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the Aztec Empire.
15 The Azcapotzalcas pledged lands, labor, and tribute, which the Aztecs divided, giving the most and best to their king, followed in declining portions by Tlacaelel, the other lords and nobles of Mexico according to their merits, the commoners who had demonstrated great valor, the various calpolli, and the gods and their temples.16 |
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The overthrow of Azcapotzalco was only the first step in the creation of an Aztec Empire. Although the Tepanecs were deposed, their allies and tributaries were not automatically subject to the Aztecs but were simply freed from their tributary status. Consequently, a redefinition of relations followed, often through forceful reconquest. |
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The Tepanec city of Coyohuacan was sympathetic to Maxtlatl and chafed under their new subordination to the "traitorous" Tlacopan. While Aztec accounts allege that guards in Coyohuacan stopped, robbed, raped, and killed Aztec women en route to market,17 the struggle for overall rulership of the Tepanec cities is a likelier reason. The people of Coyohuacan sought allies against the Aztecs among .the peoples of Colhuacan, Xochimilco, Cuitlahuac, Chalco, and Tetzcoco, but without success,18 and Coyohuacan was defeated (see fig. 22).19 Thereafter, the Aztecs concentrated on the west and southwest area of the basin where the Tepanecs had been strongest, conquering Coyohuacan, Tlacopan, Huitzilopochco, Ixtlapalapan, and Colhuacan and, probably, Atlacuihuayan, Teocalhueyacan, and Mixcoac,20 thus consolidating their power. Not every independent city-state in the area was conquered immediately, but this campaign did eliminate the threat of a Tepanec resurgence in the basin of Mexico. |
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With Tenochtitlan's emergence as the single most powerful city in the basin of Mexico, King Itzcoatl instituted a series of changes in the political, military, and social structures of Aztec society. To this point the Aztec tlahtoqueh's political power had been limited, because they were dependent upon the commoners for tribute. But the commoners, in turn, relied on the calpolli heads for access to lands and wealth, and the calpolli heads had their own interests. Now, however, the tlahtoani had lands and goods that were independent of the calpolli and their leaders, and by virtue of his position as mili- |
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