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1908_8 | In video games
Tails debuted in November 1992 with the release of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2, playing the part of Sonic's sidekick. He was a playable character from the second controller and could be chosen as player one for the main game. Sonic Chaos (1993), on the Game Gear/Master System was the second game where the player could control Tails and the first time the player could control his flight. Tails also made a minor cameo in Sonic CD for the Sega CD, appearing in the debug mode unlock screen. Tails makes an appearance alongside Sonic in the little known arcade game, SegaSonic Popcorn Shop, a Japanese arcade game which also dispenses popcorn.
Tails made his third major appearance in the 1994 game, Sonic 3 (& Knuckles), with the ability to pick up Sonic and use his tails to fly him to other areas, rotating his tails like a helicopter. He also gained the ability to swim under water, something Sonic has never been able to do. |
1908_9 | Tails has also starred in games without Sonic, such as Tails' Skypatrol, which is a side-scrolling score attack like game for the Game Gear released exclusively in Japan. This was followed by Tails Adventures later the same year, which is a Metroid-esque platformer with RPG elements. Tails is also the star of Tails and the Music Maker for the Sega Pico.
Tails was intended to appear in the Sega 32X game Knuckles' Chaotix, but was scrapped during development. Leftover data of him still remains in the game, and can be played as by using a cheat code. |
1908_10 | In later games, Tails had roles that require unique modes of play including Sonic Adventure, where he appears as one of the six playable characters. His gameplay is based around standard platforming stages, but the goal of each stage is to get to the Chaos Emerald before Sonic, or to the missile dud in the final race against Eggman. In Sonic Adventure 2, he is featured in third-person-shooting segments, seated in his "Cyclone" mech. These stages, along with Dr. Eggman's shooting levels in the same game, were very similar to the E-102 Gamma levels of Sonic Adventure. In Sonic Adventure, he was given a theme song "Believe In Myself", of which another version appeared in Sonic Adventure 2. |
1908_11 | Tails also appeared either as a playable character or in a supporting role in many later Sonic titles and still often resumes his role flying other characters around, such as in Sonic Heroes, where Tails appears on Team Sonic as their flight-type character, being capable of carrying both Sonic and Knuckles the Echidna.
Tails is seen in the background of Green Hill Zone along with Silver and Knuckles in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and also appears as a trophy, he makes an appearance in the game's two sequels as well. He is the third character the player unlocks in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, where he acts as a team medic.
Tails appears in Sonic Unleashed, where he helps Sonic restore the shattered planet, largely by flying Sonic from continent to continent in the game.
Tails takes a supporting role in Sonic and the Black Knight, portrayed as a local blacksmith who helps players craft goods from the items Sonic collects. |
1908_12 | He appears as a playable character in all of the Mario & Sonic titles, as well as in Sega Superstars Tennis, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Transformed. He also appears in Sonic Colors as a non-playable character.
Tails celebrates Sonic's birthday along with his friends by setting up a party in Sonic Generations, but when the Time Eater appears, it warps them through various time holes, sending Tails to Green Hill. After Sonic frees him, Tails meets his classic counterpart (Classic Tails) and concludes that they were traveling through time and space. They accompany both Sonics throughout the game, later discovering that Eggman and Robotnik are controlling the Time Eater. Both Classic and Modern Tails, along with all of Sonic's friends, help motivate the 2 Sonics to defeat the Time Eater.
The feature to play as Tails was added to the 2011 enhanced port of Sonic CD. He later appeared as a co-op character in the second episode of Sonic 4. |
1908_13 | Tails was added as a playable character in the enhanced port of Sonic the Hedgehog released in 2013 for mobile devices. The port also has the option to play the "Sonic and Tails" mode as well. |
1908_14 | Sonic and Tails end up facing a group of villains allied with Dr. Eggman, called the Deadly Six when they were shot down while chasing him in the Tornado in Sonic Lost World. They run into Eggman and notice him wielding a Cacophonic Conch to control the Deadly Six. Despite Tails' warnings, Sonic knocks away the conch, causing the Deadly Six to betray him. Eggman reluctantly teams up with Sonic and Tails to stop them. This causes numerous conflicts between Tails and Eggman and increases tension with his friendship with Sonic since Sonic believes Eggman is their only hope in defeating the Deadly Six. Eventually, Tails gets captured in a trap intended for Sonic, and the Deadly Six plan to use this to their advantage by turning Tails into a robot. However, Tails manages to reprogram the computer that would control his mind. The seemingly-roboticized Tails confronts Sonic at the game's final stage, but by retaining his free will, he takes the Deadly Six by surprise and attacks them. Later |
1908_15 | on, after Sonic defeats Eggman at the game's climax, Sonic apologizes to Tails for doubting him. Tails forgives him and the two return home. |
1908_16 | He is a playable character in the video game Sonic Mania (Plus), playing like his older incarnations along with Sonic, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray.
Tails appears as a playable character in the games Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Shattered Crystal and Fire & Ice.
Tails was also featured in the Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack of Lego Dimensions. He is also playable if the player uses the Tornado as Sonic to fly around the world. In the story mode for the Sonic level titled "Sonic Dimensions", Tails assists Sonic using the Tornado and his technological knowledge. In the hub world, Tails has a side quest for the player to aid him in disabling all of Eggman's roboticizers.
Tails is a supporting non-playable character in Sonic Forces, finding Classic Sonic and joining up with the resistance in opposing Dr. Eggman and Infinite the Jackal. |
1908_17 | He also appears as a downloadable Mii Fighter costume in the crossover fighting games Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Ultimate, as well as being featured as a Spirit in the latter.
In other media
Tails is a supporting character in the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X and Sonic Boom, as well as the Sonic the Hedgehog 1996. Tails also makes a guest appearance in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Let's Meet Sonic". In print, he is a supporting character in the Comics-produced Sonic the Hedgehog comic series as well as the Fleetway-produced Sonic the Comic. |
1908_18 | Tails appears in the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film during a mid-credits sequence, emerging from a ring portal onto Earth in search of Sonic. Early drafts for the film featured Tails in a bigger role, with some drafts featuring him as Sonic's best friend in his world, as in the games, while another draft featured him as one of the main characters in the film. However, when it was decided to center the film's storyline on Sonic being alone on Earth, the filmmakers decided to use Tails as a teaser for a sequel through a cameo in the film's mid-credits scene, a role co-writer Pat Casey compared to Nick Fury's role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Tails is set to feature more prominently in the sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the logo of which features an orange "2" with two tails attached in homage to the character. The film is expected to be released on April 8, 2022. |
1908_19 | Reception and legacy
Reception to Tails has been widely positive. He was awarded "Best New Character" in Electronic Gaming Monthlys 1992 video game awards, stating "not only is he as cute as Sonic, but he actually serves a major purpose in the game." IGN editor Lucas M. Thompson listed Tails as one of the Sonic the Hedgehog characters who should be in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, citing his importance in the series and his abilities. IGN editor Levi Buchanan stated that the fan response to Tails' introduction was favorable, which led to further introductions such as Knuckles. Unlike most Sonic characters, Tails has received consistently positive opinions from the Sonic fanbase over the years. |
1908_20 | Tails is remembered for helping Sonic 2 become the second-highest-selling game for the Genesis through allowing a second player to join the game. He has been featured on many "Top Sidekicks" lists. Maximum PC listed him as their third-greatest sidekick, Machinima.com ranked him fifth, and Maxim listed him as the eighth-most-underrated sidekick. Ranking him as the sixth-greatest, Mashable stated that Tails "pretty much embodies the definition of 'sidekick'". Sonic and Tails were together ranked as IGN's ninth-greatest gaming duo. Morgan Sleeper of NintendoLife called Tails "one of Sega's most beloved mascots". |
1908_21 | However, IGN staff writer Levi Buchanan stated that when SEGA noticed the popularity of Tails, and, later, Knuckles, they "just kept stuffing new faces and names into the game, pulling attention away from their hero." GameDaily listed the "annoying sidekick" in their top 25 video game archetypes list, citing Tails as an example of this. GamesRadar+ listed him as number one on their list of cutesy characters they wanted to beat up, stating that while he started out as interesting, he led to the creation of other characters who "choked the life out the franchise". They cited him being a "know-it-all" in later games as to why they hate him so much. Official Nintendo Magazine listed him as the second-best Sonic character.
See also
Foxes in popular culture, films and literature
Fox spirit
Kitsune
Kumiho
Notes
References
External links
Tails at Sonic Channel |
1908_22 | Animal superheroes
Anthropomorphic foxes
Animal characters in video games
Anthropomorphic characters in video games
Child characters in video games
Fictional aviators
Fictional inventors in video games
Fictional mechanics
Fictional scientists in video games
Male characters in video games
Orphan characters in video games
Sega protagonists
Sonic the Hedgehog characters
Video game characters introduced in 1992
Video game characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Video game sidekicks
Video game superheroes |
1909_0 | The 1955 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1955 Big Ten Conference football season. In their eighth season under head coach Bennie Oosterbaan, the Wolverines finished in third place in the Big Ten Conference, compiled a 7–2 record (5–2 against Big Ten opponents), and were ranked No. 12 and No. 13 in the final AP and UPI Polls. |
1909_1 | In the second week of the season, the Wolverines defeated Michigan State, 14–7. The game was the only loss of the season for Michigan State which was ranked No. 2 in the final AP and UPI polls. The Wolverines were ranked No. 2 in the country after defeating the Spartans and rose to No. 1 after defeating the No. 6 ranked Army football team by a 26–2 score the following week. In late October 1955, quarterback Jim Maddock threw touchdown passes of 65 and 60 yard in the fourth quarter to lead a come-from-behind victory over Iowa in a nationally televised game. After starting the season 6-0, the team lost to Illinois on November 5, 1955. In the final game of the season, the Wolverines were favored but lost to Ohio State on November 19. |
1909_2 | Left end Ron Kramer was a consensus first-team All-American. Kramer and right end Tom Maentz were nicknamed the "touchdown twins," became the first Michigan football players to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and were both first-team selections for the All-Big Ten team. Left halfback Terry Barr was selected as the team's most valuable player. The team's statistical leaders were Tony Branoff with 387 rushing yards, Jim Maddock with 343 passing yards, and Tom Maentz with 253 receiving yards.
Schedule
Season summary
Preseason
The 1954 Michigan Wolverines football team compiled a 6–3 record (5–2 Big Ten), finished in third place in the conference, and was ranked No. 15 in the final AP and UP polls. At the end of the 1954 season, right guard Ed Meads, a junior from Oxford, Michigan, was selected by his teammates to be captain of the 1955 team. |
1909_3 | In May 1955, freshman quarterback Jim Van Pelt received the team's Meyer W. Morton trophy as the most improved player in spring practice.
Missouri
On September 23, Michigan opened its season with a 42–7 victory over Don Faurot's Missouri Tigers. The game was played before a crowd of 55,608 at Michigan Stadium. Left end Ron Kramer scored 23 points for Michigan on three touchdowns and five extra points. The Wolverines out-gained the Tigers by 318 yards (164 rushing, 154 passing) to 115 yards (48 rushing, 67 passing).
Michigan State
On October 1, Michigan defeated Michigan State, 14–7, before a crowd of 97,239 at Michigan Stadium. Michigan's first touchdown was set up when Michigan halfback Tony Branoff intercepted the first pass thrown by Michigan State quarterback Earl Morrall. Branoff returned the ball 38 yards to the Spartans' 20-yard line and scored the touchdown six plays later on a short run. |
1909_4 | After a poor 24-yard punt by Ron Kramer, Michigan State tied the game in the third quarter on a short run and extra-point kick by fullback Jerry Planutis. Later in the third quarter, John Morrow blocked an Earl Morrall punt, and Michigan took over at the Spartans' 21-yard line. Quarterback Jim Maddock scored on a short run, and Kramer kicked the extra point to give Michigan a 14–7 lead. The Spartans out-gained the Wolverines by totals of 215 yards to 151 yards and had twice as many first downs.
Army |
1909_5 | On October 8, Michigan (ranked No. 2) defeated Army (ranked No. 6) by a score of 26–2 before a crowd of 97,239 at Michigan Stadium. Junior halfback Terry Barr led Michigan's offense and also scored on an 82-yard punt return in the second quarter. Army had scored 116 points in its first two games, but stalled against the Wolverines. The Cadets fumbled the ball nine times with Michigan recovering on eight. Adding to Army's offensive woes, the Cadets completed only one of 10 passes. It was Michigan's first victory against Army after five prior losses. It was also the worst defeat for an Army football team since 1952.
Michigan end Ron Kramer sustained a bruised chest in the second quarter, collapsed in the tunnel, and was rushed to University Hospital in an ambulance. |
1909_6 | The game was also marked by a halftime incident when Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker and top military brass attempted to cross the field and became tangled with the Michigan Marching Band. The Michigan Daily reported that the band was supposed to wait for the military contingent to cross the field, but Michigan band director William Revelli said he had not been informed of the trip.
Northwestern |
1909_7 | On October 15, Michigan defeated Lou Saban's Northwestern Wildcats, 14–2, before a crowd of 76,703 at Michigan Stadium. Terry Barr's 46-yard touchdown run was the highlight for Michigan. In a defensive struggle, Northwestern out-gained Michigan by 173 yards (128 rushing, 45 passing) to 168 yards (150 rushing, 18 passing). It was the third consecutive week in which the Wolverines won despite being out-gained. The Wolverines converted only six first downs and completed only two of seven passes and threw an interception. Tommy Devine of the Detroit Free Press wrote that the Wolverines won despite being "flat, feeble and uninspired."
Minnesota |
1909_8 | On October 22, Michigan (ranked No. 1) defeated Murray Warmath's Minnesota Golden Gophers by a 14–13 score in the annual Little Brown Jug game before a crowd of 64,434 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Minnesota took a 13–0 lead with two touchdowns in the first quarter. Terry Barr closed the gap with a five-yard touchdown run near the end of the second quarter. Michigan took the lead in the third quarter on a nine-yard touchdown pass from Jim Van Pelt to Tom Maentz. Michigan dropped to No. 3 in the AP poll after the game.
Iowa
On October 29, Michigan defeated Forest Evashevski's Iowa Hawkeyes by a score of 33–21 before a homecoming crowd of 72,096 and a national television audience at Michigan Stadium. Iowa took a 14–0 lead at halftime and 21–13 at the start of the fourth quarter. |
1909_9 | Quarterback Jim Maddock came into the game in the fourth quarter and led the Wolverines to three touchdowns. On Maddock's first drive, Michigan was backed up to its 35-yard line after a sack. Maddock then threw a long pass to Ron Kramer; Kramer caught the ball at Iowa's 38-yard line and managed to stay in bounds as he ran along the sideline for a 65-yard touchdown. Kramer then kicked the extra point to bring the Wolverines within one point (21–20) with 8:50 remaining.
After Kramer's touchdown, Iowa drove to Michigan's 28-yard line with a time-consuming ground attack. On fourth-and-one, Michigan's defense stopped Iowa's Jerry Reichow for a one-yard loss. Michigan took over with 3:37 remaining. After a pass interference penalty moved the ball to Michigan's 40-yard line, Maddock threw a long pass to Tom Maentz; Maentz caught the pass at the Iowa 25-yard line and ran into the end zone untouched. Kramer again kicked the extra point, and Michigan led, 26–21, with 3:24 remaining. |
1909_10 | After the Maentz touchdown, Iowa threw four incomplete passes, and Michigan then took over with two-and-a-half minutes remaining. Tony Branoff ran 30 yards for Michigan's final touchdown. Kramer's kick was blocked, and Michigan won by a 33–21 score. The Michigan Daily described it as "perhaps the most thrilling game ever to be played in the Michigan Stadium." The Detroit Free Press called it "one of the greatest comebacks of this, or any, football season." The victory was Michigan's sixth straight.
Illinois
On November 5, Michigan (ranked No. 3) lost to Illinois by a 25–6 score before a crowd of 58,968 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. The game was tied, 6–6, at halftime, but the Illini scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half. Sophomore halfback Bobby Mitchell gained 173 yards, including runs of 54 and 64 yards, on 10 carries for Illinois. After the loss, Michigan dropped to No. 7 in the AP poll.
Indiana |
1909_11 | On November 12, Michigan defeated Indiana, 30–0, before a crowd of 60,613 at Michigan Stadium. Michigan's defense held the Hoosiers to minus 26 rushing yards in the first half and 61 yards of total offense in the game. On offense, Michigan totaled 302 rushing yards and 71 passing yards.
Ohio State |
1909_12 | On November 19, Michigan (ranked No. 6) lost to Ohio State (No. 9) by a 17–0 score before a record crowd of 97,369 at Michigan Stadium. Heisman Trophy winner Howard "Hopalong" Cassady, playing in his final game for the Buckeyes, rushed for 146 yards on 28 carries. The Buckeyes out-gained the Wolverines by 333 rushing yards to 95. Neither team tallied significant yardage in the air: Michigan completed three of nine passes for 14 yards and gave up two interceptions; Ohio State completed one of three passes for four yards. A Michigan victory would have given the Wolverines a conference championship and sent the team to the 1956 Rose Bowl. Instead, Ohio State won the conference championship, and Michigan State received the conference's Rose Bowl invitation. |
1909_13 | It was the Buckeyes' first victory at Michigan Stadium since 1937. The Michigan Daily called it "one of the darkest days in Michigan football history." At the end of the game, "18,000 fanatical Buckeye rooters . . . swept to the field in a thunderous display of hysteria."
Postseason
In the final AP Poll, Michigan was ranked No. 12. Michigan State was ranked No. 2, and Ohio State No. 5.
At a meeting of the team's lettermen held on November 28, left halfback Terry Barr was selected by as the team's most valuable player. At the same meeting, right end Tom Maentz was selected as captain of the 1956 team. |
1909_14 | Left end Ron Kramer received numerous honors, including:
Kramer finished eighth in the balloting for the 1955 Heisman Trophy.
Kramer was selected as a consensus first-team end on the 1955 All-America college football team. He received first-team honors from the All-America Board, American Football Coaches Association/Collier's Weekly, Football Writers Association of America/Look magazine, International News Service, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Sporting News, United Press, Jet magazine, and the Walter Camp Football Foundation. On November 27, he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show as part of the Collier's All-America team. He was ineligible for the Associated Press (AP) All-America team as a result of having missed games due to injury.
Kramer was selected by the Associated Press as a first-team end on both the 1955 All-Big Ten Conference football team and the All-Midwestern football team. |
1909_15 | End Tom Maentz also received multiple post-season honors including a second-team All-America designation from the AP, and a first-team All-Big Ten honors from the AP and UP, and first-team All-Midwest honors from the UP.
Other Michigan player receiving All-Big Ten honors were halfback Tony Branoff (UP-1), center James Bates (UP-2), guard Dick Hill (UP-3), and fullback Lou Baldacci (UP-3).
Statistical leaders
Rushing
Passing
Receiving
Kickoff returns
Punt returns
Personnel
Coaching staff
Head coach: Bennie Oosterbaan
Assistant coaches:
Jack Blott - line coach
Don Dufek
Robert Hollway - assistant line coach
Cliff Keen
Pete Kinyon
Matt Patanelli
Don Robinson - backfield coach
Walter Weber - freshman coach
Trainer: Jim Hunt
Manager: Casper Grathwol
Players |
1909_16 | Starting backfield
The following players started at least three games in the backfield for the 1955 Michigan team:
Lou Baldacci, fullback, senior, Akron, Ohio - started 7 games at fullback
Terry Barr, halfback, junior, Grand Rapids, Michigan - started 9 games at left halfback
Tony Branoff, halfback, senior, Flint, Michigan - started 9 games at right halfback
Jim Maddock, quarterback, junior, Chicago, Illinois - started 6 games at quarterback
Jim Van Pelt, quarterback, sophomore, Evanston, Illinois - started 3 games at quarterbac |
1909_17 | Starting linemen
The following players started at least three games in the line for the 1955 Michigan team:
James V. Bates, center, senior, Farmington, Michigan - started 7 games at center
Dick Hill, guard, junior, Gary, Indiana - started 9 games at left guard
Ron Kramer, end, junior, East Detroit, Michigan - started 6 games at left end
Tom Maentz, end, junior, Holland, Michigan - started 7 games at right end
Ed Meads, guard, senior, Oxford, Michigan - started 9 games at right guard
James B. Orwig, tackle, junior, Toledo, Ohio - started 9 games at left tackle
Mike Rotunno, end, junior, Canton, Ohio - started 3 games at left end
Lionel Albert Sigman, tackle, junior, Ann Arbor, Michigan - started 9 games at right tackle |
1909_18 | Other letter winners
A total of 38 players received varsity letters for their participation on the 1955 football team. In addition to the starters referenced above, the following players also received varsity letters:
James N. Bowman, center, senior, Charlevoix, Michigan - center
Charles Brooks, end, junior, Marshall, Michigan - started 2 games at right end
George R. Corey, halfback, senior, Baden, Pennsylvania
Clement Corona, guard, junior, Berwick, Pennsylvania
James H. Davies, tackle, junior, Muskegon Heights, Michigan
Dale L. Eldred, guard, junior, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lawrence Faul, end, junior, River Forest, Illinois
James W. Fox, guard, senior, Saginaw, Michigan
Jerry P. Goebel, center, junior, Grosse Pointe, Michigan - started 2 games at center
John Greenwood, quarterback, junior, Bay City, Michigan
Thomas Hendricks, halfback, senior, Detroit, Michigan
Richard B. Heynen, tackle, junior, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Edward L. Hickey, halfback, senior, Anaconda, Montana |
1909_19 | David J. Hill, fullback, senior, Ypsilanti, Michigan
Earl Johnson, Jr., fullback, senior, Muskegon Heights, Michigan
Carl R. Kamhout, tackle, senior, Grand Haven, Michigan
Stanley Knickerbocker, halfback, senior, Chelsea, Michigan
William Kolesar, tackle, senior, Mentor, Ohio
Robert L. Marion, guard, senior, Muskegon Heights, Michigan
John M. Morrow, tackle, senior, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Marvin R. Nyren, guard, junior, Des Plaines, Illinois
Jim Pace, halfback, sophomore, Little Rock, Arkansas
John Peckham, center, senior, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
David F. Rentschler, end, senior, Detroit, Michigan
Edward J. Shannon, halfback, junior, River Forest, Illinois - started 1 game at fullbackk |
1909_20 | Reserves
The following additional players were awarded reserve letters.
Peter J. Aluzzo, center, Detroit, Michigan
George J. Armelagos, guard, Allen Park, Michigan
Paul T. Baldwin, quarterback, senior, Escanaba, Michigan
Thomas E. Berger, guard, sophomore, Detroit, Michigan
Alex Bochnowski, guard, sophomore, Munster, Indiana
James A. Dickey, quarterback, sophomore, Miamisburg, Ohio
Jerry I. Gonser, end, senior, Saline, Michigan
James P. Gray, tackle, freshman, Battle Creek, Michigan
Robert L. Henderson, tackle, Evansville, Indiana
Jerry Janecke, halfback, sophomore, Rock Island, Illinois
Richard L. Ketteman, Toledo, Ohio
Walter W. Klinge, halfback, sophomore, West Brooklyn, Illinois
Charles H. Krahnke, guard, senior, Wyandotte, Michigan
John C. Kreger, tackle, sophomore, Flat Rock, Michigan
Frederick Krueger, end, sophomore, Allen Park, Michigan |
1909_21 | Jack Lousma, quarterback, sophomore, Ann Arbor, Michigan - Lousma became a NASA astronaut and politician. He was a member of the Skylab 3 crew in 1973 and the commander of STS-3, the third space shuttle mission in 1983.
William MacPhee, center, sophomore, Grand Haven, Michigan
Charles F. Matulis, halfback, junior, East Chicago, Indiana
Ernest H. McCoy, halfback, State College, Pennsylvania
Joseph H. McKoan, end, junior, Algonac, Michigan
John A. Miller, end, Jackson, Michigan
Gordon H. Morrow, end, sophomore, Ann Arbor, Michigan
David G. Owen, tackle, junior, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Donald F. Rembiesa, center, sophomore, Dearborn, Michigan
Mike Rodriguez, halfback, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Richard J. Ruhuala, fullback, Flint, Michigan
Michael Shatusky, halfback, junior, Menominee, Michigan
Robert E. Sriver, halfback, senior, Mishawaka, Indiana
William B. Steinmeyer, guard, junior, Toledo, Ohio
Stephen J. Zervas, fullback, senior, Hazel Park, Michigan |
1909_22 | Freshmen
John Herrnstein
Gary Prahst
Bob Ptacek
Willie Smith
Tony Rio
Awards and honors
Captain: Ed Meads
All-Americans: Ron Kramer
All-Conference: Ron Kramer (AP and UP first team), Tom Maentz (AP and UP first team), Tony Branoff (UPI first team and AP honorable mention), Jim Bates (UP second team and AP honorable mention)
Most Valuable Player: Terry Barr
Meyer Morton Award: Jim Van Pelt
References
External links
1955 Football Team -- Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan Athletics History
Michigan
Michigan Wolverines football seasons
Michigan Wolverines football |
1910_0 | Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn (in Middle Welsh, Annwvn, Annwyn, Annwyfn, Annwvyn, or Annwfyn) is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it was essentially a world of delights and eternal youth where disease was absent and food was ever-abundant.
It became identified with the Christian afterlife in paradise (or heaven).
Name and etymology
Middle Welsh sources suggest that the term was recognised as meaning "very deep" in medieval times. The appearance of a form antumnos on an ancient Gaulish curse tablet, which means an ('other') + tumnos ('world'), however, suggests that the original term may have been *ande-dubnos, a common Gallo-Brittonic word that literally meant "underworld". The pronunciation of Modern Welsh Annwn is . |
1910_1 | Mythical locations
In both Welsh and Irish mythologies, the Otherworld was believed to be located either on an island or underneath the earth. In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, it is implied that Annwn is a land within Dyfed, while the context of the Arthurian poem Preiddeu Annwfn suggests an island location. Two other otherworldly feasts that occur in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi are located in Harlech in northwest Wales and on Ynys Gwales in southwest Pembrokeshire. |
1910_2 | Appearances in Welsh literature
Annwn plays a reasonably prominent role in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, a set of four interlinked mythological tales dating from the early medieval period. In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, entitled Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, the eponymous prince offends Arawn, ruler of Annwn, by baiting his hunting hounds on a stag that Arawn's dogs had brought down. In recompense he exchanges places with Arawn for a year and defeats Arawn's enemy Hafgan, while Arawn rules in his stead in Dyfed. During this year, Pwyll abstains from sleeping with Arawn's wife, earning himself gratitude and eternal friendship from Arawn. On his return, Pwyll becomes known by the title Penn Annwn, "Head (or Ruler) of Annwn." In the Fourth Branch, Arawn is mentioned but does not appear; it is revealed that he sent a gift of otherworldly pigs to Pwyll's son and successor, Pryderi, which ultimately leads to war between Dyfed and Gwynedd. |
1910_3 | The similarly mythological epic poem Cad Goddeu describes a battle between Gwynedd and the forces of Annwn, led again by Arawn. It is revealed that Amaethon, nephew to Math, king of Gwynedd, stole a bitch, a lapwing and a roebuck from the Otherworld, leading to a war between the two peoples. The denizens of Annwn are depicted as bizarre and hellish creatures; these include a "wide-mawed" beast with a hundred heads and bearing a host beneath the root of its tongue and another under its neck, a hundred-clawed black-groined toad, and a "mottled ridged serpent, with a thousand souls, by their sins, tortured in the holds of its flesh". Gwydion, the Venedotian hero and magician successfully defeats Arawn's army, first by enchanting the trees to rise up and fight and then by guessing the name of the enemy hero Bran, thus winning the battle. |
1910_4 | Preiddeu Annwfn, an early medieval poem found in the Book of Taliesin, describes a voyage led by King Arthur to the numerous otherworldy kingdoms within Annwn, either to rescue the prisoner Gweir or to retrieve the cauldron of the Head of Annwn. The narrator of the poem is possibly intended to be Taliesin himself. One line can be interpreted as implying that he received his gift of poetry or speech from a magic cauldron, as Taliesin does in other texts, and Taliesin's name is connected to a similar story in another work. The speaker relates how he journeyed with Arthur and three boatloads of men into Annwfn, but only seven returned. Annwfn is apparently referred to by several names, including "Mound Fortress," "Four-Peaked Fortress," and "Glass Fortress", though it is possible the poet intended these to be distinct places. Within the Mound Fort's walls Gweir, one of the "Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain" known from the Welsh Triads, is imprisoned in chains. The narrator then |
1910_5 | describes the cauldron of the Chief of Annwn: it is finished with pearl and will not boil a coward's food. Whatever tragedy ultimately killed all but seven of them is not clearly explained. The poem continues with an excoriation of "little men" and monks, who lack various forms of knowledge possessed by the poet. |
1910_6 | Over time, the role of king of Annwn was transferred to Gwyn ap Nudd, a hunter and psychopomp, who may have been the Welsh personification of winter. The Christian Vita Collen tells of Saint Collen vanquishing Gwyn and his otherworldly court from Glastonbury Tor with the use of holy water. In Culhwch and Olwen, an early Welsh Arthurian tale, it is said that God gave Gwyn ap Nudd control over the demons lest "this world be destroyed." Tradition revolves around Gwyn leading his spectral hunts, the Cŵn Annwn ("Hounds of Annwn"), on his hunt for mortal souls.
Annwn in modern culture
In 2004, the online game Runescape introduced a region to the game inhabited by elves called Tirannwn. The name means "Land of Annwn" in Welsh.
The Dark, a 2005 film directed by John Fawcett and based on the novel Sheep by Simon Maginn, involves the legend, though set in contemporary times. |
1910_7 | In the 2015 British film Arthur and Merlin Arthur receives the sword Annwn as a gift from the Otherworld in order to defeat the god Hafgan.
Annwn is the name of a German medieval and pagan folk duo from North Rhine-Westphalia. The name was also previously used by an unrelated Celtic Rock trio in Berkeley, California, from 1991 until the death of lead singer Leigh Ann Hussey on 16 May 2006.
British author Niel Bushnell's novels Sorrowline and Timesmith feature an island called Annwn in the realm of Otherworld.
The Anglo-Welsh author, poet, critic and playwright, David Jones Annwn (born 1953) adopted the name Annwn in 1975 in the same spirit that his great-uncle, the Welsh bard , had adopted the name Ap Hefin ("Son of the Summer Solstice").
The Gaulish term Antumnos and the otherworld features heavily in Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie's 2014 release Origins, specifically in the song "King". |
1910_8 | Using the variant spelling Annwyn, it is an otherworldly location in the MMORPG Vindictus. Vindictus is loosely based on Celtic mythology, and known as Mabinogi: Heroes in Asia.
Annwyn, Beneath the Waves is the second album by American gothic rock/dark wave band Faith and the Muse.
Children's author Lloyd Alexander used the name "Annuvin", an Anglicized spelling of the variant Annwfyn, in his Chronicles of Prydain series. Annuvin is the domain of Arawn, who in these novels plays the role of Evil Overlord.
American avant-garde composer Mick Barr, under his pseudonym Ocrilim, released an album titled Annwn in 2008, consisting of compositions for three guitars. A sequel Annwn 2 was released in 2012 and solo-guitar versions of both albums in 2015 called Cruinn Annwn.
Australian abstract artist Estelle Asmodelle painted works entitled "Journey in Annwn" and "The Otherworld of Annwn".
One of the areas in the platform-adventure video game La-Mulana 2 is named Annwfn. |
1910_9 | Annwn: The Otherworld]] is a surreal stealth/strategy game drawing on Welsh mythic motifs.
Annwn is one of the deep realms of Faerie in October Daye, a 2012 urban fantasy series written by Seanan McGuire.
J. R. R. Tolkien used the word "annún" in his "Middle-Earth" mythology as a term in the elvish language Sindarin (phonologically inspired by Welsh) meaning "west" or "sunset" (corresponding to the Quenya "Andúnë"), often referring figuratively to the "True West", i.e. the blessed land of Aman beyond the Sea, the Lonely Island "Tol Eressëa", or, (in the later mannish usage) to the drowned island of Númenor. This is an example of Tolkien's method of world-building, by "explaining the true meaning" of various real-world words by assigning them an alternative "elvish" etymology.
In 2021, Bearded Badger published a book by Ross Lowe, Step Forward Harry Salt, which heavily features Annwn and King Gwynn.
See also
Avalon
Caer Sidi
Tír na nÓg
Tol Eressëa
Notes |
1910_10 | Sources
Lambert, Pierre-Yves. (2003). La langue gauloise: description linguistique, commentaire d’inscriptions choisies. Paris: Errance. 2nd ed.
Sims-Williams, Patrick. (1990). "Some Celtic otherworld terms". Celtic Language, Celtic Culture: a Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp, ed. Ann T. E. Matonis and Daniel F. Mela, pp. 57–84. Van Nuys, Ca.: Ford & Bailie.
Davies, Sioned. (2007). The Mabinogion – a new translation. (Oxford World's Classics.)
Mac Cana, Proinsias. (1983). Celtic Mythology (Library of the World's Myths and Legends). Littlehampton Book Services Ltd.
Lindahl, C. A. (2000–2002). Medieval Folklore. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc.
Matthews, John. (1996). Sources of the Grail. Edinburgh: Floris Books .
Dixon-Kennedy, Mike. (1996). Celtic Myth & Legend''. London: Blandford and Cassel Imprint .
Locations associated with Arthurian legend
Locations in Celtic mythology
Welsh mythology
Taliesin
Underworld |
1911_0 | The city now known as Mexico City was founded as Mexico Tenochtitlan in 1325 and a century later became the dominant city-state of the Aztec Triple Alliance, formed in 1430 and composed of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. At its height, Tenochtitlan had enormous temples and palaces, a huge ceremonial center, residences of political, religious, military, and merchants. Its population was estimated at least 100,000 and perhaps as high as 200,000 in 1519 when the Spaniards first saw it. |
1911_1 | During the final stage of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, Spanish forces besieged and razed Tenochtitlan. Hernán Cortés understood the strategic and symbolic importance of the Aztec capital, founded the Spanish capital of Mexico City on the site, and in particular rebuilt the Aztec ceremonial and political center as the main square, the Plaza Mayor, usually called the Zócalo. Some of the oldest structures in Mexico City date from the early conquest era. Many colonial-era buildings remain standing and have been re-purposed as government buildings and museums. As the seats of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Archbishopric of New Spain, Mexico City was the center not only of political and religious institutions but also of Mexico's economic activity and the residence of social elites in colonial Mexico (1521–1821). Great merchant houses were located here, and the economic elites of the country also lived in the city, even if the sources of their wealth lay elsewhere. The |
1911_2 | concentration of mansions and palaces in what is now the Mexico City historic center led it to be nicknamed the "City of Palaces", a sobriquet often attributed, perhaps erroneously, to great savant Alexander von Humboldt. It was also a major educational center: the University of Mexico was founded in 1553 as part of the complex of the Plaza Mayor. The crown-approved attempt to train Nahua men to become Christian priests saw the establishment in 1536 of the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco in one of the two sections of the capital governed by a Nahua city council (cabildo). Many religious institutions for the education of the sons of Spanish elites were also based in the capital. Mexico City had the colony's largest concentration of those of Spanish heritage (both Iberian-born peninsulares and American-born criollos), as well as the largest concentration of mixed race casta population in the colony. Many Indians also lived outside the center of the capital. |
1911_3 | Ever since independence in 1821, Mexico City remains the country's largest and most important city. Post-independence, U.S. forces captured Mexico City during the Mexican–American War, and the city saw violence during the Reform War and the French Intervention as well as the Mexican Revolution. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city's population stood at about 500,000. The city's history in the 20th and 21st centuries has been marked by explosive population growth and its accompanying problems. The city center deteriorated. The government has had problems keeping up with basic services, but the building of the Mexico City Metro has alleviated some major transportation problems. Smog became a serious problem as the shanty towns evolved, formed by the poor of the country migrating to the city. Since the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which caused significant damage to the center of the city, efforts have been made to correct some of these problems. In the 2000s, businessman and |
1911_4 | philanthropist Carlos Slim created a foundation to revitalize the historic center as well as sites near the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe. |
1911_5 | The Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlan
Founding |
1911_6 | The Aztecs were one of the last of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples who migrated to this part of the Valley of Mexico after the fall of the Toltec Empire. Existing inhabitants resisted their presence, but the Aztecs established a city on a small island on the western side of Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs themselves had a story about how their city was founded after their principal god, Huitzilopochtli, led them to the island. According to the story, the god indicated their new home with a sign, an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a snake in its beak. This image appears in Codex Mendoza, one early post-conquest manuscript of many Aztec codices or pictorial texts, and since Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, the image is in the center of the Mexican flag. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states or altepetl around Lake Texcoco and in the Valley of Mexico. When the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire reached much of |
1911_7 | Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. |
1911_8 | Two narratives about the founding of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, which would become modern Mexico City, overlap: the archeological and historic record, and the mythological and historical recounting from the Mexica themselves. The central highlands of what is now Mexico were occupied for many centuries before the founding of the city. To the northeast are the ruins of Teotihuacan, whose empire and civilization mysteriously disappeared around 750 CE. After that, the Toltecs ruled the area in and around the Valley of Mexico until about 1200 CE. After the fall of the Toltec capital of Tollan, large migrations of people moved into the Valley of Mexico, bringing with them the concept of city-state known in Nahuatl as altepetl. This led to the founding of a number of semi-autonomous urban centers around Lake Texcoco each claiming legitimacy as descendants of the Toltecs. By the early 16th century, at least a dozen of these city-states had reached 10,000 in population with Tenochtitlan |
1911_9 | by far the largest at 150,000 and perhaps as high as 200,000. |
1911_10 | The Mexica who founded Tenochtitlan were part of the last wave of migration of Nahuatl-speaking peoples into the valley. Their presence was resisted; however, taking advantage of the nearly constant conflict among the city-states along the lake shores, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan and their allies since 1430 of Texcoco and Tlacopan conquered the Valley of Mexico, exacting tribute from the same powers that resisted their migration in the first place. |
1911_11 | The Mexica story is that they came from a place called Aztlán, described as an island in the middle of a lake. Their god Huitzilopochtli told them to go and look for a promised land. They first arrived around the territory known as Culiacán by 960 CE, but then left and returned to Aztlan. Wandering from Aztlan again around the year "1 Tecpatl" or 1064–65 according to the codices Chimalpahin, Aubin and the Anales de Tlalteloco, they soon arrived at Pátzcuaro. They thought that was the land Huitzilopochtli had promised them, but the god told them to continue. They went east and arrived at Chapultepec, on the edge of what was then Lake Texcoco. The god told them that their promised land was close but that they would have to fight for it. Their first opponent was a chief named Cópil, son of a witch named Malinalxochitl and Huitzilopochtli's sister. The Mexica surrounded Cópil's forces, captured and sacrificed the chief's heart to Huitzilopochtli. |
1911_12 | However, the lords of Azcapotzalco, Tlacopan, Coyoacán and Culhuacan still opposed their arrival. At first they tried diplomacy to convince the Mexica to leave. The Mexica fought these lords and lost, retreating to a place called Acocolco and hiding in the marshes, becoming subjects of a people named the Colhuas. Two years later, the Colhuas asked the Mexicas to fight with them against Xochimilco. While the Mexica impressed the Colhuas with their battle skills, the latter expelled the former when the Mexica sacrificed the hearts of their captives to Huitzilopochtli. They went to Tizapan. After that, they wandered the rim of Lake Texcoco. The migration lasted around 260 years; from 1064 to 1065 to 1325. |
1911_13 | The god indicated that they were getting closer when they arrived at Nexticpan, where San Antonio Abad Hospital is, and later at Mixiuhcan, now the colonia of Magdalena Mixiuhcan. They wandered another 36 years knowing that they were extremely close. Then they sent two priests named Axolóhua and Cuauhcoatl to look for the sign their god promised them. The two found an islet near the western shore of Lake Texcoco surrounded by green water. In the middle of the islet was a nopal, and an eagle perched upon it with its wings spread and its face looking toward the sun. When the eagle left, Axolóhua submerged himself into the waters around the island and Cuaucoatl went back to report what he saw. The people were confused because what the two priests had seen was only part of the sign they were told to expect. Twenty-four hours later Axolóhua returned. While underwater, he saw the god Tlaloc who told him that they did indeed find the place and that they were welcome. They moved to the islet |
1911_14 | and began to construct their city. Later versions of the story have a snake in the eagle's mouth. The Mexica called their city Tenochtitlan meaning "place of the nopal," referring to the myth of its discovery. Gongora gives the day 18 July 1327, but at least three other codices (Azcatitlan, Mexicanus and Mendoza) placed the time of its founding in the year 1325, and los Anales de Tlatelolco adds the day-sign "1 Zipaktli," correlated to the beginning of summer solstice on 20 June. |
1911_15 | Tenochtitlan at its height
Thirteen years after the founding of Tenochtitlan, the population of the islet had grown and there was internal strife. A portion of the population left and went to the nearby island of Tlatelolco, establishing a monarchy there, with their first ruler being Acamapitzin. Shortly thereafter, the people of Tenochtitlan had their own monarchy. The two cities became rivals. Eventually, Tenochtitlan conquered Tlatelolco eliminating its rulers and incorporated the city into Tenochtitlan and was named Mexico which some natives didn't like. |
1911_16 | At its height, just before the Spanish arrived, Tenochtitlan was the center of the vast Aztec Empire, stretching from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts and south towards the Yucatán Peninsula and Oaxaca. With a vast income of tribute, Tenochtitlan grew to become one of the largest and richest urban areas in the world at that time. The city had services and infrastructure that was unheard of in the rest of the world: potable water brought in by aqueducts, drainage systems and wide, paved streets. Their markets boasted of products from nearly every part of Mesoamerica. |
1911_17 | Tenochtitlan roughly correlates with the historic center of modern Mexico City. During the pre-Hispanic era, the city developed in a planned fashion, with streets and canals aligned with the cardinal directions, leading to orderly square blocks. |
1911_18 | The island that the city was founded on was divided into four calpullis or neighborhoods that were divided by the main north–south roads leading to Tepeyac and Iztapalapa respectively and the west–east road that lead to Tacuba and to a dike into the lake, respectively. The calpullis were named Cuepopan, Atzacualco, Moyotla and Zoquipan, which had subdivisions and a "tecpan" or district council for each one. The intersection of these roads was the center of the city and of the Aztec world. Here were the main temple, the palaces of the tlatoani or emperors, palaces of nobles such as the "House of the Demons" and the "House of the Flowers". Also located here were the two most renowned Aztec schools: the Telpuchcalli for secular studies and the Calmecac for priestly training. |
1911_19 | Spanish conquest and reconstruction of city
Conquest of Tenochtitlan
After landing near the modern-day city of Veracruz, Hernán Cortés heard about the great city and also learned of long-standing rivalries and grievances against it. Although Cortés came to Mexico with a very small contingent of Spaniards, he was able to persuade many of the other native peoples to help him destroy Tenochtitlan.
For a time, these allied peoples made use of the arrival of the European in the hopes of creating a world freed of Aztec domination. Spanish objective, however, was that they themselves would benefit from the destruction of Tenochtitlan, making the native peoples not free, but rather more subservient to the Spaniards than they were to the Aztecs. |
1911_20 | Moctezuma, then-chief of the Aztecs, had been receiving accounts of the Europeans' arrival since their ships (reported as towers or small mountains on the eastern sea) arrived in the Yucatán then Veracruz. First-hand accounts indicate that the Aztec were under some impression that Cortés was the god Quetzalcoatl. According to these reports, the direction of the ships' arrival and because of the Spaniards light skin, long beards and short hair fit a prophecy about this god's return. This motivated Moctezuma to send gifts to the Spaniards when they arrived in Veracruz. |
1911_21 | Cortés first saw Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519. Upon viewing it for the first time, Cortes and his men were "stunned by its beauty and size...." The Spaniards marched along the causeway leading into the city from Iztapalapa. The towers, temples and canoes filled with crowds who gathered to look at the strange men and their horses. Moctezuma came out from the center of Tenochtitlan onto the causeway to greet them. The two processions met at the entrance to the city. Moctezuma was in a litter draped with fine cotton mantles and borne on the shoulders of a number of lords. He emerged from the litter and the two leaders exchanged gifts. The Aztecs led the Spaniards into the heart of the city where Moctezuma gave them with more gifts and then quartered them in lavish apartments. However, Aztec accounts of the first meeting indicate that Moctezuma was too deferent and generous to the newcomers. An Aztec account relates how the people of Tenochtitlan felt: "as if everyone had eaten |
1911_22 | stupefying mushrooms..., as if they had seen something astonishing. Terror dominated everyone, as if all the world were being disembowelled.... People fell into a fearful slumber...." |
1911_23 | However, the camaraderie between the two leaders did not last long. While the Spaniards marveled at the city's artifacts and strange foods, they were horrified by the religious rites involving human sacrifice and, being vastly outnumbered, Cortes worried greatly that Moctezuma was plotting to destroy him. So on 16 November, Cortés detained Moctezuma, placing him under house arrest. In this way, Cortés hoped to rule through the emperor. However, Moctezuma's power was dwindling in the eyes of his people. The Aztecs grew ever more resentful of the Spaniards' attacks on their religion and their relentless demands for gold. Resistance broke out on one of the lakeside settlements, which Cortés tried to quell by having a formal ceremony where the emperor swore allegiance to the Spanish king. He also tried to have the Mexica idols in the main temple replaced by Christian ones or at least put them side by side. To add to Cortés' troubles, the Spanish governor of Cuba sent an arrest party for |
1911_24 | Cortés, as his orders were not to conquer but simply to trade. This forced Cortés to leave Tenochtitlan in the hands of Pedro de Alvarado as he went to Veracruz to confront this party. |
1911_25 | While Cortés was gone, Alvarado imprisoned two important Aztec leaders and killed several others. Tensions exploded when Alvarado ordered a massacre during the spring festival of Huizilopochtli. When Cortés returned in June 1520 the situation was dire. Communications and entrances to the city were cut off. The Spanish outside the city had no food supplies and a severe shortage of drinking water. Cortés had Moctezuma try to pacify his people by speaking to them from the palace, but the emperor was greeted with a storm of stones and arrows, wounding him badly. Moctezuma died a short time later, but whether he died from his injuries or whether the Spanish killed him, seeing that he was no longer of use to them, is unknown. The news of Moctezuma's death caused uproar in the city. The Spanish tried to flee unnoticed but were caught. Hundreds of canoes closed in on the city from all sides. |
1911_26 | The Aztecs recaptured their city with Cortés's men fleeing the city, followed by arrows and rocks. Some found their way to a causeway out of the city. Some others, like the troops of Juan Velázquez, were forced to retreat toward the center of the city, where they were captured and sacrificed. When night fell, Aztec attacks on the Spaniards eased. Cortés took advantage of this to cross the causeway to a place called Popotla. Here is still found an ahuehuete tree called the "Tree of the Sad Night" because Cortés supposedly wept here after his defeat. At least 600 of the Spanish were killed (some estimates state over 1,000), many weighed down by the gold they were carrying; several thousand Tlaxcalans were probably lost, too. |
1911_27 | At Tlaxcala, Cortés pacified his Indian allies and rebuilt his military force. The Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone. They elected a new king, Cuauhtemoc. He was in his mid-20s, the son of Moctezuma's uncle, Ahuitzotl, and was an experienced leader.
After regrouping in Tlaxcala, Cortés decided to lay siege to Tenochtitlan in May 1521. For three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of disease brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island and fought their way through the city, street by street, and house by house. The Spanish pushed the defenders to the northern tip of the island. Finally, Cuauhtemoc had to surrender in August 1521.
Refounding as Mexico City |
1911_28 | With Tenochtitlan in ruins, the victorious Cortés first settled himself in Coyoacán on the lake shore at the southern edge of Lake Texcoco. He created the ayuntamiento or town council of the Spanish capital there, so that he could choose where the city would finally be. No one but Cortés wanted to rebuild the Aztec site. Most of the other conquistadors wanted the new city to be closer to the mountains, pastures and groves they would need for supplies, for example in Tacuba or in Coyoacán. Some accounts state that the Aztec islet was chosen because its location was strategic, allowing for rapid communication by boat to communities on the shorelines. However, the decision was Cortés's alone. According to Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, Cortés's reason was cultural. Leaving the site as it was would leave a memory of what was and would perhaps allow for a rival city to emerge. So the site was chosen so that all remains of the old empire could be erased. Major flooding in the early |
1911_29 | seventeenth century, however, raised again the question of where the capital should be located, with elite property owners facing losses if the capital were moved. |
1911_30 | Although the fall of Tenochtitlan was a swift and definitive occurrence, this did not imply that the Spanish domination of the entire city, or the rest of Mexico, would be a rapid process. Indian cooperation in the destruction of Aztec power ensured that Cortés would have to take allied interests into consideration as well. In a number of ways, this made the Spaniards another factor in the ongoing political conflicts between rival native peoples, not to mention that Spanish were vastly outnumbered. For much of the colonial period, parts of Mexico City would remain very indigenous in character, with elements of these cultures surviving into modern times. Two separate parts of the capital were under indigenous rule, San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco, with Nahua governors who were intermediaries between the indigenous population and the Spanish rulers, although the capital was designated a ciudad de españoles (Spanish city). |
1911_31 | Cortés did not establish an independent, conquered territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Habsburg Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain and its associated European territories. Although Cortés was portrayed to the Spanish court as an ambitious and untrustworthy adventurer by his enemies, he sought to prove his loyalty. First, he wrote the Five Letters to explain what he had done and why, and between 1528 and 1530, he traveled to see the emperor in Toledo, Spain. However, the emperor decided not to appoint him as governor of New Spain but instead to grant him the noble hereditary title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, with vast numbers of tributary Indians there and elsewhere. The first viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza of the new Viceroyalty of New Spain arrived in Mexico City fourteen years later. But Mexico City had long since been the major settlement of "conquerors and immigrant [Spaniards, who] for their own reasons already made ... Mexico City |
1911_32 | their principal [seat]" before the establishment of the high court (Audiencia), the archbishop, and the viceroy. The town council (cabildo) of the city had power that extended far beyond the city's established borders, due to the existence of areas on the mainland that in the prehispanic period were subordinate to Tenochtitlan. Such was approved by Charles V in 1522, authorizing the city to step into rural affairs to "protect and benefit" Indians as well as the Spanish. |
1911_33 | Between late 1521 and mid-1522, Alonso García Bravo and Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia were tasked with the layout of the new Spanish city. They were assisted by two Aztecs, but their names are lost to history. The Spaniards decided to keep the main north–south and east–west roads that divided the city into four and the boundaries of the city were set with an area of 180 hectares, which was divided into 100 blocks. There were eight principal canals in the Aztec city, including the one that ran on the south side of the main plaza (today Zócalo), which were renamed. |
1911_34 | Around the main plaza, which became the Plaza Mayor or Zócalo in the colonial period, Cortés took over what were the "Old Houses" of Axayacatl and the "New Houses" of Moctezuma, both grand palaces, for his own. Other conquistadors of the highest rank took positions around this square. In the northeast corner, Gil González Dávila built his house at the foot of the old Aztec main temple. To the south, on what is now Avenida Pino Suárez were the homes of Pedro de Alvarado, and the Altamirano family, cousins of Cortés. To the north of the plaza, the Dominicans established a monastery, in an area now known as Santo Domingo. Most of these houses were built to be residences, warehouses or stores, and fortresses all at once. |
1911_35 | The Spaniards began to build houses, copying the luxury residences of Seville. Being of firmer ground and less subject to subsidize, the area east of the main plaza was built up first, with the lake's waters up against the walls of a number of these constructions. The west side grew more slowly as flooding was more of an issue, and it was farther from the city's docks that brought in needed supplies.
The Spanish may well have found "Tenochtitlan" hard to say. They did shift the accent from Nahuatl pronunciation from Tenochtítlan (with the standard emphasis on the penultimate syllable) to Tenochtitlán. and eventually adopted the city's secondary name "Mexico", the "place of the Mexica" or Aztecs. For a period, the city was called by the dual name Mexico-Tenochtitlan, but at some point, the capital of the viceroyalty's name was shortened to Mexico. The name "Tenochtilan" endured in one of the capital's two indigenous-ruled sections, known as San Juan Tenochtitlan. |
1911_36 | Colonial period 1521–1821 |
1911_37 | Growth of city |
1911_38 | After the conquest, the Spaniards generally left the existing Nahua city-states or altepetl largely intact, but Mexico City was an exception since it became the seat of Spanish political power. It was established as a ciudad de españoles (city of Spaniards) and initially kept the remnants of its prehispanic place name, being called "Mexico-Tenochtitlan". No longer the seat of Aztec power, the Spaniards allowed two areas to be ruled through Nahua governors (gobernadores) and town councils (cabildos), separate from the Spanish city council. San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco became the mechanism for the crown to rule through indigenous intermediaries, particularly important in the Spanish capital since it also had a significant indigenous population. San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco were not called by the Nahuatl term for polity, altepetl, but rather "partes" or "parcialidades" of Mexico City, with their new place names having a Christian saint's name |
1911_39 | preceding the prehispanic designation, in typical colonial fashion. The structure in these two indigenous-ruled sections of the capital were on the same pattern of Indian towns elsewhere in central Mexico. In the sixteenth century, these indigenous political structures mobilized tribute and labor rendered to the Spanish capital. Even though prehispanic Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco was built on an island in the middle of the major lake system, they had political power over holdings on the mainland, a standard pattern of scattered rather than compact settlement and rule. These mainland holdings or estancias rendered tribute and labor in the prehispanic period; in the colonial period this pattern continued during the early colonial period, but during the later period (ca. 1650–1821), the pattern broke down and estancias were separated. |
1911_40 | The city grew with buildings all near the same height and with the same terraced roofs (azoteas), with only the tower and cross of the convent of San Francisco peaking up from above it all. This profile was due to royal decree. Even the new cathedral being built had limitations as to its height. Near the end of the 16th century however, there was a proliferation of churches with bell towers, leading to a zigzag profile of the city, which was then later modified by church cupolas. For centuries afterward, this profile remained constant with only the continuous building of the main Cathedral making any change in the skyline. In the 19th century, the tallest structures were all churches. In addition to the Cathedral, there were the bell towers and cupolas of Santa Teresa la Antigua, the College of Saints Peter and Paul and the chapel of San Felipe Neri as landmarks. |
1911_41 | The new city inherited much of the old city's look, oriented to the four cardinal directions with both canals and streets to move people and goods. However, the canals had already begun to shrink due to efforts to make the land streets wider.The first public building was called Las Atarazanas, where the brigantines used to lay siege to Tenochititlan were kept, at a place called San Lázaro. Shortly thereafter, the Palacio de Ayuntamiento was started, with the first coin production facilities. Mechlor Dávila built the Portales de Mercadores on the southwest side of the main plaza. Las Casas Consistoriales was built on the south side next to the Palacio de Ayuntamiento, which later became known as the Casa de las Flores.
The first extension of the originally laid city occurred on the north and east sides, taking over lands originally held by native peoples. One example is the neighborhood known as Lecumberri, founded by Basques, meaning "new, good land." |
1911_42 | In 1600, the city grew again, towards the east to what is now the Circuito Interior and to the north towards Tlatelolco, which was then called Real de Santa Ana, stopping at the Calzada de los Misterios, which was a pre-Hispanic processional route to the sanctuary of Tonantzin, the mother of the gods in Tepeyac. |
1911_43 | Flooding, the Desagüe, and Environmental Changes |
1911_44 | Since Mexico City was built on an island in the center of a large but shallow lake system, flooding became a serious issue during the colonial period. Spaniards denuded hillsides of their trees from the early conquest era on, so that mud and silt made the lake system even shallower, exacerbating the periodic flooding. Spaniards had not maintained the Aztec drainage system, which included a major dike. Major floods in Mexico City were recorded in 1555, 1580, 1604, and 1607, Indian labor was diverted when crown officials undertook a major project to divert water via a drainage system, known as the Desagüe. In 1607, 4,500 Indians were drafted to build the 8-mile-long combination drainage ditch and tunnel and 1608, the work was continued with 3,000. Flooding was controlled in the short term, and in subsequent years the Desagüe infrastructure was not maintained. In 1629, rains inundated the capital and flood waters remained in the capital for the next few years. Viceroy Don Rodrigo |
1911_45 | Pacheco, 3rd Marquis of Cerralvo, the Mexico City council (cabildo), secular and regular clergy, and elite Spanish residents of Mexico City combined efforts to provide immediate relief, and taxes and diversion of Indian labor to construction of the Desagüe aimed at dealing with the long-term problem of flooding. A number of Spaniards moved to dry land to the nearby settlement of Coyoacán (now part of Mexico City), increasing the displacement of Indian ownership of land there. In 1630, there was a serious proposal to move the capital to dry land rather than continue dealing with constant flooding. Elite Mexico City property owners and the city council opposed the plan, since they would incur huge real estate losses. There was another major push to deal with flooding, but the pattern of neglect of the desagüe infrastructure and subsequent inundation of the capital recurred, with flooding in 1645, 1674, 1691, 1707, 1714, 1724, 1747 and 1763. Floods continued into the early republic |
1911_46 | after independence. |
1911_47 | From the early eighteenth century, the city was able to grow as the waters of the lake receded. In 1700, the city advanced towards the east and south and west, as the north was still bounded by water. To the west, it expanded to what is now Balderas Street. In the latter half of the 18th century the populated area reached eastward to the lakeshore, which then was just beyond the now Circuito Interior and the La Merced Market. To the south began to appear houses in an area now called Colonia Doctores. To the west, following what is now Avenida Chapultepec towards the Ciudadela, now the National Library, near Metro Balderas. To the north past Tlatelolco and to the south to Topacioa and the now Calzada de la Viga. |
1911_48 | After independence, there were continued attempts to complete the drainage project, with activity in the early 1830s. During the U.S. invasion of the valley of Mexico, its army made a study of the problem, but the withdrawal of U.S. forces with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo put an end to that attempt. During the Liberal Reform of the 1850s, there was a revived plan for solving the problem, settling on a plan proposed by Francisco de Garay for a series of open canals to channel water out of the capital and through the mountains. As public health became more of a concern during the Porfiriato, the stench, uncleanliness, and perceived danger from the capital's water renewed efforts to implement the drainage project. Díaz created a commission to oversee work, but the project went further than merely controlling rainwater and stagnation and sought the expansion of water rights under its control for a growing population. This affected indigenous communities around the lake system. The |
1911_49 | commission sought foreign loans from the British firm of Pearson and Sons and foreign technology was utilized. The government authorized securing land for area through which the canal was to be built. Díaz considered the Desagüe a top priority, since Mexico's capital was considered a very dangerous place in terms of health. |
1911_50 | When the engineering project was successfully finished the cycle of flooding finally ended. The lake waters ceased to threaten the capital as they disappeared in the modern era.
Political power |
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