Pictured Below: Tenochtitlan as it appeared to the Aztecs (Patrick Olivares 1999)
Around 1250 CE, a nomadic tribe from northern Mexico, the Mexica, or as
they are called today, the Aztecs, settled in the Basin of Mexico in
the area that was to become Mexico City, and began to build an impressive city in the middle of Lake Texcoco. By 1428 this city, Tenochtitlan, was bustling with political, economic, and ideological activity and the ruler, Itzcoatl, had begun to focus the society's efforts on expansion. By 1430 he had allied Tenochtitlan with two other cities in the Basin, Tlacopan and Texcoco, to form the Triple Alliance that would dominate the Central Mexican Highland area until 1520 (Berdan 2005:11). For the next ninety years the Aztecs were the dominant force in central Mexico, expanding their empire from coast to coast. Therefore, military and war became dominant themes in this prehistoric society. However, war was not simply an integral part of the the society, war, as Hassig says, was what the empire was defined by.
Throughout the pages of this website, I will attempt to explain
the benefits of integrating the military into the daily lives of the
citizens of the Aztec empire. I
will demonstrate that the integration of the military within the social
fabric of the society, primarily through offering the possibility of social advancement, was an essential aspect of forming this great
Mesoamerican empire. In order to do this, a basic background knowledge
of the Aztec social organization, daily life, and religion will be introduced to
provide examples of how the military was integrated into Aztec communities.
This website, therefore, will cover the following themes:
» The importance of the military to Aztec Society
» The organization and stratification of the military
» The importance of social mobility
» Comparisons to other imperial societies