Central America · Mesoamerican civilizations
Aztec Triple Alliance
1428/1429–1521
The Aztec Empire (Nahuatl Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, "Tribunal of Three Places") was the alliance formed after the Tepanec War among Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan, sealed around 1428–1430. Tribute was divided so that two-fifths each went to Tenochtitlan and Texcoco and one-fifth to Tlacopan, with the three cities pledged to cooperate in future wars and to share conquered lands.
- Existed
- 1428/1429–1521
- Shown on the map
- 1429–1520
- Peak area
- 213k km²
- Region
- Central America
Overview
The Aztec Empire (Nahuatl Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, "Tribunal of Three Places") was the alliance formed after the Tepanec War among Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan, sealed around 1428–1430. Tribute was divided so that two-fifths each went to Tenochtitlan and Texcoco and one-fifth to Tlacopan, with the three cities pledged to cooperate in future wars and to share conquered lands. It was a hegemonic, tribute-extracting military confederation rather than a centralized territorial empire, headed by the huey tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, advised by the cihuacoatl (internal ruler) and a Council of Four from whom future rulers were drawn. The Tenochtitlan line ran: Acamapichtli, Huitzilihuitl, Chimalpopoca, Itzcoatl (alliance founder, r. 1427–1440), Moctezuma I (r. 1440–1469, a great conqueror and reformer), Axayacatl, Tizoc, Ahuitzotl (r. 1486–1502, presiding over the empire's greatest territorial extent), Moctezuma II (r. 1502–1520), Cuitláhuac (d. 1520 of smallpox), and Cuauhtémoc (r. 1520–1521, the last). Texcoco's allied rulers included Nezahualcoyotl and Nezahualpilli; Tlacopan's founder-ruler was Totoquihuaztli.
Decline and legacy
The empire commanded a vast tribute economy in maize, cotton textiles, cacao, feathers, jade, and other precious goods, sustained by long-distance pochteca merchants and the great market at Tlatelolco; currency included cacao beans and cotton cloaks (quachtli). Its state religion centered on the war-and-sun god Huitzilopochtli and demanded large-scale human sacrifice, partly fed by ritualized "flower wars." Hernán Cortés landed in 1519, allied with the coastal Totonacs and the fiercely anti-Aztec Tlaxcalans, and seized Moctezuma II as a hostage. Following the Toxcatl massacre, the Mexica revolted and drove the Spanish out on La Noche Triste (30 June 1520), inflicting heavy casualties as the invaders fled the causeways at night. After a smallpox epidemic devastated the city (killing Cuitláhuac), Cortés returned with Tlaxcalan allies and a fleet of brigantines, and after a brutal siege of roughly 93 days captured Tenochtitlan on 13 August 1521. Cuauhtémoc was taken prisoner and later executed (1525) on Cortés's Honduras expedition. The empire's fall inaugurated the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Common questions
- What was Aztec Triple Alliance?
- The Aztec Empire (Nahuatl Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, "Tribunal of Three Places") was the alliance formed after the Tepanec War among Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan, sealed around 1428–1430. Tribute was divided so that two-fifths each went to Tenochtitlan and Texcoco and one-fifth to Tlacopan, with the three cities pledged to cooperate in future wars and to share conquered lands.
- When did Aztec Triple Alliance exist?
- Aztec Triple Alliance existed 1428/1429–1521. On this map it is drawn 1429–1520.
- How large was Aztec Triple Alliance?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Aztec Triple Alliance covered about 213,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did Aztec Triple Alliance end?
- The empire commanded a vast tribute economy in maize, cotton textiles, cacao, feathers, jade, and other precious goods, sustained by long-distance pochteca merchants and the great market at Tlatelolco; currency included cacao beans and cotton cloaks (quachtli). Its state religion centered on the war-and-sun god Huitzilopochtli and demanded large-scale human sacrifice, partly fed by ritualized "flower wars."
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity and for the key figures and events as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, EBSCO Research Starters and academic sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Aztec Empire en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_Empire
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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