Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire, also known as the Triple Alliance (Classical Nahuatl: Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, [ˈjéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥]) or the Tenochca Empire, was an alliance of three Nahua city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan. These three city-states ruled that area in and around the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until the combined forces of the Spanish conquistadores and their native allies who ruled under Hernán Cortés defeated them in 1521. Its people and civil society are historiographically referred to as the Aztecs or the Culhua-Mexica.

The alliance was formed from the victorious factions of a civil war fought between the city of Azcapotzalco and its former tributary provinces. Despite the initial conception of the empire as an alliance of three self-governed city-states, the capital Tenochtitlan became dominant militarily. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, the lands of the alliance were effectively ruled from Tenochtitlan, while other partners of the alliance had taken subsidiary roles.

The alliance waged wars of conquest and expanded after its formation. The alliance controlled most of central Mexico at its height, as well as some more distant territories within Mesoamerica, such as the Xoconochco province, an Aztec exclave near the present-day Guatemalan border. Aztec rule has been described by scholars^[who?] as hegemonic or indirect. The Aztecs left rulers of conquered cities in power so long as they agreed to pay semi-annual tribute to the alliance, as well as supply military forces when needed for the Aztec war efforts. In return, the imperial authority offered protection and political stability and facilitated an integrated economic network of diverse lands and peoples who had significant local autonomy.

Aztec religion was a monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of teotl was construed as the supreme god Ometeotl, as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and polytheistic aspects, and the empire's state religion sponsored both the monism of the upper classes and the popular heterodoxies. The empire even officially recognized the largest cults such that the deity was represented in the central temple precinct of the capital Tenochtitlan. The imperial cult was specifically that of the distinctive warlike patron god of the Mexica Huītzilōpōchtli. Peoples were allowed to retain and freely continue their own religious traditions in conquered provinces so long as they added the imperial god Huītzilōpōchtli to their local pantheons.

The word Aztec in modern usage would not have been used by the people themselves. It has variously been used to refer to the Aztecs or Triple Alliance, the Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, or specifically the Mexica ethnicity of the Nahuatl-speaking tribes (from tlaca). The name comes from the singular Nahuatl word aztecatl (Nahuatl pronunciation: [asˈtekat͡ɬ]) that means "[people] from Aztlan", reflecting the mythical place of origin for Nahua peoples.

Nahua peoples descended from Chichimec peoples, who migrated to central Mexico from the north (mainly centered sparsely around present-day states of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Guanajuato) in the early 13th century. The migration story of the Mexica is similar to those of other polities in central Mexico, with supernatural sites, individuals, and events, joining earthly and divine history, as they sought political legitimacy. Pictographic codices in which the Aztecs recorded their history say that the empire's place of origin was called Aztlán. Early migrants settled the Basin of Mexico and surrounding lands by establishing a series of independent city-states. These early Nahua city-states or altepetl were ruled by dynastic heads called tlahtohqueh (singularly tlatoāni). Most of the existing settlements had been established by other indigenous peoples before the Mexica migration.

These early city-states fought various small-scale wars with each other but no individual city gained dominance due to shifting alliances. The Mexica were the last of the Nahua migrants to arrive in Central Mexico. They entered the Basin of Mexico around the year 1250, and, by then, most of the good agricultural land had already been claimed. The Mexica persuaded the king of Culhuacan, a small city-state but important historically as a refuge of the Toltecs to make them settle in a relatively infertile patch of land called Chapultepec (Chapoltepēc, "in the hill of grasshoppers"). The Mexica served as mercenaries for Culhuacan.

After the Mexica served Culhuacan in battle, the ruler appointed one of his daughters to rule over the Mexica. Mythological native accounts say that the Mexica instead sacrificed her by flaying her skin on the command of their god Xipe Totec. The ruler of Culhuacan attacked and used his army to drive the Mexica from Tizaapan by force when he learned of this. The Mexica moved to an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco where an eagle nested on a nopal cactus. The Mexica interpreted this as a sign from their gods and founded their new city Tenochtitlan on this island in the year ōme calli (or "Two House", 1325 AD).