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The Valley of Mexico attracted prehistoric humans because the region was rich in biodiversity and had the capacity of growing substantial crops. [4] Generally speaking, humans in Mesoamerica, including central Mexico, began to leave a hunter-gatherer existence in favor of agriculture sometime between the end of the Pleistocene epoch and the beginning of the Holocene. [11]
As a result, when the Mexica arrived in the Valley of Mexico as a semi-nomadic tribe, they found most of the area already occupied. In roughly 1248, [ 2 ] they first settled on Chapultepec , a hill on the west shore of Lake Texcoco, the site of numerous springs.
The Aztecs [a] (/ ˈ æ z t ɛ k s / AZ-teks) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
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). [7]
In 1428, the Aztecs led a war against their rulers from the city of Azcapotzalco, which had subjugated most of the Valley of Mexico's peoples. The revolt was successful, and the Aztecs became central Mexico's rulers as the Triple Alliance leaders. The alliance was composed of the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan.
Aztec glyphs for the member-states of the Aztec Triple Alliance: Texcoco (left), Tenochtitlan (middle), and Tlacopan (right). Tlatelolco (Classical Nahuatl: Mēxihco-Tlatelōlco [tɬateˈloːɬko], modern Nahuatl pronunciation ⓘ) (also called Mexico Tlatelolco) was a pre-Columbian altepetl, or city-state, in the Valley of Mexico.
Tezozómoc forced the Aztecs to fight with him and together conquered the city of Colhuacan in 1385. Between 1414–1418, Azcapotzalco controlled the entire Valley of Mexico, thanks to the decisive contribution of Aztec and mercenary forces and a series of careful pacts with regional people. Azcapotzalco became an economic center of enormous power.
It also lies within the greater metropolitan area of Mexico City. Pre-Columbian Tetzcoco is most noted for its membership in the Aztec Triple Alliance. At the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, it was one of the largest and most prestigious cities in central Mexico, second only to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.