Tlatelolco (Mexico City)

Tlatelolco is a district of Mexico City, located in the center of the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. It belongs to the Delegación Cuauhtémoc in the heart of the Mexican capital.

History

Tlaltelolco was originally an independent city-state in the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, which was on an island in Lake Texcoco. In 1473 he was, however, conquered by Axayacatl, the ruler of the neighboring Tenochtitlan and collected by the Aztec metropolis, thus became a twin city.

In the course of time, Tlatelolco became the largest and most important market of Tenochtitlán and thus formed the counterpart to his religious center, which was primarily dominated by the Templo Mayor.

The market where a variety of goods were traded from all parts of the Aztec Empire, probably the most important market in the entire pre-Columbian America was: descriptions Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Hernán Cortés ' according to which he should have been greater with its estimated 20,000 to 40,000 dealers than any other market which the Spanish conquistadors had received until then to face, and also larger than the contemporary Seville.

At the conquest of Tenochtitlán by the Spanish conquistadors on August 13, 1521 Tlatelolco was the last bastion, in which the Aztecs were retreated under their leader Cuauhtemoc and finally defeated for good. Here, more than 40,000 men, women and children have lost their lives.

Remnants of the pre-Hispanic city center and the colonial times Monastery are accessible through excavations and restorations at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas.

Important events

The Treaty of Tlatelolco was signed on February 14, 1967 here with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean declared their territories for nuclear-free zone.

On 2 October 1968, the Plaza de las Tres Culturas scene of the massacre at Tlatelolco, in which more than 300 students who had participated in a protest rally, were killed by the army and the police just before the start of the Olympic Games.