Chapter 14
Roman-Aztec War: Aftermath
It is generally accepted in historical circles that the Aztec were bloodied, but not yet broken, by the first War. They had suffered disproportionate losses compared to the Purépecha. Yet those losses were balanced by a larger population base to build from, disease or no disease. Given time to rebuild, the Aztec always had that advantage over their eternal foe. The Romans could certainly not have moved enough men to the lands of the Mexica to truly make a difference. The institutional advantages of both sides remained much the same. The Purépecha remained more technologically advanced, with a more stable and developed system of governance. The Aztec remained a much larger Empire with more bodies to spend in warfare. This had not changed, nor would a single lost war change it. Both Constantinople and Tzintzuntzan saw this quite clearly.
And yet, they accepted the 'treaty' to end the War. The Purépechan military was exhausted by the conflict and the Aztec were facing revolts from their vassals. If the War had bloodied but not broken the Aztec, it had certainly left them in a bad enough condition that the allies considered it prudent to spend time rebuilding instead of fighting. Neither side could have known, of course, that in a few short years...everything would change once more.
-Speech by Nicholaos Giustiniani, Roman Imperial Military Academy, 2016
'After the battle, there were times I thought I would die. That I had already died. Everything is a fog, a mist of broken memories. I vaguely recall being carried off the field by my surviving men, surrounded by the corpses of friend and foe alike. I remember Irepani standing guard while I rested. Beyond that, nothing more than flashes. I would have been convinced I had perished in that battle, were it not for Shanarani. She never once left my side upon arrival in Tzintzuntzan. She nursed my broken body back to health and told me tales of the end of the War. Of how the Aztec pulled back from the conquered land, and refused further battles. It was not a proper peace, so much as a break in the conflict. My ploy, foolish though it may have been, had worked. It was a salve for the pains I felt. A relief that I had not lead my men to pointless deaths...'
Demetrios had proven his worth as a military commander during the course of the War with the Aztec, many times over. His procession into the capital of the
Purépecha had been that of a hero being welcomed home, even if he had not been conscious for the occasion. Few were the people who came out that cared if the hero was a
Roman instead of a native. As Demetrios considered himself one of them, so too did the people consider him as near-enough their own Prince. Word of his glorious victory had preceded the arrival of the wounded Prince and spread like wildfire through the populace of Tzintzuntzan.
Had Demetrios been awake for the moment, he likely would have felt a wave of pride in his
men. In later years, he would always maintain that it had been his men- and he made no distinction between Roman and
Purépecha -that had won the war. He had merely led them into battle.
As it was, he would only properly awaken much later, when the Aztec had finally accepted defeat. The new border, pushed many
mílion [1] back from the old, was garrisoned by
Purépecha forces and already being filled with migrants from various tribes under the Empire. Those few Aztec citizens that remained were often bitter, yet resigned to their fate. At the least they had no need to worry about being sacrificed. It is debatable how serious the
Purépecha were about the Roman requests to convert in the early days, yet they most certainly were clear about keeping sacrifices to an absolute minimum. If for no other reason than to thank those who had defeated the Aztec by their side.
And what a defeat it had been! While impossible to truly gauge how many Aztec had died on that field, nor how it had impacted their troop numbers, there is no denying that many thousands of elite warriors had fallen in the war with the
Purépecha and Romans. Scant are the records that survived the later sacks of Aztec cities, yet it is clear enough that the War was vastly more destructive to internal stability than any previous war with the
Purépecha. Revolts, notably by the powerful Tlaxcala, were straining the Empire to the breaking point. Men and finances were needed putting down revolts by the vassals, not fighting an eternal war against a peer power.
So it had been little surprise when the Aztec called for, what amounted to, a cease-fire. Neither side had a true concept of a peace treaty in the European sense, of course. What resulted was a vocal understanding between both sides that no true conflict would continue. Raids would not stop, nor could any one hope to enforce such a thing. It was merely understood that raids would be dealt with as needed. No true offenses into either territory would be allowed on pain of continuing a war that neither side could truly afford. A fragile kind of peace that would never, could never, have lasted forever. Yet it was needed nonetheless. Any peace was needed.
For while the Aztec were suffering vassal revolts, the
Purépecha were faced with a need to rebuild their conquered territories. Many cities had been taken in ruin, Roman cannon having done more damage than traditional sieges would ever have managed. Even more pressing was the need to populate cities that had been depopulated, voluntarily or otherwise. This would normally be done with both
Purépecha and vassal tribes, yet there was a rather large issue that the Empire had never faced prior to this.
Disease.
While none would deny the aid the Romans had given, nor the utility of it, the simple fact remained that where Romans went...disease and death followed. It is true that trade from Arcadia-proper
[2] had long-since spread disease into the Central portion of the continent. Yet the worst to come was when Demetrios and his soldiers had arrived. Through no fault of their own, these men spread many diseases among the
Purépecha populace. Diseases that the people were ill-equipped to deal with. In those early days, understanding of disease transmission and cures was limited. The Romans understood it better, especially after seeing it ravage the
Ohlone and other natives in Elysium.
The problem, however, was that understanding how
deadly a disease was, did little to truly cure it. Demetrios did what he could to advise the
Purépecha on means of staunching the flow of death. He brought the knowledge that his people had from Elysium, and did what he could to provide aid. This had begun before he went on his campaign against the Aztec, and would continue upon his return. When he awoke from his wounds and saw that the War was over, he threw himself into helping with the suffering of his adopted home. Demetrios knew that he was not needed in the process of fortifying the frontier, nor in training the troops. His men could handle that.
Moreover, he felt he owed Shanarani and Irepani his support in alleviating the lingering suffering of their people.
Bearing this in mind, it should come as little surprise that the immediate aftermath of the War was focused on internal development.
[3] The
Purépecha were, on many levels, far more concerned with consolidation than with further bloodshed. They had won a glorious victory and could afford to focus on consolidating that victory, more than on pushing for more. As was typical with their wars with the Aztec, they had never truly expected a full and complete victory. Had the hope been there, with Roman steel and Roman support? Yes. It had been in the hopes and dreams of many, from the
Cazonci on down. Even so, it had always been the kind of hope that kept men going, not the kind of hope they truly expected to see fulfilled. Merely pushing the Aztec back further than ever before was enough of a victory.
It had yet to end their endless wars, but it had given them
hope. If it required forts built along the frontier, they would gladly listen to the Romans teaching them how to build castles and walls in the European style. If it meant they had to focus on curbing the damage of disease before it had crippled the populace beyond recovery, well, that was a small price to pay. After all, the Aztec surely had to be suffering from the same, yes? And where the
Purépecha could rely on the Romans to provide what limited knowledge and aid they could, the Aztec had no such benefit. They would suffer and die with no aid in sight.
If the Romans had known of the amount of death in the Aztec civilization, from disease and sacrifices to appease their clearly angry gods, they might have felt pity. As it were, they had no true knowledge of how bad it had gotten.
Regardless, the aftermath of the war- for both Aztec and
Purépecha -would continue in much the same way for years after it had ended. Romans would come and go, men returning home to teach the lessons of the War, and priests and others coming to settle in the
Purépecha lands. The port of Alexiopolis
[4] would quickly grow into a thriving trade settlement between the Romans and their native allies. This growth would help to counterbalance the losses from disease suffered in the green lands of Mesoarcadia. Further aided by the fact that many of the original expedition would elect to stay behind, or to come back after training their comrades in Constantinople.
First among them all was Demetrios himself. The Roman prince had fallen in love with his adopted home, and contented himself with letters to his father- and eventually, his elder brother -to keep them up to date. He would only return to Constantinople one time in his lifetime. To perform a second ceremony with Shanarani, to celebrate the bonding of the Palaiologos dynasty to the
Purépecha Imperial line...
1. A Roman mile, roughly equivalent to the English mile.
2. Trade between the Northern tribes and the Central tribes was not as extensive as equivalent trade between, say, Italy and Germany. Yet it did exist, and disease had followed it. Disease spread by the Romans reached many far corners of Arcadia, leaving death and devastation in its wake. And yet, it may have proven a benefit in the long run. For it, at the least, prepared the survivors for when other- less friendly -Europeans arrived.
3. Internal development of the conquered territories would take many years to complete. The lands taken from the Aztec were not often prime land, and as well as this, there was a strong need to fortify in the European style. Demetrios had demonstrated how vulnerable cities were to sieges. Who was to say the Aztec could not learn from his example? This required more development than would normally be given to conquered land in earlier wars.
4. The land that Demetrios had secured during his adventures along the coast, named in honor of his father in classical Roman tradition.
AN: Not quite as long as I would have liked, but I wanted to get something done before I start properly working again. Hopefully it still works out well enough. After this, we'll probably have a map+state of the Empire(s) post or two, before THE SPANISH INQUISITION CONQUISTADORS ARRIVE which will be...fun.