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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 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.
Cortés, with 508 Spaniards, did not fight alone but with as many as 150,000 or 200,000 allies from Tlaxcala, and eventually other Aztec tributary states. It was not difficult for Cortés to find allies to fight with him, the Aztecs were not generally liked by the neighboring city-states.
In 1521, the Aztec Empire was conquered by the Spaniards under Hernán Cortés and a large number of Mesoamerican allies. Tenochtitlan was destroyed and replaced by Mexico City, though the Spanish colonial authorities continued to appoint tlatoque of Tenochtitlan until the office was abolished in 1565.
Prior to the fall of the Aztec, the Aztec people had a stable economy driven by a successful trade market. [ citation needed ] The markets, which were located in the center of many communities, were well organized and diverse in goods, as noted by the Spanish conquistadors upon their arrival.
Conquest: Cortés, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas (1993) ISBN 0-671-51104-1; Cortés and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire by Jon Manchip White (1971) ISBN 0-7867-0271-0; History of the Conquest of Mexico. by William H. Prescott ISBN 0-375-75803-8; The Rain God cries over Mexico by László Passuth
The Aztecs did not use regnal numbers; they were given retroactively by historians to more easily distinguish him from the first Moctezuma, referred to as Moctezuma I. [4] The Aztec chronicles called him Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin , while the first was called Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina or Huehuemotecuhzoma ('Old Moctezuma').
This is a timeline of Mexican history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events and improvements in Mexico and its predecessor states.To read about the background to these events, see history See also the list of heads of state of Mexico and list of years in Mexico