|
|
|
|
|
|
|
man them, the absence of a standing army has been taken as proof that they did not really exist.
40 The numerous reports of fortified sites throughout Mesoamerica41 have been dismissed with the explanation that, in the absence of a professional army, mere walls do not imply actual fortifications. Such strongholds were simply matters of expediency, in this view, not permanent military installations. Also explained away are the Aztec garrisons reported in both Spanish and native accounts.42 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On the basis of this approach the Aztec Empire has been criticized as being politically inadequate, lacking internal cohesion, and displaying a deficient military organization. And since the Aztecs did not possess the attributes considered necessary to pursue imperial goals successfully, ipso facto they could not have effectively controlled vanquished territories. This conclusion, which seems logical because it is based on the European experience of territorial expansion, underlies much of the modern writing on Mesoamerica.43 However, this position assumes an essential similarity between Western and Aztec polities, differing only in the strong ritual overtones in Aztec warfare. Thus recurring revolts throughout the empire and the Aztecs' failure to replace vanquished rulers are taken as indications of poor political control. Moreover, as noted above, the Aztecs apparently did not maintain either a year-round standing army to put down revolts or garrisons of troops in occupied territories. Nor were fortifications distributed equally throughout the empire, or in a spatially systematic way.44 In short, the Aztec Empire presents a series of phenomena that, when viewed from the traditional perspective, indicates a deficient political system. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My approach, by contrast, applies perspectives that are more congruent with the Aztec Empire as it functioned. Although my focus is largely political and economic, I do not rule out the role of religion and ideology. People today fight for ideological reasons, and there is no justification for eliminating such reasons from any analysis of Aztec practices. However, people today also fight for economic and political reasons; thus one cannot simply assume a rationale for war and thereby avoid the need to demonstrate its accuracy. In my assessment of the mechanics of Aztec warfareits role in everyday life, its |
|
|
|
|
|