What do you think of this fact?
When you think of the Aztecs, you probably picture pyramid temples, feathered headdresses and an ancient civilization. When you think of Oxford, it’s students in gowns and libraries full of books. They feel worlds apart. But the timeline might surprise you: the University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire.
Oxford: teaching since the 11th century
Oxford has no exact founding date. But there’s evidence of teaching there as early as 1096. Things really took off in 1167, when England’s King Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. Many scholars moved to Oxford instead.
The first colleges, University, Balliol and Merton, were founded between 1249 and 1264. Today, Oxford is considered the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
Tenochtitlan: founded around 1325
The Aztecs founded their capital, Tenochtitlan, only around 1325, on islands in Lake Texcoco, where Mexico City stands today. By then, people had been teaching in Oxford for more than 200 years.
And the empire itself? Tenochtitlan formed an alliance with the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopán and became the Aztec capital only by the late 15th century. By that point, Oxford was a well-established institution with several colleges.
Young, but huge
Young doesn’t mean small. Tenochtitlan grew on artificial islands into a massive city, linked to the mainland by causeways. Its population in 1519 is estimated at about 400,000 people. That made it the largest population center in Mesoamerican history.
Why does this surprise us? We sort cultures into “ancient” and “modern” rather than by actual dates. The Aztecs feel exotic and distant, Oxford feels familiar. That has very little to do with how old things really are.
Women were only admitted as full members of the University of Oxford starting in 1920.
History doesn’t happen one thing after another. It happens everywhere at once.