campaign in the nation's history, as he called for land redistribution and promised equal justice, more education, additional labor rights, and democratic governance. The Cristero War of to was a counter-revolution against the Calles regime set off by his persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico [84] and specifically the strict enforcement of the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of and the expansion of further anti-clerical laws.

A number of articles of the Constitution were at issue: a Article 5 outlawing monastic religious orders ; b Article 24 forbidding public worship outside of church buildings ; and c Article 27 restricting religious organizations' rights to own property. Finally, Article took away basic civil rights of the clergy: priests and religious leaders were prevented from wearing their habits, were denied the right to vote, and were not permitted to comment on public affairs in the press.

The formal rebellions began early in , [85] with the rebels calling themselves Cristeros because they felt they were fighting for Jesus Christ himself. The laity stepped into the vacuum created by the removal of priests, and in the long run the Church was strengthened. Ambassador, Dwight Whitney Morrow. The conflict claimed about 90, lives: 57, on the federal side, 30, Cristeros, and civilians and Cristeros killed in anticlerical raids after the war's end. As promised in the diplomatic resolution, the laws considered offensive by the Cristeros remained on the books, but the federal government made no organized attempt to enforce them. Nonetheless, persecution of Catholic priests continued in several localities, fueled by local officials' interpretation of the law.

However, he was assassinated immediately after the July election and there was a power vacuum. Calles could not immediately stand for election, so there needed to be a solution to the crisis. Revolutionary generals and others in the power elite agreed that congress should appoint an interim president and new elections held in In his final address to congress on 1 September , President Calles declared the end of strong man rule, a ban on Mexican presidents serving again in that office, and that Mexico was now entering an age of rule by institutions and laws.

Calles created a more permanent solution to presidential succession with the founding of the National Revolutionary Party PNR in It was a national party that was a permanent rather than a local and ephemeral institution. The party brought together regional caudillos and integrated labor organizations and peasant leagues in a party that was better able to manage the political process. He had convinced most of the remaining revolutionary generals to hand over their personal armies to the Mexican Army; the date of the PRM party's foundation is thus considered by some to be the end of the Revolution. The party was re-structured again in and renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party PRI and held power continuously until After its establishment as the ruling party, the PRI monopolized all the political branches: it did not lose a senate seat until or a gubernatorial race until His victory ended the PRI's year hold on the presidency.

He nationalized the oil industry on 18 March , the electricity industry, created the National Polytechnic Institute , and started land reform and the distribution of free textbooks to children. Mexico played a relatively minor role militarily in World War Two in terms of sending troops, but there were other opportunities for Mexico to contribute significantly. Relations between Mexico and the U. Mexico sanctioned businesses and individuals identified by the U. Mexico's biggest contributions to the war effort were in vital war materiel and labor, particularly the Bracero Program , a guest-worker program in the U. There was heavy demand for its exports, which created a degree of prosperity. Much work had already been accomplished between the U. Following losses of oil ships in the Gulf the Potrero del Llano and Faja de Oro to German submarines U and U respectively the Mexican government declared war on the Axis powers on May 30, This group consisted of more than volunteers, who had trained in the United States to fight against Japan.

Fifth Air Force in the last year of the war. With so many draftees, the U. The Bracero Program gave the opportunity for , Mexicans to work temporarily on American farms, especially in Texas. During the next four decades, Mexico experienced impressive economic growth albeit from a low baseline , an achievement historians call " El Milagro Mexicano ", the Mexican Miracle. A key component of this phenomenon was the achievement of political stability, which since the founding of the dominant party, has insured stable presidential succession and control of potentially dissident labor and peasant sections through participation in the party structure.

It was a popular move, but it did not generate further major expropriations. This alliance brought significant economic gains to Mexico. By supplying raw and finished war materials to the Allies, Mexico built up significant assets that in the post-war period could be translated into sustained growth and industrialization. Mexico pursued industrial development, through import substitution industrialization and tariffs against foreign imports. Financing industrialization came from private entrepreneurs, such as the Monterrey group, but the government funded a significant amount through its development bank, Nacional Financiera.

Foreign capital through direct investment was another source of funding for industrialization, much of it from the United States. Commercial agriculture expanded with the growth of exports to the U. In particular, the creation of high yield seeds developed with the funding of the Rockefeller Foundation became what is known as the Green Revolution aimed at expanding commercially oriented, highly mechanized agribusiness.

The Mexico—Guatemala conflict was an armed conflict with Guatemala , in which civilian fishing boats were fired upon by the Guatemalan Air Force. Although PRI administrations achieved economic growth and relative prosperity for almost three decades after World War II, the party's management of the economy led to several crises. Political unrest grew in the late s, culminating in the Tlatelolco massacre in On both occasions, the Mexican peso was devalued, and, until , it was normal to expect a big devaluation and recession at the end of each presidential term.

The "December Mistake" crisis threw Mexico into economic turmoil—the worst recession in over half a century. On 19 September , an earthquake 8. Estimates of the number of dead range from 6, to 30, As a result, for the first time since the s, the PRI began to face serious electoral challenges. A phenomenon of the s was the growth of organized political opposition to de facto one-party rule by the PRI. The National Action Party PAN , founded in and until the s a marginal political party and not a serious contender for power, began to gain voters, particularly in Mexico's north. They made gains in local elections initially, but in the PAN candidate for the governorship of Chihuahua had a good chance of winning.

Although the PRI's candidate became governor, the widespread perception of electoral fraud, criticism by the archbishop of Chihuahua, and a more mobilized electorate made the victory costly to the PRI. The Mexican general election was extremely important in Mexican history. The PRI's candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari , an economist who was educated at Harvard, had never held an elected office, and who was a technocrat with no direct link to the legacy of the Mexican Revolution even through his family. The election was marked by irregularities on a massive scale. During the vote count, the government computers were said to have crashed, something the government called "a breakdown of the system".

One observer said, "For the ordinary citizen, it was not the computer network but the Mexican political system that had crashed. In , President Ernesto Zedillo faced the "December Mistake" crisis , triggered by a sudden devaluation of the peso. There were public demonstrations in Mexico City and a constant military presence after the rising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Chiapas. The peso stabilized at 6 pesos per dollar. By , the economy was growing, and in , Mexico repaid, ahead of schedule, all U. Treasury loans. Zedillo oversaw political and electoral reforms that reduced the PRI's hold on power. After the election , which was strongly disputed and arguably lost by the government, the IFE Instituto Federal Electoral — Federal Electoral Institute was created in the early s.

Run by ordinary citizens, the IFE oversees elections with the aim of ensuring that they are conducted legally and impartially. Mexico has a free market economy that recently entered the trillion-dollar class. Recent administrations have expanded competition in sea ports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is one-quarter that of the United States; income distribution remains highly unequal. Accused many times of blatant fraud, the PRI held almost all public offices until the end of the 20th century. Not until the s did the PRI lose its first state governorship , an event that marked the beginning of the party's loss of hegemony. Emphasizing the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, integrate with the U.

Though Fox's victory was due in part to popular discontent with decades of unchallenged PRI hegemony, also, Fox's opponent, president Zedillo, conceded defeat on the night of the election—a first in Mexican history. Nonetheless, the transfer of power in was quick and peaceful. Fox was a very strong candidate, but an ineffective president who was weakened by PAN's minority status in Congress. Historian Philip Russell summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of Fox as president:. The decision to intensify drug enforcement operations has led to an ongoing conflict between the federal government and the Mexican drug cartels.

Major drug syndicates control the majority of drug trafficking in the country, and Mexico is a significant money-laundering center. These two gods when combined together equaled Ometeotl, for his-and-her spirit infused everything, and could never be separated from any its divine creations. In the future, many other gods would also split themselves into multiple variations of themselves which existed side by side. But instead of weakening the original, they empowered it. These offshoots of each god were known as his or her manifestations. The masculine partnered with the feminine thus became the first example of how two opposite forces could merge together to create life. This Divine Couple embraced their roles as complimentary opposites. The Lord ruled over the forces of daytime, with its vaporous and ethereal elements of fire and air.

He dressed in a cloak of blood red, representing the dawn. The Lady was nocturnal, ruling by moonlight over the cool and weighty elements of earth and water. She wore a black gown which twinkled with all the stars of the cosmos. They were equal and they were perfection together. In the days of the ancients, the Aztecs saw the world above us as divided into thirteen different zones and heavens.

Each was layered one upon the other as they transcended above the realms that we can see and feel, on up until they disappeared in the unknowable dominions of the gods, the children of the Divine Couple. The first and lowest fundament of all was the surface of the earth. The second story was up in the sky where the beloved god of rain named Tlaloc performed his work, with his lush clouds kissing the mountaintops he ruled. Tlaloc was joined in his stratum by the orbit of the moon, which the Aztecs compared to a delicate little wire arch that grew into a large red millstone as the month rolled by. The third level was the expanse of the stars and the Milky Way.

In the evening, the ancients imagined the Lady of Duality, Omecihuatl, as casting her luminous, black vast mantle of stars over and across the dome of night. A magnificent god, this was the course he travelled as he rose from his palace of light in the east and travelled through his skyway triumphantly, until he plunged in the west through the crust of the earth and down into the midnight of the underworld. Above the moon, the stars, and the sun, the fifth region belonged all alone to a suprising master: the planet we know as Venus. The Aztecs saw its appearance and disappearance as that of two powerful twin brothers trading off duties, gods who we will hear much more about.

His twin brother Xolotl SHOW-lowtle later appeared at dusk as the Evening Star, and as he set he pursued the sun below the horizon, passing away and following him down into the land of the dead. This was the most distant orbit that human eyes were able to see. The seventh Black Heaven was a vacant cloak of perpetual midnight. Above it was the tranquility of the radiant eighth Blue Heaven: Its brilliant, everlasting azure was that of the meridian daylight at its most lucid; a sunless sky at its brightest and bluest. And frowning above this cerulean serenity was the ninth heaven: A turbulent world of storms, where discord and strife clashed in a realm of primal chaos. Although the Lord and Lady of Duality were soon to merge and unify the forces of darkness and light, these realms remained permanently split into the stark contrast of opposition.

These were the elevated dwelling places of the gods themselves. However, the knowledge of which divinity chose what heaven for their abode was and remains a mystery. From this eminence the gods would hear mortal prayers and descend to earth in physical form. Although exceedingly remote within such majesty, the Divine Couple played not only a powerful but a tender and intimate part in human life. It was they who would determine not just the birthday but the fundamental destiny of each and every mortal as we enter the world. These levels of the cosmos were reflected in a towering temple the Aztecs built to Ometeotl.

This tower had one story for each layer of the heavens, and the highest was black and studded with stars. Ometeotl never felt love or anger for mortals, but was aloof and ambivalent to our existence, finding completion in itself. He was the god of springtime and rejuvenation, of fertility itself, and his skin was the color blood red. He was the lord of darkness, the biggest of the four brothers, and some would say the most terrible of them.

When in the form of a man he shone as white as a star, but often he soared through the sky as a giant serpent covered in plumes of emerald green. With the appearance of these four new gods, eternity started to be counted in the years, and the vastness of space was separated into dark waters below a midnight sky. Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the Divine Couple, entrusted their sons with unique creative powers of their own. Six hundred years passed by in divine tranquility. Since the dawn of time, the order of duality had always held the universe in harmonious balance. But now the new gods were proving restless, and the tensions between them were ever growing.

It was this tension the world had been waiting for. Under the Lord and Lady of Duality opposites were often found to be complementary to each other, and when these dynamic forces strained away from each other, the result was often a bursting of creations. The four brother gods assembled together at last. They debated what work needed to be done, how to organize their duties, and which laws they would establish and agree to follow. Of all the gods, no relationship was more volatile than that of the two greatest, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. Since they were both offshoots of the same great spirit, they could sometimes work together as allies. But their destinies more often called on them to strive against each other as eternal rivals.

Now in these days, beneath the dark and swirling heavens there was no land to be found, just the endless surface of the water. As it happens, these brothers were no longer alone in the cosmos. At the horizon where the sea meets sky, an endless waterfall poured steadily down from the levels of heaven, filling up the ocean. It was down this primeval cascade a hideous goddess made her way. She was a colossal, amphibious monster, as broad and loathsome as a toad. Spiny, taloned, and with a huge toothy maw, she had crocodilian ridges along her back that stretched like great mountain ranges.

Her body was covered over with alarming eyes where no eyes should be. Being eternally hungry she even had beastly jaws at her elbows, jaws at her knees, and jaws at her wrists, snapping at the air when there was nothing left to bite. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca said to each other that they could not complete their work of forming the earth with such a horrendous creature in their midst. No sooner was this agreed upon when they were struck by an idea: They could mold the earth using the body of Tlaltecuhtli herself. Peering into the dark water the two brothers could see the female monster swimming far below. To entice her to come to the surface Tezcatlipoca wiggled his mighty foot above the water as a bait. This event would ripple forever through the ages for, as it happens, Tezcatlipoca would one day become the most powerful god on earth, and neither he nor anyone would forget this mutilation.

Enraged, Tezcatlipoca seized the monster by her mouth and, pulling violently, tore her lower jaw from her skull. Unable to close her mouth, Tlaltecuhtli was now trapped on the surface of the water. The two brothers quickly transformed themselves into a pair of enormous serpents. Quetzalcoatl seized the goddess by the right hand and the left foot, while Tezcatlipoca bound her from the left hand to the right foot, forming a sort of cross along her body. Wrestling with the immense deity, the two pulled violently at Tlaltecuhtli until finally she was torn in two pieces. Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl left one half of her body floating on the water to make the earth. Her other half they carried victoriously up to heaven, with which they formed the watery dome of the sky.

To their minds she had been chaos itself, and her transformation seemed to reintroduce a kind of order to the world. Far from being proud of their sons, however, the Divine Couple were furious with the violent slaying and dismembering of Tlaltecuhtli. They ordered all the gods to descend to where her shambled remains lay floating, in order to console her spirit and try to make amends with her. The Lord and Lady of Duality ordered that from her body would spring a new and abundant form of life. This was the first vegetation. Her hair sprouted into trees and flowers, while dainty grasses billowed from her skin. From her sorrowful eyes came springs and fountains, from her mouths deep caverns and mighty rivers.

Her shoulders pushed up to form the mountains, and around her nose was found their rolling valleys. But one feature had not changed. Those hungry mouths were still everywhere, biting at her own lips and moaning with hunger. True, when it rained she was refreshed. When flowers shriveled, trees fell down, or an animal quietly returned to dust she found a form of sustenance. But she demanded more than being polluted every day with worldly filth and refuse. In time, the nutrition that she would come to demand and depend on above all others would be the hearts of human beings. The ancients believed that when men were killed in combat or were offered up as victims on the stone of sacrifice, Tlaltecuhtli greedily drank their blood.

Sometimes late at night, they said, when the wind blows you could still hear her weeping, whispering for our flesh. She would not be silenced without such offerings, nor bear fruit without an irrigation of the blood of men. The ancients found a poetic way to honor Tlaltecuhtli: At first it seems as if the Aztecs carved sculptures of every god but her. Meanwhile, the Divine Couple was busy as well. They formed the formless darkness into a sacred night, and pinpointed the light into twinkling stars.

At the horizon, the night sky curled down to join with the water, as if it were a house whose walls were made of the sea, and the black water and stars mingled in the heavenly vault. S OON after the formation of the earth and sky, other gods began to appear in the heavens. One was Tlaloc, the god of rain who poured forth fresh springs from the mountaintops. Although he looked fearsome, with large sharp canines and a goggled mask, he was a very giving and benevolent god. As he was also the god of time, the march of time itself was now divided into the days and months.

The spirits next soared up into the sky, dividing the heavens into thirteen levels, and they dove down to the center of the earth, sculpting the underworld into nine dark regions. Although the sky had been hoisted high above the water, it still would need four pillars to prop and brace it up securely. The four original brothers traveled to each of the four compass points. These gods conjured up four impossibly tall trees, higher than the peaks of mountains. So tall in fact that they became known as the World Trees. Now the looming, watery dome of the sky overhead was stabilized in their mighty, interwoven branches. The gods decided to create a new, perishable race that would resemble the gods in form and serve them on the earth.

To begin with, they created a prototype: The first two human beings. Oxomoco cultivated the fields while Cipactonal busied herself with spinning and weaving. As the first human children of such illustrious parents, this happy couple was sparked with a divine fire. When their time on earth was spent, their spirits were not sent tumbling into the Underworld but were lifted into the heavens to forever live as immortals among the gods. A T last the earth had been completed, sculpted into mountains and valleys, and all was much as we know it today. There was just one massive omission: The sun. The gods assembled in a conclave down on earth to create the first sun together. But soon they would have to agree on which god would escort it up through the sky; a tremendous honor.

Unsurprisingly, several gods coveted that duty. The gods stood in a large circle facing each other and stretched their hands forward. Together they summoned a new light from the depths of the cosmos, and they began to gather it up into a ball. When the disc of the sun was complete, all the gods stepped backward to admire what they had created together. With a leap, Tezcatlipoca rose up into the sky, and the first dawn was born. Finally they looked at each other and shrugged. After all, Tezcatlipoca was so powerful. Tezcatlipoca was victorious, but his sun was not the glory that we know today. It did shine, but dimly and dark red, about as half as bright as nowadays. It did rise, but when it reached the zenith the sun would start to sputter and go out, having only enough power for the first half of its course.

These giants were so powerful they could rip trees up by the roots. They knew no crops. The giants lived only on acorns they gathered from the tree tops. They were so big, in fact, that they were afraid to crouch down or lean over, scared of collapsing under their own weight. For long years the Smoking Mirror, Tezcatlipoca, ruled in this dismal fashion. The other gods realized they had made a mistake, that this first run of the cosmos was a failure. The people were too big and the sun too small. Wielding a gigantic staff, he rose up and attacked Tezcatlipoca, knocking him from the sky.

The dark god plummeted into the ocean and disappeared. Then from the water there came a great boiling and churning. A smoldering Tezcatlipoca rose from the ocean in the form of an angry and enormous jaguar. If he could not rule over these creations, he was determined to destroy them. These were feared as nocturnal monsters which drew their powers from the earth. With this army he went on a rampage.

The jaguars devoured all of the unhappy giants and cast the world into darkness once again. Much later, the Aztecs would believe that the fossils they discovered were left over from this destruction. The Aztecs were able to watch it recreate the fall of the first sun, as it disappeared into the Pacific every night. As it happens, the widespread jaws of the earth monster Tlaltecuhtli lay waiting for it. The sun was swallowed by her and during the night it passed eastward through the bowels of the underworld. Dethroned from the sky, Tezcatlipoca turned his energies to the earth. He created a new and smaller race on earth, people the size of modern humans. First he sculpted four hundred men, and after that he crafted a mere four women. These early people ate handfuls of pine nuts and the harsh mesquite for food, and they lived a hard life.

To satisfy her, Tezcatlipoca ordered these men to learn the arts of warfare. They were instructed to do battle not with the goal of killing their opponents, but to capture them and bring them home where they would be offered to Tlaltecuhtli as a human sacrifice on the altar stone. The fields of battle where the first blood fell became the meadows where the earth lady sent forth grateful shoots. Tezcatlipoca suffered Quetzalcoatl to rule for as long as he himself had ruled.

But once the years had passed, the time had come to end it. He attacked the wind god with a tremendous kick, and the second sun was knocked from his firmament. Quetzalcoatl plummeted toward earth, picking up speed as he fell. As he tore through the atmosphere the god swirled up a mighty windstorm. For days, the force of a hurricane swept across the earth. Homes were dashed apart, trees blown flat, and the warlike residents were thrown to the winds. A few were spared by scrambling to the tops of trees, clinging to their flexible branches, but even these were transformed by the gods into monkeys. It was they who would repopulate the species. It was time for a third sun to rule the skies and now old Tlaloc, the rain god, took his turn. After relatively peaceful years Quetzalcoatl convinced Xiuhtecuhtli, the god of fire, to put an end to it.

One morning, as if in a cynical tribute to the Sun of Rain, Xiuhtecuhtli let fall his own precipitation: A rain of fire. Lava, flames, burning sand, and volcanic rock blazed from the sky, consuming everything in the inferno. The few who miraculously survived were transformed into wild turkeys. Just as before, one human pair was saved by imitating their clever ancestors who hid in a cave. After a day-long blaze, the sun himself finally succumbed to the heat and went up in smoke. It began to seem as if all creation and all destruction in the universe would simply be cosmic battles between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl.

Life was prosperous, but melancholy: It rained all the time. Three hundred and twelve years passed by of nibbling grass corn, sitting, and staring at the rain. After weeks went by it became obvious it was unnatural. Did it come from Tezcatlipoca? Was he exacting his revenge upon his rival? Or was Chalchiuhtlicue overdoing her own watery bounty for reasons known only to her? First the lakes and then even the ocean continued to rise and rise. People were evacuated to the mountaintops to escape the flood, but at last even these high peaks washed over. In the end, even the exhausted heavens finally collapsed onto the earth, and the tempest was over.

First by monsters of the earth, then by air, then by fire, and lastly by water. But life on earth was not quite through. There was one man and one woman left alive on earth. No one has ever claimed to be able to peer into the mind of the inscrutable Tezcatlipoca. But although that god had so often been indifferent to the lives of mortals, for a reason known only to him he had shown affection to a certain human couple just before the flood.

Thus, when the flood arrives, you will be safe. When the last of the kernels are gone you will find that your tree trunk has stopped rocking, and the water has receded from the earth. Obediently they nibbled their corn cobs, finding that just a little in fact went a long way. After many days of the deluge their vessel finally lodged on a high hill and they found that they were safe. But while they were finding their land-legs again they saw something they had never seen before: A fish, one of their unfortunate brethren left behind by the flood.

Tata and Nene had grown used to corn by now, and were tempted by the promise of this new and exotic food. So Tata took some splinters of wood and began to twirl them rapidly between his hands. A little smoke appeared from this fire drill, then fire. The couple happily began to roast the fish in what they thought of as yet one more new discovery. But while they were feasting, meanwhile the black smoke was rising up into the heavens.

As luck would have it, the telltale plume was noticed by none less than the Divine Couple—Star-Shine and Starry-Skirt. It was as if they had been preparing a sort of human sacrifice to the gods from their kindred fish, but why was the Smoking Mirror so angry? Was it because instead of fasting as would be appropriate for such a penance they were about to consume the burnt offering themselves?

Or because to create a fire without asking for a blessing from the gods was in itself a transgression? Or worst of all was their sin of having directly disobeyed Tezcatlipoca? Disgusted, the god struck off their heads, attached them to their bottoms, and transformed the two of them into a pair of dogs for having behaved like animals. Granted, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl had been the agents of destruction through four ages of man.

But for now they agreed to meet once more not as adversaries but as allies. At the destruction of the fourth sun, the celestial vault had collapsed onto the earth and would need to be restored to proper height. Although the sky below it was filled with the elements or air and fire, the blue dome itself was actually as heavy as earth and swollen with water, for it had been created from a part of Tlaltecuhtli. Having collapsed back onto the mountains, it would take a tremendous effort to lift it again.

The two gods traveled across the earth in opposite directions until they reached the horizon. From there, Tezcatlipoca entered the goddess Tlaltecuhtli through her mouth and Quetzalcoatl entered through her navel. Next they passed through the underworld towards each other, until they finally met up in her heart. Here they took root and began to grow skywards, transforming themselves into two saplings. Up, up they grew, pushing through the earth and lifting the sky with them, until as two great new World Trees they supported the firmament once more with their mighty limbs.

Leaving the World Trees to their duty, the two spirits leapt from the trunks and set about reconstructing the damaged earth. Tezcatlipoca used his wooden fire drill to kindle many small flames, relighting all of the extinguished stars in the night sky to honor the Lord and Lady of Duality once more. When the earth was restored to her former glory, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca rose into the sky from the edges of the world and traveled across the re-illuminated universe. Meeting each other at the center of heaven, they stood side by side and proclaimed themselves the rulers of all that lay before them. The Divine Couple was pleased. To honor their two sons for their efforts, they unfolded the Milky Way, to be a road for Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl as lords of the heavens.

E IGHT years after the great downpour, the last of the flood tides had drained away. Once again the world was cold, dark, and deserted. A council was held in heaven, and all of the gods attended. Their kingdom of the dead was quite bustling by now. The heavenly council agreed that recreating humankind was the first priority. One answer may be that the gods were simply not masters without mortals to serve and worship them. The other may be that, like Tlaltecuhtli, the gods were finding a hunger inside them that only the vitality of humans could fill. The council decided that one of their number must make a journey down into Mictlan Meek-TLAWN , the underworld, to search for the bones of humans who had died in an earlier age.

These precious bones once brought up to heaven might then be magically resurrected into a pair of living beings. Quetzalcoatl, the god of wind, was chosen for the quest. Quetzalcoatl departed, travelling north into the great steppes——a chilly, twilight country. Here the entrance to Mictlan lay through a large, deep cave. Xolotl took the form of a large dog. He offered to serve his brother as a guide through Mictlan, with which he was very familiar. Descending cautiously into the underworld, Quetzalcoatl passed beneath the rocks and roots of trees into a dangerous place, daunting even to the god who had long ago helped create it.

It was damp and cavernous, and moist with excrement where insects fed and bodies rotted. He dropped deeper and deeper through the nine levels of the kingdom of the dead, until he reached the throne room of the Lord and Lady of Mictlan. There they sat, in all their hideousness, surrounded by owls and the webs of spiders. Their clothing was made from bones, and they wore frightening masks made from broad-jawed skulls. Quetzalcoatl presented himself before these two grim gods, and without so much as a polite introduction to the king and queen of this realm he got right down to business. Quetzalcoatl told him of the divine plan.

What Mictlantecuhtli handed Quetzalcoatl, however, was no instrument——just a plain shell, with no holes at all. Quetzalcoatl was not to be outsmarted now. They quickly burrowed through the conch as if it were made of earth. Quetzalcoatl called next to the bees, which came swarming down the tunnels. They buzzed into the trumpet, making it sound, while Quetzalcoatl the god of wind breezed four times through craggy Mictlan as light as a feather. When Mictlantecuhtli heard the trumpet roar he admitted defeat.

The bones are yours. Take them. Finding a good specimen of a man and a woman, he gathered their bones together and tied them up in a bundle. Meanwhile, Mictlantecuhtli was having second thoughts. There was something else: Though we can never know, it may have been that Quetzalcoatl was intending this generation of humans to be special, that——being the final race of mankind——they would live forever. If this were true Mictlantecuhtli was right to be nervous, for death was like birth to him. His kingdom was filled with subjects to do his bidding, and they were right where they belonged——underground. He may have them for a while, but he must bring them back.

They are mine once and for all, and they must live forever. Tell them you will leave them here. I am leaving the bones here! But Quetzalcoatl was running up to earth as fast as he could. Spirits, can Quetzalcoatl really be carrying away our precious bones? If you let them get away they will never come back. Spirits, hurry! Go and dig a grave for him. Stopping in a dark part of the catacombs where they knew he must soon pass, the spirits dug a deep pit into the earth and hid. Quetzalcoatl, running on foot with his bundle, soon came upon it. Suddenly a flock of quail burst out from the cave and flew up in his face.

Quetzalcoatl was startled by these birds of the underworld and he tripped on a rock, dropping like a dead man into the pit. The world spun around him and went black. When Quetzalcoatl came to, he found the bundle had torn open and the precious bones were scattered everywhere. The quail were still present, and to his horror he saw them nibbling and gnawing at the bones. Because the bones had been broken, we are today the flawed and ill-proportioned creatures that we are, some greater and some smaller.

Worst of all however, by eating of our flesh the birds of the dead land claimed and corrupted our tissue, meaning that humankind must return to the lord of Mictlan after all. Quetzalcoatl wept. You cannot change it. They will be undone. Gathering them up, such as they were, he finally escaped the underworld and the saw the light of the stars once more. The god carried them up to the heavens. When he arrived in the home of the gods he was greeted a very powerful goddess named Cihuacoatl See-wah-COH-ahtl. Her name means "Lady Serpent," and she was the most feared and respected goddess of them all——dark, ruthless, and militant.

Cihuacoatl took the bones from the depleted Quetzalcoatl and she kneeled down by her hearth. There she ground the bones on her mortar as if they were made of so much corn, and poured the bone meal into a beautiful jade urn. Quetzalcoatl was a powerful creator god, but even gods looked for assistance. Several gods joined Quetzalcoatl around this vessel while he prepared to perform an act of self-sacrifice. Drawing out a sharp needle, the god steeled himself and pushed the length of it through the end of his penis. As the drops of blood welled up he let them fall into the urn of bone. Through an act of divine magic this blood fertilized the ground bone meal. From this blood-moistened dough, the body of a baby boy began to take form. He was followed some time later by the appearance of a little girl.

The circle of deities rejoiced. We bled for them, and they shall bleed for us! By our creation the gods became masters of children of their own, and we were born their vassals and debtors. To pretend to be independent from them was the sign of a dangerous ego run wild. The gods could now celebrate a great victory: Humans were returned to the face of the earth! But, fragile as they were, the gods also knew they must quickly find something suitable for them to live on. The spirits convened in heaven once more. But where to find this rich food now, there was no god who could or would say. In no time at all, his sharp eyes spied a little red ant. Her name was Azcatl AWS-cawtle and she was carrying a single kernel of corn in her jaws.

He dropped down before her. Quetzalcoatl transformed himself into a black ant and followed her to this hill. Once inside, an astonished Quetzalcoatl beheld that the mountain was hollow, and filled like a vault with all kinds of seeds and grains. There were corn, peppers, beans, and all the bounty that Mexico enjoys which had been concealed for eons. Quetzalcoatl lifted a few kernels of corn with the assistance of the little red ant Azcatl, and carried them out of the mountain. Returning to his natural form, he carried his helper with her precious cargo up to heaven where the gods were waiting. These deities had become as loving and as doting as a mother bird to the infant humans.

The gods themselves chewed up the corn for the babies and placed it in their little mouths to give them strength. After the failure of this heroic yet presumably humbling attempt, the gods decided to ask the advice of the oldest humans of them all, Oxomoco and Cipactonal. This was the first man and woman ever created, who had been granted eternal life even before the first sun had ever risen.

This immortal couple had by now lived to a very ripe old age indeed. By studying the astrological calendar and practicing therapeutic magic, they had become experts in curative witchcraft and the art of soothsaying. Commissioned by the gods to answer their pressing question, Oxomoco and Cipactonal consulted the very substance that was sought: They cast a handful of corn kernels into a bowl of water, in order to divine the future from its patterns. From this augury, the husband and wife could positively state that the god named Nanahuatzin Nah-nah-WAT-seen must throw down a bolt of lightning to crack open Mount Sustenance.

The gods must have been surprised, for Nanahuatzin was an unlikely candidate. Despite this, he was rumored by some to be the son of Quetzalcoatl himself. Nanahuatzin, though modest and humble, obediently did as he was asked. It was a success! The mountain split wide open, and the peppers, the sage leaves, the beans, and all came spilling out through the rift. Over everything poured the black, white, yellow, and red grains of corn that had been so coveted.

This magnificent cornucopia lasted but a moment, however, as he who had hidden such bounty finally revealed himself——Tlaloc, the god of rain, who would by no means permit the priceless crops he had so jealously guarded to be released from his stewardship. He sent in his diminutive assistants, spirits called the Tlaloque TLAW-low-kay who looked very much like their master right down to his distinctive mask but were much smaller. From the four directions they whistled down the wind; blue and yellow, white and red they came. The Tlaloque rushed to the spilled wealth of grains, hastily gathering up every last seed, and spirited them away before the other gods could claim them for their own. Since then he has been the real dispenser not only of the rain but of the crops as well.

Tlaloc would only give a portion of both rain and grain each year at his discretion, though some years less than others. Tlaloc was worshipped as a kind-hearted god, but in some years even he would demand an exchange in offerings of human blood. T HE year, by modern reckoning was Now the earth was rebuilt, the humans were restored to life, corn had been discovered and was in the right hands, and yet still the earth was chilly and dark.

The time had come to inaugurate a fifth sun. But the sentiment amongst the gods was bittersweet, for they knew that this fifth sun would be their last. For reasons we will never know, it was understood by the gods that this fifth sun would be the final one, and once it burned out like the others there would never be another one. The gods descended into this perpetual midnight to debate which of their number should be the final sun to light the world. There they kindled a blaze to warm them, which spread into a great bonfire. Which of us will take it upon himself to leap into the fire, to become the fifth sun and bring the dawn? The other gods however insisted on having a second contender, just to be sure.

As they all stared into the hot coals, however, fear began to grow in many of their hearts. While some of the most popular and powerful gods were excusing themselves and stepping back from the heat, one god humbly stood his ground and just listened: Nanahuatzin, he who had broken open Mount Sustenance with the fire serpent. No, there was no equality among the gods. Some were wealthy and powerful, while others were poor and trampled on. Like a stoic warrior, he prepared to pay his debt on behalf of the gods. Now that the future sun and his understudy had been selected, they were ordered to purify themselves through acts of penance. Two enormous pyramids were constructed by the gods, for Tecuciztecatl and Nanahuatzin to fast and prepare themselves upon.

These can still be seen in the ruins of Teotihuacan, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. The great bonfire burned on for four days such as days could be counted, when all the world was in a predawn darkness. All that time the two gods kept their vigil.

I am off to destroy him. There was something else: Though we can never know, it may have Lawrence Exeter Jr.: A Short Story that Quetzalcoatl was intending this generation of humans to be special, that——being Aztec Empire Turning Points final race of mankind——they would live forever. In spite of his ineptitude, Gob continues to Aztec Empire Turning Points to incorporate live doves into his illusionsand it never goes well. Alegre, Robert F. The war lasted why did roald dahl write books October 2, to April 21, Retrieved 16 October