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main proved an advantage to Itzcoatl, while the strength and much greater expanse and complexity of the Tepanec Empire proved a disadvantage to Maxtlatl. |
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Maxtlatl's main vulnerability was internal, not external. Once he eliminated the designated successor and assumed rule, there was little to restrain other equally legitimate pretenders who already ruled their own cities. Consequently, the cohesion of the Tepanec Empire was rent, Maxtlatl lost his secure power base, and he was challenged everywhere. |
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In the east Nezahualcoyotl, heir to the throne of Tetzcoco, left Tlaxcallan for Calpollalpan, seven leagues from Tetzcoco. There he received messengers from Chalco, Coatl-Ichan, and Huexotla seeking help against Maxtlatl, and at Oztopolco he also met with Axayacatl, who had been sent by Itzcoatl to offer help. Many other towns in non-Tepanec areas (Zacatlan, Tototepec, Tepeapolco, Tlaxcallan, Huexotzinco, Cholollan, and Chalco) joined Nezahualcoyotl to fight the Tepanecs. Acolman fell to the Tlaxcaltecs and Huexotzincas, and Coatl-Ichan to the Chalcas, and the kings installed by Maxtlatl were killed.
5 With Aztec help,6 Nezahualcoyotl subdued the entire Acolhua province including Tetzcoco, although apparently not securely because he remained in Chiauhtla7 (see map 3). |
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The Acolhua losses and the Aztec affront were provocative, but the Tepanecs did not retaliate immediately, although guards were again placed on all of the roads out of Tenochtitlanthe causeways of Tlacopan, Chapoltepec, and Tlatelolco8and Itzcoatl had time to prepare. When he was ready, Itzcoatl sent his nephew, Tlacaelel, to Azcapotzalco, where he asked first if peace was possible. On learning that it was not, he smeared pitch on the king and feathered his head, as was done with the dead, and gave him a shield, sword, and gilded arrowsthe insignia of the sovereignand thus declared war.9 |
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The Aztecs were helped in this war by Nezahualcoyotl, whom the Aztecs had assisted, and by Totoquihuaztli, the ruler of Tlacopan. The Tepanec city of Tlacopan was ostensibly subdued by the Aztecs and Acolhuas during the campaign against Azcapotzalco.10 But in reality, there was no support for Maxtlatl in Tlacopan. Its ruler, Totoquihuaztli, was Tetzotzomoc's son and thus a legitimate pretender to the throne of the Tepanec Empire. His claim to the throne was as valid as Maxtlatl's, and the overall political situation in the basin of Mexico persuaded Totoquihuaztli to reassess his relationship to Azcapotzalco. As a consequence there was no real battle |
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