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Hondurus, Nicaragua, and northern
Costa Rica. This progress was
paralleled by the growth at much
the same time of Cuzco, the capital
of the Incas—an Andean people of
humble beginnings, who in just a
few decades created the largest
state South America had yet seen.Aztec foundations
The Aztecs may have begun their
wanderings in northern Mexico
around 1200. For the next 100 years
they eked out a miserable existence
as mercenaries or barely tolerated
squatters, their plight not aided by
their reputation as cruel warriors.
Frequently, they had to flee after
committing violent acts, at times
involving human sacrifice; indeed,
their flight to Tenochtitlan was
prompted by one such incident. The
Aztecs had asked their host, the
lord of Culhuacán, whether he
would give his daughter as a bride
for their chief. He agreed, believing
she would be greatly honored asqueen; however, to his horror they
killed and flayed her as a sacrifice
to their deity Xipe Totec. Driven out
by the lord and his soldiers, the
Aztecs fled southward toward the
future site of Tenochtitlan.
Although the soil around Lake
Texcoco, on which the island of
Tenochtitlan was situated, was
marshy and there was very little
timber available, the capital was
easily defensible and the Aztecs
used it to consolidate their position.
Initially shielded by a treaty with
the Tepanec ruler Tezozomoc, who
dominated the Valley of Mexico
from 1371 to 1426, the Aztecs went
on to form a Triple Alliance with
the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan
in 1428—a union that kick-started
a period of imperial expansion.Aztec expansion
In the early days, Aztec society had
little formal hierarchy. It was based
around communities (calpulli)
that owned land in common andTHE FOUNDATION OF TENOCHTITLAN
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
The Aztec and Inca
empiresBEFORE
c.1200 Emergence of the Incas
in the Cuzco valley, Peru.c.1250 Aztecs arrive in the
Valley of Mexico.1300 Aztecs establish
settlements on land owned
by the lord of Culhuacán.1325 Aztecs flee south from
Culhuacán and enter the
land around Lake Texcoco.AFTER
1376 Acampichtli becomes
the first Aztec ruler.1428 Inca expansion begins.
Establishment of the Aztec
Triple Alliance.c.1470 Incas capture Chimor,
center of the Chimú culture.1519 Spanish arrive in Mexico.1532 Spanish arrive in Peru.The Aztec Empire expands
using military aggression
and fear of reprisals
to retain power.Small, competing states in central Mexico and Peru attract
Aztec and Inca migrants who fill the power vacuum.Neither model of empire can survive the Spanish invasion.The Aztecs and Incas found capital cities
at Tenochtitlan and Cuzco respectively.The Inca empire expands
by co-opting conquered
peoples and seeking
to integrate them.I
n 1325, a band of Central
American refugee warriors,
known as the Aztecs, saw a
sign their patron god Huitzilopochtli
had long ago prophesied—an eagle
perched on a cactus, marking the
spot they had been told to settle.
Before long, they had built a temple
that became the nucleus of their
capital, Tenochtitlan. Within two
centuries, the city was the center
of the most predominant empire in
the history of Mesoamerica—a large
region that shared a pre-Columbian
culture and extended from modern-
day central Mexico southward to
Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador,US_112-117_Foundation_of_Tenochtitlan.indd 114 15/02/2016 16:41
115
The founding of Tenochtitlan is
illustrated in the Codex Mendoza:
a record of Aztec history and culture
created c.1540 by an Aztec artist for
presentation to Charles V of Spain.whose chiefs, together with priests,
ruled on important decisions. In
1376, the Aztecs chose for the first
time an overall leader (tlatoani),
who came to serve as war leader,
judge, and administrator for the
burgeoning empire. Under Itzcoatl
(1427– 40), Moctezuma I (1440 – 69),
Axayactl (1469–81), and Ahuitzotl
(1486–1503) Aztec armies subdued
their neighbors in the Valley of
Mexico and then spread outward,
reaching Oaxaca, Veracruz, and to
the edges of land controlled by the
Mayan people in the east of modern-
day Mexico and Guatemala.
As the Aztec Empire expanded,
society was transformed. A warrior
elite emerged, while at the bottom
of society bondsmen (mayeques),
who owned no land, were bound
by labor service to their lords. The
militaristic nature of Aztec society
was accentuated by an education
system in which all males received
military training (in separate
schools for nobles and commoners).
This reinforced the warrior ethos
and gave the Aztecs an incalculable
advantage over neighboring tribes
in Mexico.The imperial system
Tenochtitlan was adorned by many
temples to the gods of the Aztec
pantheon. Each god had their own
temple, with the Templo Mayor
having twin shrines dedicated to
Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the rain
god. At these temples a stream of
human victims was sacrificed—up
to 80,000 at the rededication of theTemplo Mayor in 1487—by burning
alive, decapitation, or cutting open
the chest and removing the heart.
Many of the Aztec battles were
“flower wars”: ritual affairs in which
opponents were captured (rather
than killed) and sacrificed to placate
the Aztec gods, who were believed
to need blood to sustain them and
keep the sun moving across the sky.Tenochtitlan also exacted tribute
from its subjects. Although there
was very little in the way of an
organized government bureaucracy,
there were tax collectors, who criss-
crossed the 38 provinces of the
Aztec Empire and levied tribute,
which included 7,000 tons of maize,
4,000 tons of beans, and hundreds
of thousands of cotton blankets ❯❯See also: The Maya Classical period begins 71 ■ Christopher Columbus reaches America 142–47 ■
The Treaty of Tordesillas 148–51 ■ The Columbian Exchange 158–59 ■ The voyage of the Mayflower 172 –73 ■
Bolívar establishes Gran Colombia 216–19THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
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