Teotihuacán became one of the most complex and influential societies in the commercial landscape of all Mesoamerica, this was achieved thanks to the thrust of its agriculture and the exploitation of its natural resources. Here we will learn how the economy of the Teotihuacanos.
Economy of the Teotihuacanos
The Teotihuacan civilization was a pre-Columbian civilization that was based in Mesoamerica within Mexican territory approximately between the XNUMXst century BC and the XNUMXth century after Christ. It is estimated that at its peak it had an approximate population of more than one hundred twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The economy of the Teotihuacanos was based mainly on agricultural exploitation, but the exploitation of natural resources, the hunting of wild animals and the raising of domestic animals, mining and tributes were also of great importance.
The city of Teotihuacán was considered the first great economic center of the region, exerting a primordial influence on the commerce of the area. The advantages offered by the valley of five hundred square kilometers where the city was based to the newcomers were many. In its best times, the surrounding mountains were populated by dense pine and oak forests. Pastures and xerophytic scrub proliferated on its slopes, the latter composed mainly of magueyes and nopales.
To complete a fertile alluvial plain, it was permanently irrigated by numerous springs and by runoff from the San Juan, San Lorenzo, and Huixulco rivers. Along its channels there were galleries of ailes, ahuehuetes and ahuejotes, as well as thick tulares.
Teotihuacán exploited the natural and agricultural resources of much of the Valley of Mexico. Around the year one hundred after Christ it had become a prosperous city, which later came to house a multiethnic population of over one hundred and twenty thousand people. At the same time, its influence spread rapidly over large areas of Mesoamerica during the Early Classic Horizon, which extended from the year zero to the year six hundred after Christ.
He established relatively long-lasting contacts with the Zapotec capital of Monte Albán, with certain socio-political entities from the lower basin of the Pánuco River and the Gulf Coast, also from the Guerrero Michoacán area and most likely from San Luis Potosí. It also maintained different levels of political relationship with the area dominated by the Mayans.
These relations served to facilitate the flow of exotic and highly valued raw materials such as green stone, turquoise, shell, slate, mica, feathers, cocoa and others, or also of prestigious and luxury goods such as ceramics, luxury handicrafts, textiles of cotton and others, which were required mainly by the ideology and the political and religious rituals of the elites of the Teotihuacán society.
Agriculture
Agriculture was the fundamental activity on which the Teotihuacan economy was based and with which a level of development was achieved that led them to exploit other branches. The main crops were mainly corn, tomatoes, beans, chilies, cereals and amaranth. The high production of the crops allowed the Teotihuacanos to be self-sufficient and also to market the surplus.
The success of agriculture in the Teotihuacan economy was due to the advanced cultivation techniques that were used, one of the most recognized was the use of chinampas, which were artificial islands that were built on the shores of lakes by means of branches, reeds and fertile silt that were anchored in the bottom of the lakes and trees were planted in them to be able to gain land from the lake, thereby obtaining many kilometers of arable land, which was very fertile and did not need irrigation.
In addition to food crops, the Teotihuacans also cultivated maguey or agave from which they extracted textile fibers that they used to make their clothes and also used it to make pulque.
They used the land of the forests, they cleared them, they burned the grass, they removed the earth and they also took advantage of the slopes of the mountains building terraces, conserving the humidity for a long time, for which they achieved better crops and took better advantage of the lands of the high parts. of mountains expanding the crops and protecting them from landslides
For farming they used the planting stick or coa that was widely used throughout the Mesoamerican region by pre-Hispanic peoples, to fertilize the crop fields the silt from the swamps and also the excrement of both animals and human beings were used. .
Hunting and animal husbandry
To complement the diet, the Teotihuacanos dedicated themselves to hunting wild animals, among which were deer, rabbits, certain birds, rabbits, hares, deer, ducks, geese, quail, pigeons, and armadillos. The proximity to Lake Texcoco allowed it to take advantage of fish, turtles, batrachians and countless insects.
The lake also provided him with salt. In addition to hunting wild animals for food, the economy of the Teotihuacans was sustained by hunting wild animals for their skins for their use, but mainly for trade. In the economy of the Teotihuacanos, the breeding of some animals for commercialization was also an important factor, some of them were the xoloitzcuintle dog and the turkey.
Exploitation of natural resources
The economy of the Teotihuacanos and even their culture had a great boost thanks to the obsidian mines, sometimes called volcanic glass, which is a type of igneous rock (volcanic rock belonging to the silicate group). Mesoamerican cultures used obsidian extensively to make sculptures, tools and ornaments, for the lining of the pyramids. A specific type of obsidian blade, with a sharp edge, was a ritual organ for use in human sacrifice, with which priests cut out the hearts of sacrificial victims.
Obsidian was also used to make weapons, such as hardwood swords with obsidian blades embedded in them, known as hadzab among the Mayans, or macuahuitl among the Aztecs. The weapon was capable of inflicting terrible injuries by combining the sharp blades of obsidian with the jagged cut of a saw weapon.
The polytheistic religion that reigned throughout Mesoamerica made the manufacture of sculptures and religious objects constant, which allowed the demand for obsidian as a raw material to always grow. The Teotihuacanos had a monopoly on obsidian production in the region, so any civilization, regardless of its size and importance, that needed the important mineral had to negotiate with them to obtain it.
Stores
As the most important center of commercial activity in the Teotihuacán region, it attracted merchants from all over the region, from the north of what we now know as Mexico to what is known as Guatemala. Most of the sculptures and objects made of obsidian that were found in northern Mexico and in much of South America can be traced back to the mines of that material that were found in the surroundings of Teotihuacán.
This shows us the value that this material had for the area, if we take into account the difficulties for transportation in those times. This explains the boom in the Teotihuacan economy thanks to the exploitation of this mineral. The boom in trade in Teotihuacán is also due to its geographical location, since being a central point of the Mesoamerican region, it was a point of confluence since all the commercial routes crossed it.