An outline, era by era

Toltecs, then Aztec Empire (Tenochtitlan, from 1325)

Medieval / Post-Classical Era · ~500 – ~1500 CE

The Toltecs and the Aztecs were two successive powers of central Mexico. The Toltec capital, Tula, north of the Valley of Mexico, flourished from about 900 to 1150 CE, after the fall of Teotihuacan. Later peoples remembered the Toltecs as master builders and artists, and Aztec kings claimed to descend from them.

The Aztecs, who called themselves the Mexica, arrived in the Valley of Mexico as migrants. According to their own tradition they founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325. In 1428 Tenochtitlan joined Texcoco and Tlacopan in the Triple Alliance, which came to dominate much of Mesoamerica through conquest and tribute. The empire lasted until 1521, when Spanish forces and their indigenous allies captured the capital. Our best sources are Aztec codices, archaeology at Tula and Mexico City, and Spanish and indigenous accounts written after the conquest.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The fall of Teotihuacan and the rise of Tula

    Event

    What happened

    Around 550 to 650 CE the great city of Teotihuacan declines, and its central ceremonial buildings show signs of burning. In the following centuries new centres rise in central Mexico, including Xochicalco and Cholula. By about 900 CE Tula, in present-day Hidalgo, grows into a large city with pyramids, ball courts and colonnaded halls.

    The rest is history

    Tula became the leading power of the highlands until about 1150 CE, when it was burned and abandoned. Its monumental stone warrior figures, the Atlantes, still stand at the site. Debate continues over how far Tula's influence reached and how its rule worked. Later peoples treated it as the model of a great city, which shaped how the Aztecs saw themselves.

    Sources

    1. BookHealan, Dan M., ed. Tula of the Toltecs: Excavations and Survey. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1989.
    2. BookCarrasco, David, and Scott Sessions. Daily Life of the Aztecs. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998.

  2. The fall of Tula and migrations into the Valley of Mexico

    Event

    What happened

    Around 1150 CE Tula is burned and its ceremonial centre abandoned. In the following two centuries groups from the north, speaking Nahuatl, move into the Valley of Mexico and settle among older towns. City-states such as Azcapotzalco, Culhuacan and Texcoco compete for land around the lakes.

    The rest is history

    This mix of settlers and city-states formed the political world the Mexica entered. Many ruling families claimed Toltec ancestry to give themselves prestige. The Mexica arrived late and found the best lakeshore land already taken. Their later rise came from within this crowded landscape of rival small states.

    Sources

    1. BookSmith, Michael E. The Aztecs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
    2. BookDavies, Nigel. The Toltecs Until the Fall of Tula. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.

  3. The Mexica settle on Lake Texcoco

    Event

    What happened

    In the early 1300s the Mexica, after serving as hired soldiers for the ruler of Culhuacan, settle on marshy islands in Lake Texcoco. Their tradition dates the founding of Tenochtitlan to 1325. They build causeways, raise fields in the shallows and pay tribute to Azcapotzalco, the strongest power on the lake.

    The rest is history

    The island site gave the Mexica fish, birds, water routes and a defensible position. The 1325 date comes from indigenous annals and is accepted as traditional, though its precision is uncertain. Tenochtitlan grew into a planned city of canals and temples. Its later wealth rested on this lake-based economy.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCodex Mendoza. Pictorial manuscript with Spanish glosses, Mexico, c. 1541. Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden A.1.
    2. BookSmith, Michael E. The Aztecs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

  4. Chinampa agriculture around the lakes

    Event

    What happened

    From the late first millennium CE and especially after about 1300, farmers in the Valley of Mexico build chinampas, raised planting beds made from mud and vegetation in shallow lake waters. These beds, watered by the lake, can be harvested more than once a year. Around Tenochtitlan the system expands greatly in the 1400s.

    The rest is history

    Chinampas fed a dense population and supported the growth of Tenochtitlan into one of the largest cities in the world of its time. Rulers organised canals and dikes, including a dike built in the 1440s to keep brackish water out of the fresher parts of the lake. Remnants of the system survive at Xochimilco today.

    Sources

    1. BookParsons, Jeffrey R. Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Texcoco Region, Mexico. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, 1971.
    2. BookSmith, Michael E. The Aztecs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

  5. The war against Azcapotzalco and the Triple Alliance

    Event

    What happened

    After the death of Azcapotzalco's ruler Tezozomoc in 1426, a succession struggle breaks out. Tenochtitlan under Itzcoatl allies with Texcoco, led by Nezahualcoyotl, and with Tlacopan. They defeat Azcapotzalco in 1428 and form the Triple Alliance.

    The rest is history

    The alliance conquered neighbouring city-states and then expanded far beyond the valley. Tenochtitlan became the dominant partner over time. Conquered towns paid tribute in goods such as cloth, food and feathers, recorded in lists like the Codex Mendoza. This was the beginning of what is called the Aztec Empire.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCodex Mendoza. Pictorial manuscript with Spanish glosses, Mexico, c. 1541. Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden A.1.
    2. BookHassig, Ross. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.

  6. Moctezuma I and imperial expansion

    Event

    What happened

    Under Moctezuma Ilhuicamina, who rules from about 1440 to 1469, the Triple Alliance campaigns into Morelos, Veracruz and Oaxaca. His reign also sees a great famine around 1450 and the building of major temples and a dike in Tenochtitlan.

    The rest is history

    Later rulers such as Axayacatl, Ahuitzotl and Moctezuma II extended conquest to the Pacific coast and southern Mexico. The empire ruled largely through local elites who paid tribute, and rebellions were frequent. Some peoples, such as the Tlaxcalans, were never conquered. That resentment mattered in 1519.

    Sources

    1. BookBerdan, Frances F., and Patricia Rieff Anawalt. The Essential Codex Mendoza. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
    2. BookHassig, Ross. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.

  7. Dedication of the Great Temple in 1487

    Event

    What happened

    In 1487 the Mexica ruler Ahuitzotl dedicates the enlarged Templo Mayor, the main temple of Tenochtitlan, dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. Aztec and Spanish accounts describe large-scale ritual sacrifice at the ceremony.

    The rest is history

    The Templo Mayor was excavated from 1978 in Mexico City after workers found a great carved stone of the goddess Coyolxauhqui. Offerings found there came from across the empire, showing the reach of its tribute and trade. Estimates of the number sacrificed in 1487 are given in the sources as very large but are debated by historians.

    Sources

    1. BookMatos Moctezuma, Eduardo. The Great Temple of the Aztecs: Treasures of Tenochtitlan. London: Thames and Hudson, 1988.
    2. BookTownsend, Richard F. The Aztecs. 3rd ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 2009.

  8. Cortés and the fall of Tenochtitlan

    Event

    What happened

    In 1519 Hernán Cortés lands on the Gulf coast with a small Spanish force and gains allies, notably the Tlaxcalans. He enters Tenochtitlan in November and is received by Moctezuma II. After a Spanish retreat in 1520 and a smallpox epidemic, the Spanish and their indigenous allies besiege the city and take it in August 1521.

    The rest is history

    Smallpox and the large indigenous armies allied with Cortés were central to the outcome. The Spanish built Mexico City on the ruins and created the colony of New Spain. Accounts survive from both sides, including Cortés's letters and the indigenous record in the Florentine Codex.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCortés, Hernán. Cartas de relación. Letters to Charles V, 1519-1526.
    2. BookRestall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

  9. The eagle on the cactus

    Origin story

    The legend

    The Mexica leave their legendary homeland Aztlan, guided by their god Huitzilopochtli. He tells them to settle where they see an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus. They find the sign on an island in Lake Texcoco and found Tenochtitlan.

    The rest is history

    The story is recorded in Aztec and early colonial sources, such as the Codex Mendoza, which shows the eagle and cactus on its first page. Aztlan has never been identified and may be symbolic. The Mexica did settle on a lake island, probably in the early 1300s. The eagle and cactus now appear on the flag of Mexico.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCodex Mendoza. Pictorial manuscript with Spanish glosses, Mexico, c. 1541. Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden A.1.
    2. BookSmith, Michael E. The Aztecs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

  10. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca at Tula

    Myth

    The legend

    Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, priest-king of Tula, is a wise ruler. The sorcerer god Tezcatlipoca tricks him into drunkenness and shame. Quetzalcoatl leaves Tula and travels east to the sea, where he burns himself or sails away on a raft of snakes, promising to return.

    The rest is history

    The tale was written down after the Spanish conquest, notably in the Florentine Codex and the Annals of Cuauhtitlan. It merges a god with a possible historical ruler of Tula. Tula's decline was likely caused by internal conflict and outside pressures. The stories show how the Aztecs remembered the Toltecs as a lost golden age.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Nahuatl and Spanish text, c. 1550-1577.
    2. BookDavies, Nigel. The Toltecs Until the Fall of Tula. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.

  11. Moctezuma thought Cortés was a returning god

    Popular belief

    The legend

    When Cortés arrives in 1519, Moctezuma is said to take him for the returning god Quetzalcoatl. Believing this, the Aztec emperor welcomes the Spanish without a fight.

    The rest is history

    Historians now doubt this account. It appears mainly in Spanish writings and in indigenous accounts written decades later under Spanish rule. Moctezuma's choices can be explained by politics, uncertainty and diplomacy. Matthew Restall and others argue the idea grew from the Spanish wish to explain the conquest as easy.

    Sources

    1. BookRestall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
    2. PrimarySahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex, Book 12: The Conquest of Mexico. Nahuatl text, c. 1555-1577.

  12. The Aztecs as a people called Aztecs

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The people who built Tenochtitlan are widely called the Aztecs, and it is often said that they used that name for themselves.

    The rest is history

    The Mexica seldom if ever used the name Aztec, which comes from Aztlan and became common only in the 1800s, helped by the writer Alexander von Humboldt and the historian William Prescott. They called themselves Mexica, or Tenochca for the people of Tenochtitlan. Their empire was a Triple Alliance of three cities that included other Nahuatl-speaking peoples. Modern historians use Aztec as a convenient label for this wider group.

    Sources

    1. BookSmith, Michael E. The Aztecs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
    2. BookTownsend, Richard F. The Aztecs. 3rd ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 2009.

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