The Aztec civilization
The Aztec Empire and the Triple Alliance
By the early sixteenth century, the Aztec Triple Alliance dominated central Mexico. Formed in 1428, the alliance united three city-states: Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan. Historians often use the terms “Aztec Empire” and “Mexica” interchangeably; the people of Tenochtitlan called themselves the Mexica. At its peak, the empire controlled a vast territory with a population estimated at between five and six million people across roughly 500 subject towns.
The empire was not a unified state in the modern sense. The Aztecs preferred to extract tribute from conquered peoples rather than directly administer them. Subject rulers kept local control as long as they paid tribute on time and provided warriors for Aztec campaigns. Those who refused or rebelled were crushed with overwhelming force, and their population could be taken for sacrifice. This system created prosperity at the centre but resentment among tributary peoples — resentment that Cortés would later exploit.
Tenochtitlán: The Island City
Tenochtitlán was built on an island in Lake Texcoco, connected to the mainland by three great causeways. The city’s grid of streets, canals and aqueducts astonished the Spanish when they arrived. Contemporary estimates put its population at between 200,000 and 300,000 — larger than London or Paris at the time. At its heart stood the Templo Mayor (“Great Temple”), a massive pyramid-shaped structure dedicated to the two principal Aztec deities, Huitzilopochtli (god of the sun and war) and Tlaloc (god of rain and agriculture).
Tenochtitlán was built on an island in Lake Texcoco and had a population of approximately 200,000–300,000 by 1500 — larger than any city in Europe at the time. The Templo Mayor at its centre was dedicated to the sun god Huitzilopochtli and the rain god Tlaloc.
Methods of Rule and the Tribute System
The tribute system was the economic foundation of Aztec power. Twice a year, subject towns sent goods to Tenochtitlán: maize, beans, cacao, cotton cloth, rubber, feathers, jade, gold dust and live animals. The famous Aztec “tribute rolls” — pictorial records of who paid what — list goods from hundreds of towns. The tribute sustained the elite, fed the capital’s population and funded warfare. Merchants (known as pochteca) operated long-distance trade networks across Mexico, bringing luxury goods to the capital.
Aztec society was hierarchical. At the top was the huey tlatoani (“great speaker”), the emperor. Below him were nobles, priests, warriors and merchants. Commoners farmed tribute lands or practised crafts. At the bottom were slaves, who could be sold but could also buy their freedom. Social mobility was possible through military success: a commoner who captured several enemy warriors could rise to the warrior nobility.
Codices were Aztec pictorial books made from bark paper or deerskin, folded like a screen. They recorded history, religious calendars, astronomical observations, tribute lists and ritual knowledge. Trained scribes (tlacuilos) produced them. Most of the pre-conquest codices were destroyed by Spanish missionaries who saw them as works of the devil; only a handful of pre-conquest Aztec codices survive. Post-conquest codices — many produced by indigenous scribes working alongside Spanish friars — are the main written record of Aztec civilisation. The most important post-conquest compilation is the Florentine Codex, compiled by Friar Bernardino de Sahagún in the 1570s using Nahua informants, which records Aztec history, culture and religion in extraordinary detail.
Aztec Religion and Human Sacrifice
Aztec religion was polytheistic — the Aztecs worshipped many gods. The most important was Huitzilopochtli, the sun and war god. The Aztecs believed that the sun — and by extension, all life — required constant nourishment with human blood. Without it, the sun would cease to move and the world would end. This cosmological belief was the religious justification for human sacrifice on a large scale.
Sacrifices typically took place at the top of the Templo Mayor. A priest cut open the victim’s chest and removed the still-beating heart, offering it to Huitzilopochtli. The body was then rolled down the temple steps. Most victims were war captives — which is why the Aztecs valued live capture over killing in battle, and why they engaged in the “Flower Wars” (ritual battles with neighbouring states specifically to take prisoners for sacrifice). The scale of sacrifice is debated: Spanish chroniclers gave wildly inflated figures; modern estimates range from hundreds to tens of thousands per year, concentrated at major religious festivals.
The Aztecs practised human sacrifice because they believed the sun god Huitzilopochtli required human blood to continue moving across the sky. Most sacrifices took place at the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlán, using war captives taken in the “Flower Wars.”
Quetzalcoatl was one of the most important deities in Mesoamerican religion — the feathered serpent, associated with wind, learning and the planet Venus. Some later colonial-era sources claimed that Moctezuma II believed Cortés was the returning Quetzalcoatl, explaining why the Aztecs initially received him without attacking. Most modern historians are sceptical of this account: the identification of Cortés with Quetzalcoatl appears mainly in post-conquest sources produced decades after the events and may reflect the interests of indigenous groups who collaborated with the Spanish rather than Aztec belief at the time of contact.