The Mexica (Aztec) Empire

Core Idea

The Mexica, often called the Aztecs, founded their capital Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco, traditionally in 1325. In 1428 they formed the Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan, and over the next ninety years this alliance came to dominate much of central and southern Mexico. It ruled as a tribute empire: conquered city-states kept their own rulers but sent regular payments of goods to the alliance. Tenochtitlan grew into one of the largest cities in the world, fed partly by chinampa farming, until Spanish forces and their many Indigenous allies captured it in 1521.

How It's Best Learned

Study a page of the Codex Mendoza, which lists the tribute provinces paid, and work out what an empire based on tribute needs and what it leaves alone. Compare Tenochtitlan's layout, causeways and markets with a European or Asian city of the same period. When studying the conquest, list every factor and ask which ones a story focused on Cortés leaves out.

Common Misconceptions

• A few hundred Spaniards conquered the Aztec Empire by themselves. (Cortés depended on tens of thousands of Indigenous allies, above all from Tlaxcala, and a smallpox epidemic in 1520 killed many people in Tenochtitlan.)
• Moctezuma believed Cortés was the god Quetzalcoatl returning. (This story appears in sources written decades after the conquest, and many historians doubt that it reflects what the Mexica believed in 1519.)
• The Aztec Empire governed its lands directly through appointed officials, like Roman provinces. (Most conquered city-states kept their own rulers and laws as long as they paid tribute, which left local loyalties weak.)

Explainer

You have seen how Mesoamerican peoples built cities, calendars and states long before 1200. The Mexica entered this world late. They were migrants from the north who arrived in the Valley of Mexico as outsiders. According to their own tradition, in 1325 they founded Tenochtitlan on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco, where their god had told them they would see an eagle perched on a cactus.

At first the Mexica served stronger neighbors as soldiers. In 1428 they joined the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan in the Triple Alliance and defeated the dominant power of the valley. Over the next ninety years the alliance conquered much of central and southern Mexico.

The empire worked through tribute. A conquered city-state kept its ruler, its gods and its laws, but it had to send goods to the alliance on a fixed schedule: cotton cloth, maize, cacao beans, feathers, jade and warriors' costumes. A painted record made for the Spanish in the mid-1500s, the Codex Mendoza, lists these payments province by province. This system was cheap to run, but it left many subject peoples resentful.

Tenochtitlan became a remarkable city. Causeways linked it to the shore, canals ran through it, and an aqueduct brought fresh water. Its people built chinampas, raised fields in the lake shallows that gave rich harvests. Estimates of its population vary, often from about 150,000 to over 200,000 people. The great market of its twin city, Tlatelolco, amazed Spanish visitors. At the center stood the Templo Mayor, with shrines to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. The Mexica believed the gods needed human blood to keep the world going, and many war captives were sacrificed there.

In 1519 Hernán Cortés landed on the coast with a few hundred Spaniards. He gained allies among peoples who resented the Mexica, most of all the Tlaxcalans. The ruler Moctezuma II received the Spanish in the city, but relations broke down, and Moctezuma died in 1520 while held by the Spanish. A smallpox epidemic then struck the city. After a long siege, Tenochtitlan fell in August 1521, and Mexico City was built on its ruins.