The Aztecs: Political History and Notable People

1325 - 1375 - Tenoch (All Facts)

• Priest-King of the Aztecs

• He was elected by the council of elders

• Under his reign, the Aztecs

  • became a major power, maintaining semi-independence from the Tepanec to whom they were previously employed as mercenaries against other states in Mexico at the time

  • established Tenochtitlan as their imperial capital

  • began to colonize Central America

1376 - 1395 - Acamapichtli (All Facts)

• First Tlatoani (King) of the Aztecs (at Tenochtitlan) and Founder of the Aztec Empire

• He thus established Aztec (Mexican) dynastic rule

1427 - 1440 - Itzcoatl (All Facts)

• First Emperor and Founder of the Aztec Empire and 4th King of Tenochtitlan

  • he led the Aztecs in a series of wars of conquest that would result in the emergence of a large and powerful Aztec Empire in modern-day Mexico and Guatemala

• Under his reign, the militarist island-city had been asserting its independence from Tepanec suzerainty, and eventually seized the opportunity created by Tepanec weakness to bring the three enemies of the Tepanecs / Tepanec Empire together

  • He thus established a triple alliance of convenience against the Tepanecs / Tepanec Empire that included themselves at Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan

  • The alliance combined the commercial prosperity of Tlacopan, the prestige of Texcoco, and the military might of Tenochtitlan

  • The Aztecs, under the namesake, gained the most from this alliance, and it allowed them to eventually dominate the Valley of Mexico

1440 - 1469 - Moctezuma (All Facts)

• 2nd Emperor of the Aztec Empire and 5th King of Tenochtitlan

• He conquered tribes outside the Valley of Mexico

  • He led the preestablished Triple Alliance between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan that led to the overthrow of the Tepanecs / Tepanec Empire in the Valley of Mexico, in which the Aztecs, under the namesake’s reign, gradually took over the area the Tepanecs / Tepanec Empire had dominated

• Under his reign,

  • There were four years of drought in the Valley of Mexico, as the Aztecs suffered terrible privations in which thousands of people were dying of starvation, their unburied bodies falling prey to vultures and packs of wild boar

    • So great was the famine that people were driven to desperate measures to survive, in which some retreated into the forests to try to scape a living while others sold themselves into slavery to the Totonacs from the Gulf Coast area

    • The famine persuaded them to enlist the help of the Texcocans from across the lake in building an aqueduct and irrigation system

  • There were Aztec artisans and feather workers who mounted feathers on cloth as part of a tribute paid to the namesake

1469 - 1481 - Axayacatl (All Facts)

• 3rd Emperor of the Aztec Empire and 6th King of Tenochtitlan

• He and his forces defeated the Tlatelolco, the neighboring city of Tenochtitlan at the time

1486 - 1502 - Ahuitzotl (All Facts)

• 5th Emperor of the Aztec Empire and 8th King of Tenochtitlan

• During his reign,

  • He restored and inaugurated the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan / Templo Mayor and dressed as the Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli

    • He oversaw two queues of 10K people, comprised of captured rebels from northern Oaxaca, each having stood on either side of the sacrificial altar in the Great Temple / Templo Mayor

    • He tore their hearts out by hand, one by one, and flung them into a gigantic urn where they were burnt to Huitzilopochtli

    • Exhausted, he retired and his ally, Nezahualpilli, and his councilors, took his place and continued the work

      • They then retired and lesser notables took up the task in the ritual sacrifice

    • He, his councilors, and the lesser notables all did this with the belief that this was the only way their god would be propitiated

  • He led his army on conquests throughout central America

    • Wherever he conquered, his demands for tribute were so unlimited that the defeated were forced to rebel, increasing the flow of hearts to Huitzilopochtli, which fed on nearly unlimited blood during the namesake’s reign

1502 - 1520 - Moctezuma II (All Facts)

• 6th Emperor of the Aztec Empire and 9th King of Tenochtitlan

  • He became “Chief” of the Aztecs

• His envoys attended the first Easter Mass celebrated in Central America

• Under his reign,

  • the ritual human sacrifice that had existed prior to Cortes’ conquest, consisting of prisoners from tribal wars, limited the Aztecs’ fighting efficiency later on against the Spanish

• He and his Aztec forces surrendered Tenochtitlan to Hernan Cortes without a fight upon the conquistador’s arrival and march onto the Aztec capital city

  • After Cortes’s sails came into sight, he sent messengers with clothes fit for a god, but Cortes and his forces replied with a terrifying show of firepower

  • Despite his surrendering without a fight, Cortes and his Spanish expeditionary forces bloodily conquered the Aztec Empire, which lasted 9 months

  • This occurred despite the fact that Aztec seers had predicted fire in the night sky as a portent of doom to come nearly ten years prior

  • This also occurred despite the namesake’s having long suspected that he was being pursued by a Spanish “god”

  • He met Cortes with wary courtesy, his slaves having all swept the ground before him while Marina (a female Aztec slave Cortes courted) translated for Cortes

• He was carried off by Spaniards who stroked his arm curiously before taking him by the hand and leading him away; the namesake having realized that the Spanish “god” had caught up with him

  • He was not seen in public since

• When he reappeared on the roof of his palace with one of his lieutenants, telling his people not to resist the Spaniards, he was greeted with abuse followed by rocks and arrows

  • He eventually was arrested by his own people who scant sympathy for him and were furious about the atrocities being committed by the Spanish

• He was succeeded by a new ruler, who fought against Cortes and his forces unlike the namesake

1520 - 1525 - Cuauhtémoc (All Facts)

• 7th and Final Emperor of the Aztec Empire and 10th King of Tenochtitlan

• He and his forces drove Hernan Cortes and his Spanish forces from Tenochtitlan, where Cortes and his forces then retreated to Tlaxcala

• He and his forces were eventually defeated by Hernan Cortes and his Spanish forces, in which they were forced to surrender Tenochtitlan to the Spanish a second time

• He was held captive for three years by Cortes and the Spanish until he was hanged by the Spanish on a charge of treason

1500 - 1529 - Marina / La Malinche (All Facts)

• Aztec slave girl whom Hernan Cortes had chose as his consort

• She acted as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés

  • She quickly learned Spanish

  • She translated between Hernan Cortes and the leaders of the Aztec Empire during their negotiations and disagreements

• She eventually married Hernan Cortes and gave birth to his son Martin, (one of) the first “Mestizo” in history