Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire
Teaching at Oxford was under way by 1096. Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, was founded in 1325.
Oxford has no exact founding date, but there was teaching there by 1096. It grew quickly after 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.
The Mexica people founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325 (the traditional date). The empire we call “Aztec”, a Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, formed in 1428, and the Spanish conquest came in 1521.
So Oxford had been teaching for about 230 years before Tenochtitlan existed, and more than 330 years before the Aztec Empire.
Why it feels wrong
We file the Aztecs under “ancient civilisations” with Egypt and Rome, partly because their world was destroyed so suddenly and completely. Universities feel modern because they still exist. Survival makes things seem newer, and destruction makes them seem older.
Tenochtitlan was larger than any city in Spain when the conquistadors arrived, with an estimated 200,000 inhabitants, canals and causeways, and floating gardens. Much of modern Mexico City is built directly on top of it.
Bring it up
“Oxford was already teaching students more than two centuries before the Aztecs founded their capital.”
Follow the thread
- In contrastXi’an was once one of the largest cities on Earth When Chang’an had a million people, Oxford didn’t yet exist.
- RelatedThe traveller who went five times farther than Marco Polo Another reminder of how large and connected the medieval world already was.
- Same patternCleopatra lived closer to the Moon landing than to the pyramids Another comparison that shows how distorted our sense of historical time is.
