Formation of the Aztec Triple Alliance
For much of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan existed as subordinate clients of the powerful Tepanec kingdom centered at Azcapotzalco. The assassination of the Tepanec ruler Tezozomoc's successor in 1427 created a political crisis that the Mexica, under their new tlatoani Itzcoatl, exploited with remarkable speed. Forming a coalition with the Acolhua city-state of Texcoco (whose ruler Nezahualcoyotl was himself a refugee from Tepanec aggression) and the smaller polity of Tlacopan, the three powers defeated Azcapotzalco in 1428 and dismantled Tepanec hegemony. The intellectual architect of the new imperial order was Tlacaelel, Itzcoatl's half-brother and chief advisor, who held the title of cihuacoatl. Tlacaelel is credited with one of the most audacious acts of ideological reconstruction in pre-Columbian history: the systematic destruction of existing historical records. According to later sources, Itzcoatl reportedly ordered the burning of books so that the Mexica's history of servitude and their relatively recent arrival in the Valley of Mexico would be replaced by a new founding mythology that cast them as the chosen people of Huitzilopochtli, the sun god who required constant nourishment through human sacrifice to keep the cosmos in motion. Under the Triple Alliance, tribute from conquered peoples was divided among the three partners — with Tenochtitlan receiving two-fifths, Texcoco two-fifths, and Tlacopan one-fifth. Within a generation the alliance had subjugated most of central Mexico, creating the largest empire in Mesoamerican history. The ideological framework Tlacaelel constructed — the Mexica as the people of the sun, obligated to wage war to feed the gods — would drive expansion until the Spanish arrived less than a century later.
- Year: 1428 CE
- Category: Political
