I've been lately reading the history of Mexico City. I just realized the city was much bigger back then. Much more bigger than any city in both North and South America. However one of my teachers says that the city was the second largest in the world, having Pekin of the Ming Dynasty as first place.
Is it true? How big was the population compared to other cities? Was Tenochtitlan as big as the spanish claimed?
This answer compares a bit to European cities, but doesn't make any comparison to China/East Asia: "On his way to tenochtitlan, Cortez passed 20 cities that would have been the biggest cities in Europe" is there any truth to this idea? with answers written by u/historianLA u/drylaw and u/611131 (note that u/400-Rabbits also has an answer about the agriculture of supporting a large population, which while interesting, might not be exactly what you are looking for)