Fifth Sun summary

The recording of history was something the Mexica had been doing for centuries before the Spanish arrived. In fact, they had a word for this process in their native Nahuatl language: xiuhpohualli, meaning the yearly collecting of history into annals. 

Every year, communities gathered to take part xiuhpohualli ceremonies. One by one, people came forward to give their account of the past year. These stories were then collected and archived by priests using pictographic symbols representing the rise and fall of emperors, important wars, and natural phenomena.

The Mexica paid a price for the political stability they created. Enduring resentment was felt by the nobility from conquered lands. After a neighboring city-state was captured, the  chief’s daughters would be divided up. Daughters of the more powerful wives were sent back to Tenochtitlan to marry unmarried princes, while daughters of the lower wives were often sold off as slaves.

One such unlucky daughter was called Malinche. Malinche spent her whole childhood serving these foreign masters. 

Moctezuma, the Mexica emperor, was a pragmatic man. 

These strangers were turning his neighbors against him, and threatening the stability of the region. He decided, finally, to grant Cortés the meeting he so desperately wanted. As the two men finally came face to face at the gates of Tenochtitlan, gifts were exchanged. Then, Moctezuma announced that the hospitality of Tenochtitlan lay at the Spaniards’ disposal. By hosting them in his city, Moctezuma would be able to learn more about these powerful newcomers – and identify their weaknesses.

It turned out that superior technology wasn’t the only thing the Spaniards had brought from the Old World. The most recent arrivals had introduced smallpox to Tenochtitlan. 

The devastation spread quickly. Within two months of their heroic victory against the Spanish, more than a quarter of Tenochtitlan’s population was dead.

Cortés, now in control, finally shed any semblance of diplomacy he had previously shown. When indigenous leaders didn’t reveal where they kept their gold, they were tortured. And if not enough gold was found, prisoners of war were branded as slaves – and sent off to the Caribbean to be sold. 

Even women were not spared the violence; many were forced into prostitution. Things got so bad that two years into the new colonial regime, the Spanish King issued a proclamation. His conquistadors were told to dial it back – in particular, to stop their sexual enslavement of indigenous women.