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"The Aztec Empire grew little by little as each ruler enlarged Aztec territory through time by conquest and alliance," said Laura Filloy Nadal, associate curator for the arts of the ancient Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. These goods included shells from both coasts, jade, parrot feathers and feline pelts from the tropical forests of the south, as well as precious stones and metals, such as gold and silver, from all over the empire. With these new regions added to the empire, trade goods, tribute and taxes began to flow into the city of Tenochtitlán. Moctezuma also carried out a successful war with the Mixtec peoples of southern Mexico.
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As long as the province or territory paid the necessary taxes it owed the Aztec Empire in full and on time, the Aztecs left the local leaders alone, Smith explained.ĭuring the reign of Moctezuma I, from 1440 to 1469, the Aztecs extended their borders southward to the Valley of Oaxaca, westward to the Pacific, and eastward to the Gulf of Mexico. "The Aztecs ruled by a policy known as 'indirect control,'" said Smith, which is a form of political control, as opposed to 'direct control,' that does not intervene directly in the political, cultural or religious institutions of the conquered group.
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(Image credit: Chronicle via Alamy Stock Photo) But gradually, the Aztecs gained sole political power and hegemony of the region.Įmperor Itzcóatl ruled from 1428 to 1440. At first, the three cities ruled the valley relatively equally. This came to be known as the Triple Alliance and is viewed by some scholars and archaeologists as the beginning of the Aztec Empire (other scholars argue that the empire began much earlier in 1325, which is the date of the founding of Tenochtitlán).
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Soon thereafter, in 1428, Itzcóatl formed an alliance with the neighboring states of Texcoco and Tlacopan, two of the more powerful city-states in the region, according to World History Encyclopedia. Itzcóatl, in a coalition with several city-states, marched on Azcapotzalco, overthrew Maxtla and captured the city. But, with the ascension of the new Aztec ruler, Itzcóatl (who ruled from 1428 to 1440), the war took a dramatic turn. Initially, the war went poorly for the Aztecs the Aztec ruler, a man named Chimalpopoca, was killed in the conflict. The Aztecs sided with one of the claimants, a man named Tayahuah, who opposed Tezozomoc's son, Maxtla. It was precipitated by a civil war that flared up between two Tepanec rulers who vied for power after the death of the Tepanec king, Tezozomoc, according to Omni Atlas (opens in new tab). In 1427, the Tepanec War - a conflict that pitted the Aztecs against the Tepanecs of the city of Azcapotzalco - broke out. It is possible that the Aztecs contributed to the downfall of the Toltecs, who were the dominant political and cultural force in the Valley of Mexico before the rise of the Aztecs, according to World History Encyclopedia (opens in new tab). Either by force of arms, alliance or skillful politicking - or a combination of all three - the Aztecs gradually came to dominate the surrounding tribes and city-states in the region, according to World History Encyclopedia. Other times, they hired themselves out as mercenaries in the many wars in which the inhabitants of the valley were engaged. Fierce warriors, they often battled with the other peoples of the region. Like Athens, the Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlán grew from obscurity to military and political prominence through a gradual program of alliance and military dominance, Smith said.Ī map of the Aztec Empire (Image credit: iSidhe via Getty Images)Īt first, as legend has it (opens in new tab), the Aztecs eked out a precarious existence on their island, practicing agriculture and building a small settlement that gradually expanded. In Nahuatl, "city-state" is translated as "altepetl," and much like the city-states of ancient Greece, for example, the city-states in the Valley of Mexico were independent political entities with their own standing armies, Indigenous identities, and political and religious structures. "The basic political form of these groups was the city-state," Michael Smith, a professor of archaeology at Arizona State University (ASU) and the director of the Teotihuacan Research Laboratory at ASU, told Live Science. During the 12th century A.D., many of these peoples began to organize themselves into independent communities. The people who would later be known as the Aztecs were one of many Nahuatl-speaking groups occupying the Valley of Mexico. Modern archaeology, however, paints a different picture of Aztec origins. (Image credit: AmericanWildlife via Getty Images)
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It shows an eagle - a potent symbol in Aztec ideology - with a rattlesnake in its beak.
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