Aztec Empire  

Aztec Empire

Before the Spanish conquests in the 16th century, the Aztecs managed to create a powerful empire that caught the European explorers with awe.

No comments | 1000 - 1530

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Aztec Empire

13 events | No comments | 1000 - 1530

1000

Mesoamerica before the Aztec expansion

The collapse of Teotihuacan in central Mexico and the abandonment of the classical Maya cities in the 8th century AD signaled a significant political and cultural change in Mesoamerica. In central Mexico, nomadic peoples from beyond the northern...

1000

1 comment

1325

Origins of the Aztecs

From their obscure origins, the Aztec (or as they called themselves, the Mexica) rise to power and formation of an imperial state was as spectacular as it was rapid. According to some of their legends, the Mexica had once inhabited the central valley...

1325

1 comment

1428

Aztecs become a major power

In the 14th century the area around the lake was dominated by a number of tribes organized into city-states. The city of Azcapotzalco was the real power but was challenged by an alliance centered in the city of Texcoco...

1428

1 comment

1440

Aztec expansion and centralization

According to the Aztec accounts of this history, a social and political transformation had also taken place. Acampichtli, the first ruler, had created a nobility, or pipiltin, from the leading families by marriage with some Culhuacan nobles who could...

1440

1 comment

1450

Aztec religion

Aztec religion incorporated many features that had long been part of the Mesoamerican system of beliefs. Religion was a vast, uniting, and sometimes oppressive force in which little distinction was made between the world of the gods and the natural world.

1450

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1460

Tenochtitlan

The city-state with its ruler-spokesman was a key central Mexican concept and it applied to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. The Mexica thought of themselves as inheritors of Toltec traditions and of their city as the new Tula...

1460

2 comments

1470

Aztec economy

Feeding the great population of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec confederation in general depended on traditional forms of agriculture and on innovations developed by the Aztecs. Lands of conquered peoples were often appropriated, and food was sometimes...

1470

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1480

Aztec society

During their wanderings, the Aztecs had been divided into seven calpulli, or clans, a form of organization that they would later expand and adapt to their imperial position. By the 16th century there were about 20 major calpulli and 40 associated ones...

1480

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1490

Aztec population and the role of women

Membership in society was defined by participation in various wider groups, such as the calpulli or a specific social class, and by gender roles and definitions. Aztec women assumed a variety of roles...

1490

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1500

Government of the empire

Each of the city-states was ruled by a speaker chosen from the nobility. The Great Speaker, the ruler of Tenochtitlan, became first among supposed equals. He was in effect the emperor, with great private wealth and public power, and was increasingly...

1500

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1519

Arrival of Spanish conquistadors

An expedition of Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes reached the coast of Mexico with 11 ships in March 1519. They carried some 600 men, 16 horses and about 20 guns of various sizes. The Spanish party was soon confronted by a large number of...

1519

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1519-11-08

Cortes and Montezuma

The Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, had had plenty of warning of the arrival of the fair-skinned and bearded strangers. He also knew that this was a One-Reed year in the Mexican calendar cycle, when the fair-skinned and bearded Quetzalcoatl would at some...

8. November 1519 - 13. August 1521

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1530

Establishment of Spanish rule

After the fall and destruction of Tenochtitlan, the debris of houses and temples was pushed into the lake and street-canals, and a larger number of natives perished from an epidemic of smallpox than fell victim to the Spaniards' other weapons...

1530

1 comment

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