Oxford Predates Aztec Empire

Our mental timelines can often be misleading, placing distant empires and familiar institutions into entirely separate historical boxes. In reality, when lectures first began in the English town of Oxford around 1096, the world was a very different place. This was the High Middle Ages, just a few decades after the Norman Conquest of England. The university grew organically, but its development truly accelerated after 1167 when King Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, forcing scholars to return home and establish their own preeminent center of learning.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Mexica people who would later form the Aztec Empire were still centuries away from consolidating their power. The official founding of their empire is marked by the formation of the Triple Alliance in 1428, uniting the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. This event, which launched a century of regional dominance from their magnificent capital city, occurred more than 330 years after the first classes were held at Oxford.

By the time the Aztecs were building their sophisticated society of pyramids, causeways, and floating gardens, Oxford was already a venerable institution with established colleges and a long tradition of scholarship. This surprising