64 pages • 2 hours read
1491
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Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: "Frequently Asked Questions"
Chapter 4 of 1491 describes the rise and fall of the Aztec Empire through the story of the Mexica people and its leaders. The main argument of this chapter addresses concerns raised in the previous chapters regarding the lethality of epidemics in the Americas, and their effect on indigenous peoples.
Chapter 4 begins with a discussion of a "vulnerability" hypothesis for the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The hypothesis suggests that the certain patterns of genetic homogeneity predisposed native peoples to be particularly susceptible to infection and death from smallpox and other diseases. This, combined with the movement of peoples, along with Europeans' close contact with animals, amplified the effects of disease. One important outcome of this discussion is the attempt to determine simply how many people lived on the continents, prior to the arrival of Europeans. Though conquistadors and travelers describe vast, densely-populated metropolises in their journals, most of these urban centers disappear or have much smaller overall populations by the latter half of the 16th century. Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, is an exception—it is larger than any European city at the time. To conquer Tenochtitlan, Hernán Cortés musters an army of reportedly 200,000 people. The majority of this army is comprised of natives who are unhappy with the Triple Alliance's brutal domination of the region.
Chapter 4 Analysis
This chapter heralds a shift in 1491 from a narrative recounting of important, misunderstood historical events in order to address controversies in how history is collected and understood. At the head of these controversies is the issue of population in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans. This has been a contentious question among historians and anthropologists. Mann describes the two ideological camps, in regard to the question of population: the Low Counters, who subscribe at least implicitly to the "virgin soil" theory, which states native populations had no contact with certain diseases prior to the arrival of Europeans; and the High Counters, who describe the unprecedented demographic loss among 16th-century native peoples as nothing short of deliberate genocide by Europeans.
The lethality of smallpox and other epidemics plays heavily, as often researchers have to estimate the former populations of communities and regions decimated by a disease. As Mann notes, urban centers are hardest hit; close contact accelerates and amplifies the effects of epidemics. As elsewhere in 1491, definite patterns continue in Chapter 4, with the story of the Mexica: the rise of an empire through intrigue, ambition, and bloodshed; its domination of a host of peoples; the empire’s centralization; and the eventual exploitation of this centralized structure and the empire’s internal divisions by opportunistic European invaders. Attention is paid to the political ideology of the Mexica people, and the Aztec Empire’s blending of theology and militarism. These observations set the stage for another controversy: human sacrifice. Mann likens this practice among the Aztecs to the practice of public execution on the European continent during the 16th century, a comparison that illuminates a shared societal taste for bloody spectacle.
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