The Messianic Quetzalcoatl - an Invention of Colonial Times

What is it about?

In most american school books you can read that the Aztec ruler Moctezuma confused the Spanish conquistador Cortés with Quetzalcoatl, the “white and red-bearded” god of the Aztecs. And important scholars are convinced that the expected return of Quetzalcoatl played a major role in the conquest of Mexico. But this is a legend, due to Hernando Cortés and the Christian ideology of power, which was adopted by the Aztec elite for own purposes. Immediately after meeting the Aztec ruler Moctezuma Hernando Cortés wrote a letter to his king, the Roman-German Emperor Charles V, and reported that his arrival has been awaited. But the messianic traits of Moctezuma's speech are very suspicious. In Cortés' report Moctezuma uses words we also find in the gospels. Several aztec sources describe Quetzalcoatl as a mirror image of Jesus Christ. But it is less known that also the Aztec ruler appeared as a mirror image of the Roman-German Emperor. The Roman-German Emperor was regarded as the representative of Jesus Christ. So this article compares how the Aztec ruler and the Emperor were made sacred. We can see that in our documents Quetzalcoatl played the same legitimizing role to make the ruler sacred as did Jesus Christ. Those parallels need an explanation. Whereas the messianic traits of the Roman-German Emperor are very consistent with the Christian ideology of power and the millenarian zeitgeist of the era of Charles V the messianic Quetzalcoatl and the belief in his return do not fit into Aztec culture and religion. Cortés invented the legend of a returning leader in order to make Charles V a Mexican Emperor and to justify his own rebellion against his superior. His conquest, actually an act of insubordination, turned into the fulfilment of salvation history. Cortés' invention was successful because Emperor Charles was dependent on it too. And the Aztec elite used this invention to create a new legitimation of power which could be accepted more easily by the Spanish than the original ideology of war.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This article shows the importance of a cross-cultural perspective. In the past scholars of Mesoamerican Studies denied that European History had any constituent influence on Mesoamerican cultural settings and were too credulous in the reliability of native historical sources. They did not realize that most of these sources wanted to promote the author's intentions rather than to report ancient history. The Aztecs never confused Cortés with Quetzalcoatl and did not believe in his return before the arrival of the Spanish. It did not play any role in the conquest of Mexico.

Perspectives