The Altepetl: The Spanish Civilization

When the New World was “discovered,” it it was likely a surprise to the millions of indigenous people that occupied the the land. “Before the Spaniards’ arrival, central Mexico had been a densely populated, urbanized, sedentary civilization. City states, or altepetl, had dotted the landscape, allied with or opposed to the the dominant Mexica. (Owensby Empire 24). The Spaniards did not find an empty continent, they found an advanced and organized civilization. At the root of this civilization was the altepetl: a decentralized, cellular, coercive labor system. Each “cell” had a king, a market and a temple. Altepetl’s were organized into smaller calpollis, which had their own king, market and temple. Tribute from coercive labor flowed from calpolli, to altepetl, to the Tlatoani (king). …show more content…
. .” (Nahuas after Conquest 436). Lockhart argues that the Spanish ways were very similar to the preexisting Nahua organization, which allowed for a more gradual transition into the Spanish encomienda system: Essentially, then, the altepetl survived into postconquest times as the basis for all the most important institutional forms affecting life in the indigenous countryside, away from Spanish cities. A simple altepetl could expect to become, with unchanged borders and constituent parts, first an encomienda, then (in addition) a parish, then also a Spanish- style municipal organization (29).
The cellular structure of the altepetl system allowed components of Nahua culture to survive conquest because callpollis could still retain relative autonomy and allowed he Nahua altepetl to transform into the Spanish