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missing amounting to 16 to 17 percent of the total army strength. There are no reliable statistics for the number of Aztec war dead. The available information is anecdotal, giving the number of Aztecs and allies killed versus the enemy victims in specific battles but not for every battle or even for complete campaigns, other than for the illfated Tarascan campaign. Consequently, the figures given are used advisedly
54 and may reflect the extremes: great success, as against Alahuiztlan and Oztoman; great failure, as against the Tarascans; and exceptionally disappointing results, as in Tizoc's campaign against Metztitlan. The great successes probably reflect conquest of an entire town and its civilian populace, while more modest successes probably reflect battles solely against armies. |
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In battle, designated individuals cared for the wounded and took them to medical specialists to be tended.55 Drawing a parallel with Tlaxcallan the wounded were bandaged and taken away immediately so the enemy could not tell the damage it was inflicting.56 Consequently, the dead did not litter the battlefield. But all the dead were identified, and their families were notified.57 The fate of the bodies is unclear: those of nobles and valiant warriors were returned to their home cities, but, depending on circumstances, those of the commoners may have been cremated on the spot. |
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The numbers of captives taken and of warriors killed reflect differences not only in individual skills and numbers of combatants but also in the tactics employed. If an opposing army was surrounded, vastly more captives could be taken, since they and their archers and slingers could not escape. If the enemy forces were not surrounded, only the hand-to-hand combatants were likely to be captured. Consequently, the Aztecs would be expected to suffer fewer captives than their numerically inferior opponents, because the Aztecs were unlikely to be encircled. When an envelopment was accomplished, commoners would be more greatly represented among the captives, but when it was not, the captives were disproportionately drawn from the military elite. |
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When the war ended, the king or commanding general of the army ordered the teuctlahtohqueh judges to return home. There they were to inform the families of those who had died, so that there would be weeping for the dead.58 |
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