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) 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 character 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.
History
Foundation
The history of Angatahuaca is the history of Aztapamatlan and the unification of Zacapican. Legends of the founding of the city tell of a the Purépecha sailors following a flock of twenty heron which guided them through the fog and the shoals of the mouth of the harbor to find Heron island and land upon its tip. Tradition places the foundation of the city of Angatahuaca on the tip of Heron island in 744 CE, although some evidence suggests a small outpost of wooden buildings located on the site as early as 700. This Iruka Angajtakua served as a trading post for the Purépecha merchants to purchase trade goods such as copper, silver, furs and dyes from the Nahua, Iakan and Ona tribes inhabiting the marshy coastal plain and the forested hills and valleys of the interior. The lifeblood of this early settlement was the trade around the Anamictlan peninsula back and forth with the main Purépecha city-states of the west coast, although this connection would prove tenuous and easily disrupted by the characteristic winter storms emerging from the polar currents which strike southern of Zacapican from the west. Where its western counterparts engaged in a policy of permitting selective immigration by the locals into their colonial centers and the assimilation of these demographics into the Purépecha culture and way of life, the small and isolated outpost on the tip of Heron island failed to assimilate the local people and instead began to itself assimilate into the predominant Nahua culture and language of the surrounding region. Far from resisting this process, the Purépecha elites of the city embraced this process as a means to bring the city to greater standing among the local powers and as a necessary move to preserve their power in the face of Nahua migration into the city. In 801, the oligarchy of the traders in the city overthrew the weakened Caconzi lord of the city to seize power for themselves as the Nahuanization process placed pressure on the city's political system, establishing the republic of the Wakusicha or "Eagles" later known as the Cuauhtli as Purépecha faded into the status of a minor language in the city. The republican government of Angatahuaca, known as the Cuauhtlatollo, primarily provided a stable political system free of coups and dynastic disputes which plagued the surrounding monarchic city-states and petty kingdoms. Angatahuacan democracy would provide a medium for the relatively peaceful resolution of power struggles within the city elite, establish a release valve for societal pressures and grievances of the people, and most of all protect the power of the Eagles and their ancient lineages which retained control of the political system.
Aztapamatlan
Under the rule of the Cuauhtlatollo, the city-state of Angatahuaca underwent a shift in culture from a minor merchant city to a major martial republic. Militarization began at the top, with the new republican system of government outright requiring certain lengths of military service from the elite before they would be eligible to hold specific offices. The social structure of the city transformed with most of the old merchant families now becoming officers in a new army with the Nahua commoners of the city becoming the rank and file soldiers. The militant republic of Angatahuaca began a campaign of subjugation, integration and assimilation of the same tribes which had once traded with the Purépecha merchants, with flexible units of infantrymen moving into the hills and conquering or displacing the resident tribesmen under the distinctive white banners of the city of Angatahuaca, made of the white feathers of the herons which had given the city its name a century prior. In 955, more than two centuries since the foundation of the city, the Angatahuaca republic ruled over most of the peninsula today known as Aztaco. This expanding new state would become known as Aztapamatlan, a generally translated as "there under the heron's wings", a metaphor for the heron-feather banners which were now flown over fortresses and towns across the peninsula. Angatahuca persued a policy of assimilation not unlike the old Purépecha doctrine of absorbing the surrounding people, this time integrating the conquered people into a Nahua culture and language. The city would also become the new epicenter of the Cozauist religion, then a minor monotheistic sect native to the peninsula and quickly diminishing before being adopted by the Angatahuacan elites as the start of the city's militarization. Angatahuaca became the seat of the Cozauist clergy and temple institution, a status which it retains to the present day. Cozauism became a vehicle for assimilation and integration of the conquered peoples, as the temples would oversee the conversion of the people to the robust and distinct Cozauist sect while spreading Nahuatl language and the narrative of Aztapamatlan imperial destiny in the process. For the next centuries of the city's history, it would continue to grow and prosper greatly through the extracted taxation and tribute from its growing empire. Infrastructure projects and public works, some of which remain in place in the present day a millennium later, were funded with this wealth to accommodate the ballooning population which reached 1 million by the 12th century, occupying the whole of Heron island.
Colonial Metropole
Xolotecate Reformation
Urban Structure
The city of Angatahuaca is divided into five Tlayacame, or city sectors, with varying cultures, architecture and structures stemming from the 13 centuries of evolving urban planning which shaped the city as it expanded. The oldest Tlayacatl, Heron island, has been fully urbanized for a thousand years which many newer structures and public works overlapping their ancient precursors, while the youngest Tlayacatl of Pozon bears a much more uniform and modern appearance comparable to the 20th century urban developments of other Zacapine cities. Angatahuaca is relatively unique among the modern Zacapine cities thanks in large part to how large the pre-modern urban core had become relative to those of other cities. Due to this pre-existing organic city on Heron island, the modern Angatahuaca has expanded in a pattern largely cooperating with the older patterns of settlement rather than overriding the old city as is the case in other urban centers.
Transportation
Education
Economy
Health
Culture
Climate
The city of Angatahuaca on the eastern coast of the Aztaco republic lies at the confluence of the warm Rezese current from the north and the cold Cecatoya current emerging from the southern circumpolar current. These conditions create the fertile waters of the Matlayahualoyan off the coast of Angatahuaca, as well as the frequent morning fog and humid subtropical climate of the region. The geography of the city and mountainous barriers of the Aztaco hinterland and the Mixtepemec mountains to the west shield Angatahuaca from cold air currents in winter, making the cold and damp Angatahuaca winters milder than those of the major western cities. The extremes of cold and hot climate are generally regulated by the onshore breeze from Angatahuaca bay and the Amictlan ocean which moderates climate conditions, although they also increase the rate of precipitation in the region relative to the more continental climates further west and north. The highly urbanized environment also gives rise to a heat island effect, making the nighttime and wintertime temperatures in the city generally warmer than those of the outlying areas across the Aztaco republic.
| Climate data for Heron island | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 74 (23) |
80 (27) |
89 (32) |
97 (36) |
99 (37) |
103 (39) |
108 (42) |
105 (41) |
105 (41) |
96 (36) |
85 (29) |
76 (24) |
108 (42) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 40.0 (4.4) |
43.0 (6.1) |
50.9 (10.5) |
62.6 (17.0) |
72.6 (22.6) |
81.8 (27.7) |
86.9 (30.5) |
84.7 (29.3) |
77.7 (25.4) |
66.0 (18.9) |
54.9 (12.7) |
44.8 (7.1) |
63.8 (17.7) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 32.8 (0.4) |
35.1 (1.7) |
42.5 (5.8) |
53.3 (11.8) |
63.3 (17.4) |
72.7 (22.6) |
78.2 (25.7) |
76.4 (24.7) |
69.2 (20.7) |
57.5 (14.2) |
47.0 (8.3) |
38.0 (3.3) |
55.5 (13.1) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 25.5 (−3.6) |
27.2 (−2.7) |
34.2 (1.2) |
44.1 (6.7) |
53.9 (12.2) |
63.6 (17.6) |
69.4 (20.8) |
68.0 (20.0) |
60.7 (15.9) |
49.0 (9.4) |
39.0 (3.9) |
31.2 (−0.4) |
47.2 (8.4) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −8 (−22) |
−14 (−26) |
6 (−14) |
16 (−9) |
33 (1) |
41 (5) |
51 (11) |
45 (7) |
35 (2) |
25 (−4) |
12 (−11) |
−8 (−22) |
−14 (−26) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 3.42 (87) |
2.98 (76) |
4.13 (105) |
3.87 (98) |
3.97 (101) |
4.34 (110) |
4.66 (118) |
4.15 (105) |
3.82 (97) |
3.79 (96) |
3.33 (85) |
4.14 (105) |
46.60 (1,184) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 9.1 (23) |
10.1 (26) |
5.6 (14) |
0.5 (1.3) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.2 (0.51) |
0.6 (1.5) |
5.4 (14) |
31.5 (80) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 10.6 | 10.0 | 10.9 | 11.5 | 11.4 | 10.9 | 10.0 | 9.8 | 8.7 | 9.4 | 8.8 | 11.1 | 123.1 |
| Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) | 4.6 | 3.8 | 2.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 2.8 | 14.5 |