Mexico-Tenochtitlan: un modelo de ciudad renacentista

Abstract

Tenochtitlan was a City of Mesoamerican tradition that accumulated great political and economic power and was thus perceived by the Spanish upon their arrival in Mexican territory. Its central position and prestige we recapitalized of by Cortés to adapt it to his own aims. Since 1519 he knew that it was necessary to conquer the capital of the Mexica people not only for the glory of the Spanish Kingdom, but also with the determination to transform it into the head of a new Spain, as well as the first viceregal capital of the New World. This paper reviews the achievements of the Mexica state in urban terms and contrasts them with the concept of Christian city that was intended to be applied. Considering the stereotyped model of the Renaissance city that the Spanish brought with them, it is possible to know the pretensions carried out in the first spatial transformation that Mexico City would face after 1521.