Itzcoatl
Itzcoatl founded the Aztec empire and had the histories rewritten. He became the fourth ruler of Tenochtitlan in 1427, an illegitimate son of an earlier king by a woman of low rank, and came to the throne at about fifty. Tenochtitlan was at that point a tributary of Azcapotzalco, the dominant city of the Tepanec, and had been for a century. When the Tepanec ruler Tezozomoc died and his successor Maxtla began to squeeze the Mexica, Itzcoatl chose war against the advice of much of the nobility, who wanted submission. His nephew Tlacaelel is credited with holding the council to the decision and with much of what followed. He allied with Texcoco and Tlacopan, and in 1428 the coalition destroyed Azcapotzalco. The arrangement between the three cities became the Triple Alliance, which governed central Mexico until the Spanish arrived, with tribute divided between them and Tenochtitlan taking the dominant share. He then conquered the cities of the southern lake basin — Coyoacán, Xochimilco, Cuitláhuac — and secured the chinampa agricultural land that fed the capital. The internal reordering was as significant. Land taken in conquest was distributed to the warrior nobility rather than to the calpulli communities, which created a hereditary aristocracy where there had not been one, and the office of cihuacoatl was established as a permanent deputy. He ordered the existing painted books burned and new histories composed, presenting the Mexica as descendants of the Toltecs and their god Huitzilopochtli as central. He died in 1440. The empire he began lasted until the Spanish destroyed it eighty years later.
- Lived: 1380 CE – 1440 CE
- Nationality: Aztec
- Roles: ruler
