Totonacas
The Totonac Indians. By the time, the Spaniards arrived on the Gulf Coast of Mexico in 1519, the Totonac Indians occupied a province known as Totonacapan, which stretched through the central part of Veracruz and the Zacatlan district of the present-day state of Puebla. Occupying some fifty towns and boasting a population of a quarter million people, the Totonacs spoke four primary dialects. Their capital, Cempoala, located five miles inland from the present city of Veracruz, had a population of about 25,000.
During the Fifteenth Century and the early years of the Sixteenth Century, the mighty Aztec Empire, ruled by the Mexica Indians from their capital city Tenochtitlán, began a concerted effort to subdue and incorporate the rich coastal areas into their domain. Eventually, Veracruz, along with portions of the neighboring states, would make up the Aztec provinces of Tochtepec, Cuetlaxtlan, Cempoallan, Quauhtochco, Jalapa, Misantla, and Tlatlauhquitepec.
After their conquest by the Mexica ruler Axayácatl in 1480, the Totonacs were incorporated into the Aztec provinces of Cempoallan, Misantla and Xalapa. These areas, with an abundance of water and fertile land, were richly endowed with a wide array of vegetation and crops, including cedars, fruits, cotton, cacao, maize, beans, and squashes. In pre-Hispanic times, cotton was a very significant crop, which the Totonacs used to make cotton armor. As tribute to their Aztec masters, the Totonacs sent cloth, clothing, maize, foodstuffs, honey and wax to Tenochtitlán.
The province of Cempoallan, and its associated Totonac towns and fortifications, could mobilize up to 50,000 warriors at a time. The natives of Cempoallan, incited by the neighboring Tlaxcalans (who remained an independent enclave within the Aztec Empire), continuously rebelled against their Mexica overlords. Even the last Mexica emperor Moctezuma II spent the early years of his reign leading campaigns against the Indians of Veracruz.
The Aztec Province of Xalapa (Jalapa), also inhabited by Totonac Indians, was only added to the Mexica domain by Moctezuma II in the years preceding the Spanish contact. Jalapa stood along a major route between the coast and Tenochtitlán and was rich agricultural territory, with maize and chilies as its prominent crops. The city of Jalapa is now the capital of Veracruz. Both the Aztecs and the Spaniards recognized this area as a rich prize ripe for conquest.
The Totonacs were the first natives whom Captain Hernán Cortés met upon his landing on the Gulf Coast near present-day Veracruz. Being compelled by the Mexica to the payment of a heavy tribute, including the frequent seizure of their people for slaves or for sacrifice in the bloody Aztec rites, the Totonac were ripe for revolt, and their king, Tlacochcalcatl, eagerly welcomed Cortés and promised the support of his fifty thousand warriors against Emperor Moctezuma and the Aztec Empire. The Spaniards helped the Totonacs to expel Moctezuma's tribute-collectors in Totonacapan who apparently fled to a Mexica garrison at Tizapancingo, about twenty miles to the southwest. With a full force of Spaniards, 16 horses, and Totonacs, Cortés seized control of Tizapancingo.
