After the arrival of the Europeans in Mexico and the conquest, indigenous populations declined significantly. This was largely the result of the epidemics of viruses brought to the continent against which the natives had no immunity. In 1520–1521, an outbreak of smallpox swept through the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city; further significant epidemics struck in 1545 and 1576. There has been no general consensus about the population size of Mexico at the time of European arrival. Early estimates gave very small population figures for the Valley of Mexico, in 1942 Kubler estimated a figure 200,000.
Population decline
Aztecs
Aztecs | Population decline
After the arrival of the Europeans in Mexico and the conquest, indigenous populations declined significantly. Arrival of the Europeans in Mexico and the conquest. After the arrival of the Europeans in Mexico and the conquest, indigenous populations declined significantly. This was largely the result of the epidemics of viruses brought to the continent. After the arrival of the Europeans in Mexico and the conquest, indigenous populations declined significantly.
the culture of the aztec empire was based around which geographic form
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Central Mexico
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this culture became popular between which time period?
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Post-classic period from 1300 to 1521
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which language was spoken by the people of that time?
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Nahuatl language
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what was the reason for the population decline during that time?
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After the arrival of the Europeans in Mexico and the conquest, indigenous populations declined significantly. This was largely the result of the epidemics of viruses brought to the continent against which the natives had no immunity. In 1520–1521, an outbreak of smallpox swept through the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city; further significant epidemics struck in 1545 and 1576. There has been no general consensus about the population size of Mexico at the time of European arrival. Early estimates gave very small population figures for the Valley of Mexico, in 1942 Kubler estimated a figure 200,000.
Aztecs | Population decline
In 1963 Borah and Cook used pre-Conquest tribute lists to calculate the number of tributaries in central Mexico, estimating over . Their very high figure has been highly criticized for relying on unwarranted assumptions. Archeologist William Sanders based an estimate on archeological evidence of dwellings, arriving at an estimate of inhabitants in the Valley of Mexico. Whitmore used a computer simulation model based on colonial censuses to arrive at an estimate of for the Basin in 1519, and an estimate of for all of Mexico. Depending on the estimations of the population in 1519 the scale of the decline in the 16th century, range from around 50% to around 90% – with Sanders's and Whitmore's estimates being around 90%.
Aztecs | Population decline
Reproduction and population growth declined since people of child-bearing age either had to fight off the Spanish invasion or died due to famine, malnutrition or other diseases. Diseases like smallpox could travel great distances and spread throughout large populations, which was the case with the Aztecs having lost approximately 50% of its population from smallpox and other diseases. The disease killed an estimated forty percent of the native population in the area within a year. The Aztecs codices give ample depictions of the disease's progression. It was known to them as the "huey ahuizotl" (great rash).
Fall of Tenochtitlan | Smallpox reduces the local population
In the colonial era, "altepetl" were renamed "cabeceras" or "head towns" (although they often retained the term "altepetl" in local-level, Nahuatl-language documentation), with outlying settlements governed by the "cabeceras" named "sujetos", subject communities. In "cabeceras", the Spanish created Iberian-style town councils, or "cabildos", which usually continued to function as the elite ruling group had in the pre-conquest era. Population decline due to epidemic disease resulted in many population shifts in settlement patterns, and the formation of new population centers. These were often forced resettlements under the Spanish policy of "congregación". Indigenous populations living in sparsely populated areas were resettled to form new communities, making it easier for them to brought within range of evangelization efforts, and easier for the colonial state to exploit their labor.
Aztecs | Social and political continuity and change
The exact number of deaths is disputed, but unquestionably more than 3 million natives who they had no immunity. Other sources, however, mentioned that the death toll of the Aztecs might have reached 15 million (out of a population of less than 30 million) although such a high number conflicts with the 350,000 Aztecs who ruled an empire of 5 million or 10 million. Severely weakened, the Aztec empire was easily defeated by Cortés and his forces on his second return with the help of state of Tlaxcala whose population estimate was 300,000. The native population declined 80–90% by 1600 to 1–2.5 million.
Mexico | Conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521)
Las Casas has also often been accused of exaggerating the atrocities he described in the Indies, some scholars holding that the initial population figures given by him were too high, which would make the population decline look worse than it actually was, and that epidemics of European disease were the prime cause of the population decline, not violence and exploitation. Demographic studies such as those of colonial Mexico by Sherburne F. Cook in the mid-20th century suggested that the decline in the first years of the conquest was indeed drastic, ranging between 80 and 90%, due of course to many different causes but all ultimately traceable to the arrival of the Europeans.
Bartolomé de las Casas | Critiques
The estimations given for the total population range from 3,799,561 to 6,122,354. It is concluded then, that across nearly three centuries of colonization, the population growth trends of whites and mestizos were even, while the total percentage of the indigenous population decreased at a rate of 13%–17% per century. The authors assert that rather than whites and mestizos having higher birthrates, the reason for the indigenous population's numbers decreasing lies in their suffering higher mortality rates due to living in remote locations rather than in cities and towns founded by the Spanish colonists or in being at war with them.
Demographics of Mexico | 1793 census
Nahuatl became extinct in the states of Jalisco and Colima during the 20th century. As a result of internal migration within the country, Nahuatl speaking communities exist in all states in Mexico. The modern influx of Mexican workers and families into the United States has resulted in the establishment of a few small Nahuatl speaking communities in that country, particularly in California, New York, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Nahuatl | Demography and distribution
It is concluded then, that across nearly three centuries of colonization, the population growth trends of whites and mestizos were even, while the total percentage of the indigenous population decreased at a rate of 13%-17% per century. The authors assert that rather than whites and mestizos having higher birthrates, the reason for the indigenous population's numbers decreasing lies on them suffering of higher mortality rates, due living in remote locations rather than on cities and towns founded by the Spanish colonists or being at war with them. It is also for these reasons that the number of Indigenous Mexicans presents the greater variation range between publications, as in cases their numbers in a given location were estimated rather than counted, leading to possible overestimations in some provinces and possible underestimations in others.
Mexicans | 1793 census
It is a matter of debate whether the enormous city of Teotihuacan was inhabited by speakers of Nahuatl, or whether Nahuas had not yet arrived in central Mexico in the classic period. It is generally agreed that the Nahua peoples were not indigenous to the highlands of central Mexico, but that they gradually migrated into the region from somewhere in northwestern Mexico. At the fall of Teotihuacan in the 6th century CE, a number of city states rose to power in central Mexico, some of them, including Cholula and Xochicalco, probably inhabited by Nahuatl speakers. One study has suggested that Nahuas originally inhabited the Bajío area around Guanajuato which reached a population peak in the 6th century, after which the population quickly diminished during a subsequent dry period.
Aztecs | Central Mexico in the classic and postclassic
Throughout the modern period the situation of indigenous languages has grown increasingly precarious in Mexico, and the numbers of speakers of virtually all indigenous languages have dwindled. Although the absolute number of Nahuatl speakers has actually risen over the past century, indigenous populations have become increasingly marginalized in Mexican society. In 1895, Nahuatl was spoken by over 5% of the population. By 2000, this proportion had fallen to 1.49%. Given the process of marginalization combined with the trend of migration to urban areas and to the United States, some linguists are warning of impending language death. At present Nahuatl is mostly spoken in rural areas by an impoverished class of indigenous subsistence agriculturists.
Nahuatl | Modern period
The sculptures inside palatial structures, such as Xalla, were shattered. No traces of foreign invasion are visible at the site. Evidence for population decline beginning around the 6th century lends some support to the internal unrest hypothesis. The decline of Teotihuacan has been correlated to lengthy droughts related to the climate changes of 535–536. This theory of ecological decline is supported by archaeological remains that show a rise in the percentage of juvenile skeletons with evidence of malnutrition during the 6th century, which is why there is different evidence that helps indicate that famine is most likely one of the more possible reasons for the decline of Teotihuacan.
Teotihuacan | Collapse
It is concluded then, that across nearly three centuries of colonization, the population growth trends of whites and mestizos were even, while the total percentage of the indigenous population decreased at a rate of 13%-17% per century. The authors assert that rather than whites and mestizos having higher birthrates, the reason for the indigenous population's numbers decreasing lies on them suffering of higher mortality rates, due living in remote locations rather than on cities and towns founded by the Spanish colonists or being at war with them. It is also for these reasons that the number of Indigenous Mexicans presents the greater variation range between publications, as in cases their numbers in a given location were estimated rather than counted, leading to possible overestimations in some provinces and possible underestimations in others.
White Mexicans | 1793 census
The severe decrease in the Chumash population was in response to a complex set of social, economic, and demographic factors.
Oxnard Plain | Spanish period (1782 to 1822)
This depopulation of the Bajío coincided with an incursion of new populations into the Valley of Mexico, which suggests that this marks the influx of Nahuatl speakers into the region. These people populated central Mexico, dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their political influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the complex civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices, the foundation for later Aztec culture was laid. After 900 CE, during the postclassic period, a number of sites almost certainly inhabited by Nahuatl speakers became powerful. Among them the site of Tula, Hidalgo, and also city states such as Tenayuca, and Colhuacan in the valley of Mexico and Cuauhnahuac in Morelos.
Aztecs | Central Mexico in the classic and postclassic
Population then began to steadily decline. By 900 the population had fallen to fifteen thousand, and by 1200 the population was again less than 1000.
Classic Maya collapse | Progression of the decline
Several factors have affected the decline in speaking Iquito; there are 25 speakers now. The infectious diseases of whooping cough, measles, and pneumonia had devastating effects on the speaking population, with a high number of fatalities. Also, the landowner system in place at the time, and the disruptions associated with the rubber boom and exploitation of rubber reduced the population.
Iquito language | Reasons for decline
By the 1940s, however, the population of the Nahukuá people had been reduced to only 28. Although the population did rise slightly in the ensuing years, a measles epidemic decimated populations again in the 1950s. By 1954, some believed that the Nahukuá may already have been extinct. At some point after 1948, low Nahukuá populations caused the ethnic group to disband its last existing village at the time. In the 1960s, at the encouragement of the Villas-Bôas brothers, the Nahukuá created a new village to a spot closer to the Kalapalo people. This village was eventually abandoned, due to superstition regarding a murder, which the Nahukuá attributed to sorcery.
Nahukuá | History
The Spanish conquest of Aztec territories decreased much of the indigenous population, through warfare and by bringing new diseases, such as smallpox, for which the Aztecs had no immunities. The population that did survive these threats was confronted by profound attacks upon their culture in the form of Spanish institutions such as the Roman Catholic religion. As early as 1529, the Spanish began coercively converting Aztecs to Catholicism. They focused on the Aztec nobility initially, to create an example for the other Aztecs to follow. Nobles such as Quetzalmacatzin, King of Amaquemecan (Chalco), were forced to choose one wife and abandon the others, to comply with the current Christian institution of marriage, which meant monogamy.
Women in Aztec civilization | Spanish rule
Yale University's genocide studies program while citing the decline of the Taíno population of Hispaniola in 1492 to 1514 as an example of genocide notes that the indigenous population declined from a population between 100,000 and 1,000,000 to only 32,000 a decline of 68% to over 96%. The native people of Mexico experienced a series of outbreaks of disease in the wake of European conquest, including a catastrophic epidemic that began in 1545 which killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico, followed by a second epidemic from 1576 to 1578 killing an additional 2 to 2.5 million people, or about 50% of the remaining native population.
Encomienda | Scope and number of victims
The "R. pinicola" population is estimated to be less than 50,000 individuals. The population trend is probably declining because of habitat loss. The decline does not appear rapid enough to meet the criteria for vulnerable status, and the range size and population size are both above the threshold for vulnerable status, so the IUCN Red List has assessed the species to be of least concern.
Aztec thrush | Status
According to Noble David Cook, a community of scholars has recently, albeit slowly, "been quietly accumulating piece by piece data on early epidemics in the Americas and their relation to the subjugation of native peoples." They now believe that widespread epidemic disease, to which the natives had no prior exposure or resistance, was the primary cause of the massive population decline of the Native Americans. Earlier explanations for the population decline of the American natives include the European immigrants' accounts of the brutal practices of the Spanish conquistadores, as recorded by the Spaniards themselves. This was applied through the encomienda, which was a system ostensibly set up to protect people from warring tribes as well as to teach them the Spanish language and the Catholic religion, but in practice was tantamount to serfdom and slavery.
Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas | Depopulation from disease
There are many Nahuatl place names in regions where Nahuas were not the most populous group (including the names of Guatemala and several Mexican states), due to pre-Hispanic Aztec expansion, Spanish invasions in which Tlaxcaltecs served as the main force, and the usage of Nahuatl as a lingua franca. The last of the southern Nahua populations today are the Pipil of El Salvador. Nahua populations in Mexico are centered in the middle of the country, with most speakers in the states of Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Guerrero and San Luis Potosí. However, smaller populations are spread throughout the country due to recent population movements within Mexico.
Nahuas | Geography
From around 1495 the Aztec empire which was then at its height in central Mexico began asserting influence on the Pacific coast and into the Guatemalan highlands. Under the Aztec Tlatoani Ahuitzotl the Soconusco province which was then paying tribute to the Kʼicheʼ was conquered by the Aztecs, and when Aztec "pochteca" (long distance traders) later arrived at Qʼumarkaj the Kʼicheʼ ruler 7 Noj was so embittered that he ordered them to leave his kingdom, not to return. However, in 1510 when Aztec emissaries from Moctezuma II arrived in Qʼumarkaj to request tribute from the Kʼiche they saw themselves forced to accept vassalage to the Aztecs.
Kʼicheʼ kingdom of Qʼumarkaj | Decline and conquest
Additional agricultural produce probably was supplied from nearby satellite sites. Sayil began to decline c. 950 and the city was abandoned by c, AD 1000, a pattern of rapid growth and decline that probably was typical of the Puuc region.
Sayil | Population
These high numbers continued until the city started to decline between 600 and 700 AD. One of Teotichuacan’s neighborhood, Teopancazco, was occupied during most of the time Teotichuacan was as well. It showed that Teotichuacan was a multiethnic city that was broken up into areas of different ethnicities and workers. This neighborhood was important in two ways; the high infant mortality rate and role of the different ethnicities. The high infant mortality rate was important within the neighborhood, and the city at large, as there are a large number of perinatal skeletons at Teopancazco. This suggests that the population of Teotihuacan was sustained and grew due to people coming into the city, rather than the population reproducing.
Teotihuacan | Population
The population declined considerably.
Bandipur | History
The overwhelming cause of the decline in both Mexico and Peru was infectious diseases, such as smallpox and measles, although the brutality of the Encomienda also played a significant part in the population decline. Of the history of the indigenous population of California, Sherburne F. Cook (1896–1974) was the most painstakingly careful researcher. From decades of research, he made estimates for the pre-contact population and the history of demographic decline during the Spanish and post-Spanish periods. According to Cook, the indigenous Californian population at first contact, in 1769, was about 310,000 and had dropped to 25,000 by 1910. The vast majority of the decline happened after the Spanish period, during the Mexican and US periods of Californian history (1821–1910), with the most dramatic collapse (200,000 to 25,000) occurring in the US period (1846–1910).
Spanish colonization of the Americas | Demographic impact of colonization
When the Spanish conquered the Aztec Empire in the early 16th century, the largest indigenous group in the state was the Otomi, many of whom were living more or less under Purépecha rule. This population would increase with Otomi refugees from Aztec lands fleeing the Spanish. Another significant group was the Chichimecas. With the fall of Tenochtitlán, then the Purépecha Empire, the Spanish gained some control over the southern portion of the state. However, the area was still very independent, filled with peoples who lived in small isolated villages or nomadically. There were no major cities, nor large societies there or north.
Querétaro | History
The population of Quispiguanca declined rapidly during the Spanish period due to the ravages of European diseases and civil wars. In 1551, the population of the estate was 800 people, compared to 2,000 mitma families settled there during Huanya Capac's reign.
Quispiguanca | Spanish rule
Thereafter, population declined dramatically because of declining fertility, infanticide, and war between chiefs, well before Western contact.
Ancient Hawaiian population | Constant population growth theory
Introduced diseases—especially smallpox, influenza, and tuberculosis—contributed to most of the decline after 1668, but deaths from the Spanish-Chamorro Wars certainly played a role in the indigenous population's decline as well. Reflecting the devastating blows to Guam's native population, the first official Spanish census in 1710 indicated the Chamorro population to be 3,197. At that time, twenty percent of the population lived in and around Agaña, with the remaining population spread among the other reducción villages. By 1760, the total population numbered just 1,654 and later fell to only 1,318 in 1786. This was just a shadow of the once-thriving Chamorro society Europeans first encountered.
Diego Luis de San Vitores | Academic critiques
From 1510 to 1521 Aztec influence at Qʼumarkaj increased and the Kʼiche lord 7 Noj also married two daughters of the Aztec ruler, further cementing the Aztec lordship, by becoming his son in-law. During this period Qʼumarkaj also became known as "Utatlán", the Nahuatl translation of the placename. When the Aztecs were defeated by the Spanish in 1521 they sent messengers to the Kʼicheʼ ruler that he should prepare for battle. Before the arrival of the Spanish led army, the Kʼicheʼ were struck by the diseases the Europeans had brought to the Americas. The Kaqchikels allied themselves to the Spaniards in 1520, before they had even arrived in Guatemala, and they also told of their enemies the Kʼiche and asked for assistance against them.
Kʼicheʼ kingdom of Qʼumarkaj | Decline and conquest
Classical Nahuatl (also known simply as Aztec or Nahuatl) is any of the variants of Nahuatl, spoken in the Valley of Mexico and central Mexico as a "lingua franca" at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. During the subsequent centuries, it was largely displaced by Spanish and evolved into some of the modern Nahuan languages in use today (other modern dialects descend more directly from other 16th-century variants). Although classified as an extinct language, Classical Nahuatl has survived through a multitude of written sources transcribed by Nahua peoples and Spaniards in the Latin script.
Classical Nahuatl | Introduction
It is not explained what events led to this decline.
This Census-Taker | Setting and structure
Their conclusion was quickly accepted. Nahuan thus consists of Pochutec and "General Aztec", which consists of Nahuatl and Pipil. Bartholomew (1980) suggests that some of the divergent traits, for example last syllable stress, are due to influence from Chatino, an Oto-Manguean language. She argues that at the time of the 16th century Spanish conquest of Mexico the settlement of Pochutla did not fall under the Aztec Empire's domain, but instead was part of the Mixtec state centered at Tututepec. Thus, the Chatino linguistic influences stemmed from the trade and communication routes between Pochutla and Tututepec passing through Chatino territory.
Pochutec language | Introduction
Anthropologist Eduardo Noguera estimated the population at 200,000 based on the house count and merging the population of Tlatelolco (once an independent city, but later became a suburb of Tenochtitlan). If one includes the surrounding islets and shores surrounding Lake Texcoco, estimates range from 300,000 to 700,000 inhabitants. Michael E. Smith gives a somewhat smaller figure of 212,500 inhabitants of Tenochtitlan based on an area of and a population density of 157 inhabitants per hectare. The second largest city in the valley of Mexico in the Aztec period was Texcoco with some 25,000 inhabitants dispersed over . The center of Tenochtitlan was the sacred precinct, a walled-off square area which housed the Great Temple, temples for other deities, the ballcourt, the calmecac (a school for nobles), a skull rack "tzompantli," displaying the skulls of sacrificial victims, houses of the warrior orders and a merchants palace.
Aztecs | Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Following this growth however the influx of new residence slowed, and evidence suggests that, by the Miccaotli phase, c. 200 CE. The urban population had reached its maximum. In 2001, Terrence Kaufman presented linguistic evidence suggesting that an important ethnic group in Teotihuacan was of Totonacan or Mixe–Zoquean linguistic affiliation. He uses this to explain general influences from Totonacan and Mixe–Zoquean languages in many other Mesoamerican languages, whose people did not have any known history of contact with either of the above-mentioned groups. Other scholars maintain that the largest population group must have been of Otomi ethnicity because the Otomi language is known to have been spoken in the area around Teotihuacan both before and after the Classic period and not during the middle period.
Teotihuacan | Culture
According to the Mexican national statistics institute, INEGI, 51% of Nahuatl speakers are involved in the farming sector and 6 in 10 receive no wages or less than the minimum wage. From the early 20th century to at least the mid-1980s, educational policies in Mexico focused on the hispanicization "(castellanización)" of indigenous communities, teaching only Spanish and discouraging the use of indigenous languages. As a result, today there is no group of Nahuatl speakers having attained general literacy in Nahuatl; while their literacy rate in Spanish also remains much lower than the national average. Even so, Nahuatl is still spoken by well over a million people, of whom around 10% are monolingual.
Nahuatl | Modern period
It is often debated why the Aztecs took little action against the Spanish and their allies after they fled the city. One reason was that Tenochtitlan was certainly in a state of disorder: the smallpox disease ravaged the population, killing still more important leaders and nobles, and a new king, Cuauhtémoc, son of King Ahuitzotl, was placed on the throne in February 1521. The people were in the process of mourning the dead and rebuilding their damaged city. It is possible that the Aztecs truly believed that the Spanish were gone for good. In addition, Cortés astutely directed his forces in multiple directions in preparing his encirclement of the Aztec capital, and knew how to use the military initiative that he gained after the battle of Otumba.
Fall of Tenochtitlan | Aztecs regroup
They could not get up and search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds. By the time the danger was recognized, the plague was well established that nothing could halt it". The smallpox epidemic caused not only infection to the Mexica peoples, but it weakened able bodied people who could no longer grow and harvest their crops, which in turn led to mass famine and death from malnutrition. While the population of Tenochtitlan was recovering, the disease continued to Chalco, a city on the southeast corner of Lake Texcoco that was formerly controlled by the Aztecs but now occupied by the Spanish.
Fall of Tenochtitlan | Smallpox reduces the local population
After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521, the Spanish rebuilt and renamed Tenochtitlan as Mexico City. They started with essentially the same size and layout as the Aztec city but as the centuries progressed, the city grew as the lakes shrank. Just after the conquest, disease and violence had decreased the population in the valley, especially of the native peoples, but after that, the population grew all through the colonial period and in the century after independence. By the early 20th century, the population of Mexico City alone had risen to over one million people. A population explosion began early in the 20th century, with the population of the city itself doubling approximately every 15 years since 1900, partly attributed to the fact that the federal government has favored development of the metropolitan area over other areas of the country.
Valley of Mexico | Spanish colonial rule and the Mexico City metropolitan area
The ravages of disease caused the native population to decline steadily in the 18th century. The mission had a population of 482 in 1768, but the numbers declined to 83 in 1808. In the 19th century, the Cochimí became extinct as a culture and identifiable people.
Misión San Francisco Javier de Viggé-Biaundó | Native population
Long term political decline occurred at Kʼo throughout the Classic period. The exact cause of Kʼo's decline remains unknown, though many archaeologists attribute the decline to the centralization of two major polities in the area, Holmul and Cival. Cival dominated the region politically throughout the Late Preclassic and archaeologists view Holmul's growing political authority over the region throughout the Classic period as an undermining force of Kʼo elite authority. In his 2009 doctoral dissertation, John Tomasic analyzed the distribution and re-distribution of luxury goods (jade and shell goods) by elites as well as the distribution of domestic goods (obsidian blades and grinding stones) obtained through non-elite market bartering.
Kʼo | Decline
Using an estimate of approximately 37 million people in Mexico, Central and South America in 1492 (including 6 million in the Aztec Empire, 5–10 million in the Mayan States, 11 million in what is now Brazil, and 12 million in the Inca Empire), the lowest estimates give a death toll due from disease of 80% by the end of the 17th century (nine million people in 1650). Latin America would match its 15th-century population early in the 19th century; it numbered 17 million in 1800, 30 million in 1850, 61 million in 1900, 105 million in 1930, 218 million in 1960, 361 million in 1980, and 563 million in 2005.
Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas | Population overview
Scholars have yet to determine the cause of the eventual extinction of the Olmec culture. Between 400 and 350 BCE, the population in the eastern half of the Olmec heartland dropped precipitously, and the area was sparsely inhabited until the 19th century. According to archaeologists, this depopulation was probably the result of "very serious environmental changes that rendered the region unsuited for large groups of farmers", in particular changes to the riverine environment that the Olmec depended upon for agriculture, hunting and gathering, and transportation. These changes may have been triggered by tectonic upheavals or subsidence, or the siltation of rivers due to agricultural practices.
Olmecs | Decline
Later, Nahua people would come and settle in the area. By the 15th century, however, the Aztecs (a Nahua people) would dominate this area, making the Otomí a tributary people. This would end with the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire in the early 16th century. In the late 16th century, a number of Spanish families began renting lands from local chiefs here on which to raise cattle and sheep. These ranches would lead to more Spanish immigration to the area, who intermarried with the local population. During most of the colonial period, until 1714, the Chiapan area remained intact as an entity.
Villa del Carbón | History
General Aztec encompasses the Nahuatl and Pipil languages. Pochutec is a scantily attested language, which became extinct in the 20th century, and which Campbell and Langacker classify as being outside general Aztec. Other researchers have argued that Pochutec should be considered a divergent variant of the western periphery.
Nahuatl | Classification
However, these western areas had become ethnically mixed due to influxes of Nahuas and Otomis long before the Spanish arrived. When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the region was dominated by the Totonacs, who were then in turn dominated by the Aztec Empire. Because of this, the Totonacs allied with the Spanish against the Aztecs to conquer Tenochtitlán . However, war, disease and forced labor brought the Totonac population down drastically. The Totonac population in Cempoala is estimated to have been about 80,000 when the Spanish arrived in 1519 but with only eighty left in 1550. The Spanish also took their lands for cattle raising until the ethnicity occupied only about half of what it used to.
Totonacapan | History
By 1930 there were reportedly 355,295 monolingual speakers, and as of the 2000 census there remain only approximately 220,000 monolinguals among the 1.5 million Nahuatl speakers, the vast majority of whom being middle-aged or elderly (Schmal, 2004). At this point, Spanish was well-integrated into most Mexicano communities, and language shift was rapidly occurring among the younger generations.
Nahuatl–Spanish contact | Growing marginalization and emerging shift
The population has decreased since the last census in 1995 when there were 1,380 inhabitants. Scarce economic opportunities have caused many young people to emigrate. The population density is extremely low, with 0.88 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Bacadéhuachi | Population decrease
Yaghan, Kawésqar, and Ona are all extinct or nearly extinct, and their whose numbers of speakers have declined sharply since the 19th century. One reason for the decline is the drastic reduction size of the indigenous populations who historically spoke these languages. The Yaghan population, for example, was between 2,500 and 3,000 in the late nineteenth century and plummeted to as low as 40 by 1933, partly by diseases like smallpox, whooping cough and typhoid, introduced by incoming Europeans (Aguilera 214). As the indigenous languages of South America have declined, the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego have come to use Spanish instead.
Fuegian languages | Decline
In Xochistlahuaca alone, the indigenous population fell from about 20,000 in 1522 to only 200 in 1582. Spanish domination pushed them further into the mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur, a process which had begun under Mixtec domination. Evangelization did reach them and in 1563, Xochistlahuaca was named an administrative and religious center, much as it was in the pre-Hispanic period. The evangelization and colonialization process gave rise to a number of traditional dances such as El Diablo, Los Chareos, Los Tlamaques, Los Apaches, Danza del Tigre, El Toro, La Tortuga, Los Gachupines, Los Moros, La Conquista, Los Doce Pares de Francis and Los Tecuanes.
Amuzgos | History
In Acaxochitlan live Otomi Tepehuas, Nahuas and mestizos, so it is a sample of what Mexico is today. Even though barely 34 thousand inhabitants only a third retains the native tongue, the other speaks only Spanish.
Acaxochitlán | Languages
The population of Akunnaaq has decreased by nearly 40 percent since the 1990 levels, levelling off in the 2000s.
Akunnaaq | Population
Second, they adduced new arguments for dividing the branch in two subdivisions: Pochutec, whose sole member is the Pochutec language, which became extinct sometime in the 20th century, and General Aztec, which includes the Pipil language and all dialects spoken in Mexico which are clearly closely related to the extinct literary language, Classical Nahuatl. This binary division of Aztecan (Nahuan) was already the majority opinion among specialists, but Campbell and Langacker's new arguments were received as being compelling. Furthermore, in "adopt[ing] the term 'General Aztec' ", they may in fact have been the ones to introduce this designation. Part of their reconstruction of the Proto-Aztecan vowels was disputed by Dakin (1983).
Nahuan languages | Historical linguistic research
One theory for the considerable population drop during the Terminal Formative period is suggested by Santley and colleagues (Santley et al. 1997), who propose the relocation of settlements due to volcanism, instead of extinction. Volcanic eruptions during the Early, Late and Terminal Formative periods would have blanketed the lands and forced the Olmec to move their settlements. Whatever the cause, within a few hundred years of the abandonment of the last Olmec cities, successor cultures became firmly established. The Tres Zapotes site, on the western edge of the Olmec heartland, continued to be occupied well past 400 BCE, but without the hallmarks of the Olmec culture.
Olmecs | Decline
The most important factor towards the decline of indigenous languages in this period has probably been the social marginalization of the native populations and their languages – and this process has been particularly effective during modern times.
Mesoamerican languages | Colonial period (1521–1821)
Throughout the 19th century, the population of Mexico had barely doubled. This trend continued during the first two decades of the 20th century, and even in the 1921 census there was a loss of about 1 million inhabitants. The phenomenon can be explained because during the decade from 1910 to 1921 the Mexican Revolution took place. The growth rate increased dramatically between the 1930s and the 1980s, when the country registered growth rates of over 3% (1950–1980). The Mexican population doubled in twenty years, and at that rate it was expected that by the year 2000 there would be 120 million Mexicans.
Mexico | Demographics
Evangelization efforts were undertaken by the Augustinians in the Central Valleys, La Montaña and Tierra Caliente regions while the Franciscans took the northern areas, the Costa Grande and Acapulco. Much of the population decline occurred in the first half of the 16th century when diseases brought by the Europeans, as well as brutal exploitation, killed many natives. This was particularly true in the Costa Chica region, which would lead to the importation of African slaves to the area. During this time indigenous political bodies called "pueblos" or "Indian Republics" arose, which were local entities that represented the Indians of that area before Spanish authorities.
Guerrero | Colonial period
As with regional languages the world over, Nahuatl finds itself being replaced by a ‘world’ language, Spanish, as other small linguistic communities have shifted to languages like English and Chinese. The world's loss in linguistic diversity can be tied to its changing economic and political conditions, as the model of industrial capitalism under a culturally homogenizing nation state spread throughout the world and culture becomes more and more global rather than regional. However, we do not always know exactly why some local or ‘traditional’ languages are clung to and preserved while others vanish much more quickly ("Hill & Hill, 1980, 321").
Nahuatl–Spanish contact | Introduction
Cabeza de Vaca reported that in 1528, when the Spanish landed in Texas, "half the natives died from a disease of the bowels and blamed us." When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Incan empire, a large portion of the population had already died in a smallpox epidemic. The first epidemic was recorded in 1529 and killed the emperor Huayna Capac, the father of Atahualpa. Further epidemics of smallpox broke out in 1533, 1535, 1558 and 1565, as well as typhus in 1546, influenza in 1558, diphtheria in 1614 and measles in 1618. Recently developed tree-ring evidence shows that the illness which reduced the population in Aztec Mexico was aided by a great drought in the 16th century, and which continued through the arrival of the Spanish conquest.
Conquistador | Disease in the Americas
In the Postclassic period Nahuan languages diversified and spread, carried by the culture commonly known as Toltec. In the early Postclassic period feuds between royal lineages in the Yucatán Peninsula caused the forefathers of the Itza' to move south into the Guatemalan jungle. In northwestern Oaxaca speakers of Mixtec and Chocho-Popolocan languages built successful city-states, such as Teotitlan del Camino, which did not fall under Nahuan subjugation. Speakers of Otomian languages (Otomi, Mazahua and Matlatzinca) were routinely displaced to the edges of the Nahuan states. The Otomi of Xaltocan, for example, were forcibly relocated to Otumba by the early Aztec empire.
Mesoamerican languages | Postclassic period (1000–1521 CE)
The decline began in the early 1st century BCE, with the rise of Teotihuacán as a center of cultural and religious influence. By the year 400 CE, the Xitle volcano, located in the vicinity of Ajusco (Nahuatl: atl, xochitl, co, “water”, “flower”, “place”; “place of flowers in water”), and part of the Sierra de Ajusco-Chichinauhtzin, erupted, burying and destroying what still remained of Cuicuilco and Copilco (another important ceremonial center). This disaster led to the dispersion of Cuicuilca culture towards Toluca and Teotihuacan, which hosted a large part of the Cuicuilcas and incorporated many features of their culture. It is considered that the Cuicuilco's decline (100 BCE to 1 CE) had a minor recovery in 1–150 CE, due to the presence of representations of fire deities.
Cuicuilco | End of the culture
At the same time as the Monqui population declined, the transplanted Spanish, mestizo, and Indian population of Loreto increased. In 1730, the Jesuits recorded the non-Monqui population of Loreto at 175, which included 99 men and their wives and children. The men were employed as soldiers, sailors, artisans, teamsters, and cowboys. By 1770, the total population of Loreto was more than 400, of whom only about 120 were Indians indigenous to Baja California. The Monqui as a people and distinct culture were virtually extinct.
Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó | Population decline
The population, after peaking at 1,029 people in 1841, declined to only 463 people in 1931. It has since rebounded to 1,105 in 2006.
Ansouis | Demographics
The Zacatecos as a culture have vanished or faded, due to assimilation and mestizaje of the Mexican people. However many of their direct descendants still live in large concentrations in central Mexico. Taking all this into account, it is extremely difficult to even approximate the population of their descendants. It is equally hard to elaborate on their culture, language, art, and traditions.
Zacateco | Conclusion
Learning Nahuatl also enabled missionaries to teach the Christian gospel to American Indians using evangelical materials prepared in the indigenous language and using indigenous concepts, a technique which certain sects, particularly the Jesuits, believed was often met with better results (Hill & Hill, 1986). Thus, though Nahuatl usage was discouraged officially, its use was actually preserved and encouraged by the Spanish in religious, scholarly, and civil spheres into the late 18th century, until the Spanish monarchy began to take a more hard-line approach towards assimilating indigenous populations into the state. By the time of the 1895 census, there were still 659,865 Mexican citizens who reported themselves to be monolingual Nahuatl speakers, which group represented 32.1% of the total indigenous-speaking population, but over the next century the number of monolingual Nahuatl speakers would decline.
Nahuatl–Spanish contact | Growing marginalization and emerging shift
They did so, and to ensure they remained loyal, sent many Aztec families to live there, to the extent that 55% of the population of Tamazunchale were Aztecs. The Huastecs continued to pay tribute to the Aztec nation.
Tamazunchale | History
Any population estimate of pre-Columbian Mexico is bound to be a guess but 8–12 million is often suggested for the area encompassed by the modern nation.
Mexico | Conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521)
Archaeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city, and while the official languages used by Teotihuacan is unknown, Totonac and Nahua, early forms of which were spoken by the Aztecs, seem to be highly plausible. This apparent regionally diverse population of Teotihuacan can be traced back to a natural disaster that occurred prior to its population boom. At one point in time, Teotihuacan was rivaled by another basin power, Cuicuilco. Both cities, roughly the same size and hubs for trade, both were productive centers of artisans and commerce. Roughly around 100 BC however, the power dynamic changed when Mount Xitle, an active volcano, erupted, and heavily impacted Cuicuilco and the farmland that supported it.
Teotihuacan | Culture
Since the 1990s, the borough has had a decrease in population, down from 462,806 from 2000. The borough's population accounted for 10.4% of the District's total in 1970. It accounted for 5.4% in 2000. One main reason for the decrease is the conversion of land from residential to commercial use. The dominant religion is Roman Catholicism with over 90% of the population professing this faith. As of 2005, 4,489 people spoke an indigenous language, 1.1% of the total.
Venustiano Carranza, Mexico City | Demographics
After the end of the Toltec empire in the 13th century and the decline of the city of Tula, the population shifted once again, this time to the lakes region of the valley. With this migration came the concept of a city-state based on the Toltec model. By the end of the 13th century, some fifty small urban units, semi-autonomous and with their own religious centers, had sprung up around the lakeshores of the valley. These remained intact with a population of about 10,000 each under Aztec rule and survived into the colonial period. All of these city-states, including the largest and most powerful, Tenochtitlan, with more than 150,000 inhabitants, claimed descent from the Toltecs.
Valley of Mexico | Aztec Empire
About 1,100 of these speak some form of Nahuatl, followed by Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomi, Mazateca, Mazahua and Totonaca. About 91% of the population is Catholic with about seven percent belonging to Protestant or Evangelical churches.
Iztacalco | Demographics
They split off from the other Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples and migrated into central Mexico around 500 CE. The Nahua then settled in and around the Basin of Mexico and spread out to become the dominant people in central Mexico. However, Nahuatl-speaking populations were present in smaller populations throughout Mesoamerica.
Nahuas | Introduction
The pre-contact population is estimated at 3,000–30,000. In 1616, Father Biard believed the Miꞌkmaw population to be in excess of 3,000, but he remarked that, because of European diseases, there had been large population losses during the 16th century. Smallpox and other endemic European infectious diseases, to which the Miꞌkmaq had no immunity, wars and alcoholism led to a further decline of the native population. It reached its lowest point in the middle of the 17th century. Then the numbers grew slightly again, before becoming apparently stable during the 19th century. During the 20th century, the population was on the rise again.
Miꞌkmaq | Demographics
During the decade that followed the population decreased drastically, caused by epidemics, famine, the mismanagement of the new clergy and - at the end of the 19th century - by deporting the indigenous population to the rubber plantations.
Concepción, Santa Cruz | History
During period 1960-1970 there was a 17% reduction, and during recent decades it has gone down to 50% of its 1960 population.
Abdet | History
A population decline (or depopulation) in humans is a reduction in a human population size caused by short term events such as pandemics, wars, famines or other catastrophes, or by long-term demographic trends, as in sub-replacement fertility rate, or persistent emigration. Even though short-term population shocks have caused terrible loss of life and human misery, sometimes lasting several centuries, over the long-term, stretching from prehistory to the present, this planet’s human population has continued to grow. However, current events suggest that this long-term trend may be coming to an end. Up until the beginning of the industrial revolution, global population grew very slowly.
Population decline | Introduction
Nahua peoples constitute 47% of the population, 15% are indigenous people (speaking four different languages), other large communities are Mixtec (23%) and Tlapanec (19%), and the balance 4% are Amuzgo. The population increased to 60,000 in the 1990s. The communities, while retaining their individualities, show close linguistic, kinship, and cultural relationships - revealed, for example, when they perform the rituals of patronal feasts.
Balsas River | History
Most groups disappeared before 1825, with their survivors absorbed by other indigenous and mestizo populations of Texas or Mexico.
Coahuiltecan | Population
A reduction over time in a region's population can be caused by sudden adverse events such as outbursts of infectious disease, famine, and war or by long-term trends, for example sub-replacement fertility, persistently low birth rates, high mortality rates, and continued emigration.
Population decline | Causes
27.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.06. In the city the population was spread out, with 26.6% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.1 males.
Aztec, New Mexico | 2000 census
The municipality as it is found today is a product of the growth of the Mexico City area in the 20th century, especially since the 1970s. The population rose from 534,554 in 1970 to a peak of 601,524 in 1980. The population began to drop to 474,688 in 1990 and 441,008 in 2000. In addition to loss of employment, reasons for the population loss include the 1985 earthquake and the high cost of living space, especially compared to neighboring state of Mexico. Problems in the municipality include uncontrolled street vending, historic buildings abandoned or used as commercial space, lack of maintenance of parks, and heavy traffic.
Azcapotzalco | Socioeconomics
Teotichuacan was one of, or was, the largest population in the Basin of Mexico during its occupation. Teotihuacan was a large pre-historic city that underwent massive population growth and sustained it over most of the city's occupancy. In the 100 AD the population could be estimated around 60,000-80,000, after 200 years of the city's occupancy, within of the city. The population, eventually, stabilized around 100,000 people around 300 BCE. The population reached its peak numbers around 400 to 500 AD. During 400 to 500 AD, the Xolalpan period, the city’s population was estimated to be 100,000 to 200,000 people. This number was achieved by estimating compound sizes to hold approximately 60 to 100, with 2,000 compounds.
Teotihuacan | Population
Several indigenous groups within the state have managed to maintain a relatively strong independent cultural identity since the Conquest. These ethnic groups include the Nahua, the Otomis and the Tepehuas, each still speaking their own language. The largest group is the Otomi, which has over 250,000 speakers in the state. The total number of people who speak an indigenous language of any kind was estimated at 320,029 in 2005. Population of the state historically has risen and fallen based on the state of the economy especially, the health of the mining sector. When mining activity fell in the mid-20th century, the population fell as well.
Hidalgo (state) | Demographics
Their population had declined to 150,000, with accompanying social disruption to many communities from the epidemics of disease. After the western portion of the Cuchumatanes fell to the Spanish, the Ixil and Uspantek Maya were sufficiently isolated to evade immediate Spanish attention. The Uspantek and the Ixil were allies. In 1529, four years after the Spanish conquest of Huehuetenango, Uspantek warriors were harassing Spanish forces, and Uspantán was trying to foment rebellion among the K'iche'. Uspantek activity became sufficiently troublesome that the Spanish decided that military action was necessary.
Santa Maria Nebaj | Spanish conquest
Regional studies of population decline have appeared for a number of areas including Mexico, Peru, Honduras, and Ecuador. The moral and religious implications of the collapse for Spanish Catholics is explored in an anthology with case studies from various parts of colonial Spanish America, "The Secret Judgments of God". Religious and moral interpretations of disease gave way in the eighteenth century to scientific public health responses to epidemics.
Historiography of Colonial Spanish America | Demography
At the end of the Jōmon period the local population declined sharply. Scientists suggest that this was possibly caused because of food shortages and other environmental problems. They concluded that not all Jōmon groups suffered under these circumstances but the overall population declined.
Jōmon period | Population decline
Mexico pursued a policy of Hispanicization, leading to a rapid drop in the number of indigenous language speakers. For example, Nahuatl plummeted from 5% of the population in 1895 to 1.49% in 2000. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation in-part forced new recognition of indigenous languages in the late 1990s, with the creation of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI) and the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI), as well as offering bilingual education. In contrast to losses of regional languages throughout much of North America, the Quebec nationalist movement pushed back in the late 1960s and Canada adopted national bilingualism in 1982.
Evolution of languages | North America
With the decline of the Toltec civilization came political fragmentation in the Valley of Mexico, and into this new game of political contenders for the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the Aztec. Newcomers to the Valley of Mexico, they were seen as crude and unrefined in the eyes of the existing Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the fallen Toltec empire. Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau, the Aztecs thought of themselves as heirs to the prestigious civilizations that had preceded them, much as Charlemagne did with respect to the fallen Roman Empire. What the Aztecs lacked in political power, they made up for with ambition and military skill.
Pre-Columbian Mexico | Aztec civilization
As a result of increased immigration due to industrialisation during the 1960s, the population grew rapidly. Although it began to decline during the 1990s, the population has increased again since 2000.
Bermeo | Population
The population and scale of construction declined in the early classic (c 250 CE), although it was still a significant site, and trade goods from Teotihuacan have been found. A ditch and ramparts were constructed around the site at this time. There is a ditch that runs the circumference of the city which covers approximately 25 hectares (61.7 acres). Around 500 the population again increased dramatically and many large new buildings were constructed, mostly in the "Rio Bec" style of Maya architecture. Construction of major buildings and elite monuments stopped about 830, although ceramic evidence show that the site continued to be occupied for some time thereafter, although the population went into decline and Becan was probably abandoned by about 1200.
Becan | Introduction
In the last three decades of the 16th century, the population of present-day Mexico dropped to about one million people. The Maya population is today estimated at six million, which is about the same as at the end of the 15th century, according to some estimates. In what is now Brazil, the indigenous population declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated four million to some 300,000. While it is difficult to determine exactly how many Natives lived in North America before Columbus, estimates range from a low of 2.1 million to 7 million people to a high of 18 million.
Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas | Population overview
At the moment of the Spanish arrival in 1536, the Yariguies are estimated to have comprised a population of some 50,000 persons. Three centuries later 15,000 still survived. Until that date, the woodland and rainforest that made up their landbase was for the most part intact. By 1880, the Yariguies numbered 10,000, then 5,000 in 1900, 1,000 in 1910, 500 in 1920, and none in 1940. The blame for the final extinction of this community is due to the new mestizo colonists who invaded their territory in search of pastureland, quinine, tagua, wood, and, ultimately, petroleum. Additionally, the construction of a road from Socorro, then capital of Santander, to the Magdalena River, brought further incursions into the region and authorized "hunting parties" against the indigenous peoples, destroying whole villages.
Yarigui people | Population decline
As the 1950s started, a new era for the Mexican "colonia" also arrived. The Latino community started moving to the suburbs in Linndale and Denver Harvor; to the north side of town. People followed the wave of boundary expansion and Mexican American business started losing their customers. The theater started losing its audience by mid-1950. What once was the Mexican district in Congress Avenue, ceased to exist. The Azteca Theater closed its doors in 1957. The theater changed its name, but the former clientele preferred to attend the English theaters by then. Years later, the Theater was demolished, and converted in a parking lot.
Azteca Theater (Houston, Texas) | Decline
What is known is that in the years following Teotihuacan’s fall Nahuan speakers quickly rose to power in central Mexico and expanded into areas earlier occupied by speakers of Oto-Manguean, Totonacan and Huastec. During this time Oto-Manguean groups of central Mexico such as the Chiapanec, Chorotega and Subtiaba migrated south some of them reaching the southern limits of Mesoamerica in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Also some speakers of Nahuan moved south, some settling on the coast of Oaxaca where their speech became the language Pochutec, and others moving all the way to El Salvador, becoming the ancestors of the speakers of modern Pipil.
Mesoamerican languages | Classic period (200–1000 CE)
Eduardo Noguera estimates that in later stages only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The other 80% of society were warriors, artisans and traders. Eventually, most of the "mācehuallis" were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city. Macehualtin could become enslaved, () for example if they had to sell themselves into the service of a noble due to debt or poverty, but enslavement was not an inherited status among the Aztecs. Some macehualtin were landless and worked directly for a lord (), whereas the majority of commoners were organized into calpollis which gave them access to land and property.
Aztecs | Nobles and commoners
An outbreak of smallpox during the 1830s was one cause of the population decline and it has been suggested that an alleged massacre of Indigenous people by white settlers was another.
Noorat | Introduction
It is believed that the later exponential growth of Teotihuacan's population was due to the subsequent migration of those displaced by the eruption. While this eruption is referenced as being the primary cause for the mass exodus, recent advancements of dating have shed light on an even earlier eruption. The eruption of Popocatepetl in the middle of the first century preceded that of Xitle, and is believed to have begun the aforementioned degradation of agricultural lands, and structural damage to the city; Xitle's eruption further instigated the abandonment of Cuicuilco. By the Tzacualli phase (c. 1–150 CE) , Teotihuacan saw a population growth of around 60 to 80 thousand people, most of which are believed to have come from the Mexican basin.
Teotihuacan | Culture