Angatahuaca
Angatahuaca
𐐈𐑌𐑀𐐰𐐻𐐰𐐸𐐶𐐰𐐿𐐰 | |
|---|---|
  .jpg)  Clockwise from top left: Cityscape of Heron Island, typical altepetlianca residential ward, World-Carrier plaza, Atlatlemitl statue in Cuayollotli park | |
| Country | Zacapican |
| Republic | Aztaco |
| Atlepetl | Angatahuaca |
| Established | 744 |
| Tlayacame | 5
|
| Government | |
| • Altepepixqui | Lozya Xanamil |
| • First Altepehuaque | Lodmilla Hladizla |
| • Chief Magistrate | Tizaro Sesasi |
| Area | |
| • Total | 401 km2 (155 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 10 m (30 ft) |
| Population (2022 census) | |
| • Total | 8,054,830 |
| • Density | 20,087/km2 (52,030/sq mi) |
Angatahuaca (Nahuatl: 𐐈𐑌𐑀𐐰𐐻𐐰𐐸𐐶𐐰𐐿𐐰), commonly known as Anga, is the largest city in Zacapican and the capital of the Aztaco Republic. The city has a population exceeding 8 million within its urban limits nearly double that of the second largest Zacapine city Tequitinitlan and more than half of the Greater Angatahuaca urban zone home to a total population of 14 million. The urban zone of Greater Angatahuaca is the largest in Zacapican, one of the largest in the world and encompasses nearly the totality of the entire population of the Aztaco republic. Angatahuaca proper encompasses 401 square kilometers across two islands and a large section of the coastal plain of the eastern Aztaco peninsula, creating a high average density of roughly 20,000 residents per square kilometer which rises to heights of 71,000 per square kilometer in the city center on Heron island. Angatahuaca is the industrial, financial, historical and cultural center of the Zacapine mainland as the former capital of its predecessor state Aztapamatlan and the prime destination for the principal waves of immigration to Zacapican from foreign nations over the course of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The city has a GDP equivalent to nearly 500 billion solidus, accounting for a quarter of the national GDP of Zacapican, having the highest GDP per capita of any region of the country.
Located within a major natural harbor, Angatahuaca maintains the largest port facility in Zacapican which extends beyond the bounds of the city and is shared with neighboring Amegatlan. Angatahuaca harbor is the epicenter of the city, the first site colonized by oceangoing Purépecha traders and explorers on the tip of what is now Heron island at the center of the city, (also known as Aztlan). For a thousand years from its foundation onward, Angatahuaca would be the capital of a republic that would grow from a minor city state to a regional power and then a vast empire encompassing all of modern day Zacapican and extending across the oceans in imperial ventures on other continents. As the capital of Aztapamatlan, Angatahuaca would be one of the first cities in the world to surpass a population of 1 million residents and became a multi-cultural metropolis where people, cultures and religions from all over the empire could be found. Angatahuaca retained tremendous economic, cultural and therefore political significiance after the fall of Aztapamatlan and the relocation of the nation's political center to the west coast. The city's port was the entry point for millions of immigrants from Norumbia, Malaio, Ochran and Belisaria, a large portion of which would remain and settle in the city itself while others would disperse to other Zacapine cities from their first port of call in Angatahuaca. Multiculturalism, diversity and the burgeoning economy and population of the city have earned Angatahuaca the name Altepetl Macuilcan Anahuame or "city of five continents".
Etymology
A colony of great white herons on the island that is today known as Aztlan or Heron island gave Angatahuaca its name, originally Angajtakuaka meaning the "Land of Herons" in the Purépecha language. The founding population of the colony were entirely Purépecha, but would become more and more Nahua as the city drew in the local people from the surrounding hills and marshes. Due to the relative isolation of the colony away from the Purépecha heartland on the west coast, the city changed from primarily Purépecha to primarily Nahua in charachter and would lead to the Nahuanization of the city's institutions, lineages and its name. Angatahuaca was only one of the Nahuatl transformations of the Purépecha name, with the other common form being Anhuatahuaca due to the "g" phoneme being alien to the Nahuatl language. However, it would be Angatahuaca that would eventually win the battle of Nahuanization and become the widely accepted spelling and pronunciation of the city's name by the 11th century.