Changing Urban Structure of Mexico City

Mexico City provides a good example of a city in a developing country that has passed through three stages of development: pre-European origin, the European colonial period, and postcolonial independence. The modern city also displays evidence of the models of urban structure.

Precolonial Mexico City

The Aztecs founded Mexico City—which they called Tenochtitlán—on a hill known as Chapultepec (“the hill of the grasshopper”). When forced by others to leave the hill, they migrated a few kilometers south, near the present-day site of the University of Mexico, and then in 1325 to a marshy 10-square-kilometer island in Lake Texcoco.

Precolonial Mexico City Site and Situation

The Aztec city of Tenochtitlán was built on an island in Lake Texcoco. This is a mural in Mexico City’s National Palace painted by Diego Rivera.

The node of religious life was the Great Temple (Figure 13-43). Three causeways with drawbridges linked Tenochtitlán to the mainland and also helped control flooding. An aqueduct brought fresh water from Chapultepec. Most food, merchandise, and building materials crossed from the mainland to the island by boat, and the island was laced with canals to facilitate movement. Over the next two centuries, the Aztecs conquered the neighboring peoples and extended their control through much of present-day Mexico. As their wealth and power grew, Tenochtitlán grew to a population of a half-million.

Precolonial Mexico City CBD