A Short History of the Aztec Empire

The Aztecs began as four discrete Nahuatl-speaking tribes—Achlhua, Chichimecs, Mexica, and Tepanecs—who migrated from the north into the Central Valley of Mexico in the early 13th century.

The Toltecs (centered on the city of Tula) and Mixtecs had preceded the Mexica (Aztecs) into the Central Valley. But their states were in decline by the 12th century. Through mercenary service to these city-states, which were engaged in chronic warfare, the Mexica evolved as a fierce warrior people, tributary servants of Mezoamerican peoples who preceded them in status, wealth, and accomplishment. When the Mexica were defeated in a war by the Tepanecs they became supplicants of Culhua, and subsequently minor allies as their status increased through success in battle.

However, when Culhua sent a princess to the Mexica to fix the alliance through marriage, the Mexica misread the offering and sacrificed her instead. Enraged, Culhuacan warriors drove the Mexica away, leaving them outcast in the Valley. They settled on a barren scrubby island inside Lake Texcoco. This proved a felix culpa, a happy fault: in 1320 they began to build their capital there, Tenochtitla´n, and a sister city, Tlatelolco, strategically sited at the junction of the three main powers in the Central Valley: Culhua, Tepaneca, and Achlhua. During the 14th century the Mexica remained vassals of Tepaneca. In 1420, however, in a ”reneversement des alliance” they turned on Tepaneca in concert with another city-state, Tecacoco, and a rebellious tributary of the Tepanecs, Tlacopan. The Mexica shucked off their tributary status and made war to gather tribute for themselves. After the three upstart cities overthrew Tepaneca and ritually sacrificed its ruler and nobility, they formed a ”Triple Alliance” and divided the rich Central Valley, though Tlacopan got the lesser share. This set the mold for future Aztec expansion: conquered lands were distributed to an ever more distant aristocratic and military elite which lived for wars of conquest that marched tens of thousands of prisoners to Tenochtitla ´n in dreary files to feed a voracious appetite for human sacrifice, while fields were worked by an enserfed peasantry cowed by religious, military, and state terror.

The Aztec were driven by an imperial-religious ideology which demanded annual, ritual human sacrifice on a scale that expanded with each extension of Aztec rule. Every time a ”tlatoani” (emperor) was crowned, religion and ritual demanded ”coronation wars” be fought whose principal aim was to take prisoners to Tenochtitla´n for ritual sacrifice, so that their blood would renew the Sun, Earth, and seasons. Other Mezoamerican states practiced ritual sacrifice, but after formation of the Triple Alliance and conquest of the Central Valley traditional communal checks on Aztec megalomania were shredded, as each tlatoani seemed to grow more bloodthirsty. Itzcoatl (d.1440) consolidated control of the Aztec Empire, which was a confederation of city-states dominated by the Mexica of Tenochtitla´n, rather than a unitary empire. Moctezuma I (or Motecuhzoma, d.1469) greatly expanded the Aztec Empire, conquering the Mixtecs, razing their temples, and sending long, miserable lines to ritual murder in Tenochtitla´n. Axaycatl (1450-1481), elected tlatoani at age 19, was a failure under whom war broke out with Tlatelolco in 1473.