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The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mēxihcah (pronounced [meˈʃikaʔ]). The capital of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlan. During the empire, the city was built on a raised island in Lake Texcoco.
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.
From c. 1375 onwards, the rulers of Tenochtitlan were monarchs and used the title tlatoani. From 1427 to 1521, the tlatoque of Tenochtitlan were alongside those of the cities Tetzcoco and Tlacopan the leaders of the powerful Triple Alliance, commonly known as the Aztec Empire.
In the 1450s, Aztec forces under Moctezuma would invade the Valley of Oaxaca in a bid to extend Aztec hegemony. [17] In about 1458, Moctezuma led an expedition into Mixtec territory against the city-state of Coixtlahuaca. The Mixtecs were defeated, despite the support of contingents of Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco warriors, traditional enemies of ...
Family and lineage were the basic units of Aztec society. One's lineage determined social standing, and noble traced their lineage back to the mythical past, as they were said to be descended from the god Quetzalcoatl. [9] Prestigious lineages also traced their kin back through ruling dynasties, preferably ones with a Toltec heritage.
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]
The name Aztec was coined by Alexander von Humboldt, who combined Aztlán ("place of the heron"), their mythic homeland, and tec(atl) "people of". [6] The term "Aztec" often today refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, Mēxihcah Tenochcah, a tribal designation referring only to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, excluding those of ...
Lienzo de Tlaxcala image depicting Tlaxcaltec soldiers leading a Spanish soldier to Chalco.. Due to their century-long rivalry with the Aztecs, the Tlaxcaltecs allied with Hernán Cortés and his fellow Spanish conquistadors and were instrumental in the invasion of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, helping the Spanish reach the Valley of Anahuac and providing a key contingent of the ...