1300

Events in 1300 3

• 1300 – 1325 Aztlan -- the mythic homeland Aztlan ("Place of Herons" or "Place of Whiteness") is the legendary ancestral homeland of the Mexica -- a mythic island or northern territory from which they begin their long southward migration c.1111 AD (in their own tradition) or c.1250 AD (in archaeological terms). The location of Aztlan is unknown and may never have existed as a specific place; it functions in Mexica tradition as the Eden or Troy of their cultural memory -- a place of origin that legitimises their identity and mission. The migration narrative -- a god-directed journey southward, guided by the deity Huitzilopochtli ("Hummingbird of the South") speaking through his priests -- is the founding myth of Aztec civilisation. It explains why a people who arrive as wandering strangers in the most politically complex region of Mesoamerica are nonetheless the chosen people of the sun god, destined to rule.
• 1300 – 1521 The Aztec Empire (1300–1521) The Aztec Empire -- more precisely the empire of the Mexica people and their Triple Alliance partners -- is the last and greatest of the pre-Columbian civilisations of Mesoamerica. From their mythic origins at Aztlan and their long southward migration, the Mexica arrive in the Valley of Mexico c.1250 as a despised, landless people. Within a century they found Tenochtitlan (1325) on an island in Lake Texcoco; within another century they forge the Triple Alliance (1428) that becomes the engine of imperial expansion. At their peak (c.1500-1519) the empire controls approximately 200,000 square kilometres, extracts tribute from some 400-500 city-states, and its capital Tenochtitlan -- with a population of 200,000-300,000 -- is one of the largest cities on earth. In 1519 Hernán Cortés arrives on the coast of Mexico. Two years later, Tenochtitlan is rubble and the Aztec empire is destroyed -- the most rapid collapse of a major civilisation in recorded history.
• 1300 – 1377 Guillaume de Machaut French composer and poet of Ars Nova Guillaume de Machaut was the leading composer and poet of the Ars Nova period. His Messe de Nostre Dame is the earliest known complete polyphonic mass setting by a single composer.