|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Around 1450 there was another major confrontation, in which Chalco was reportedly reconquered but with heavy Aztec losses, including two important leaders.
17 Whether or not this was the proximate cause, the nature of the war with Chalco underwent a major shift. The conflict had already changed from a flower war, in which only combatants died during the fighting, to one in which commoner captives were taken and sacrificed and then to one in which even noble captives were taken and sacrificed, although the combat itself had remained largely a display of individual courage and prowess. But in 1453 the arrow war began between Chalco and the Aztecs,18 and battle tactics changed. Instead of emphasizing the martial skills and valor of hand-to-hand combat, now bows and arrows were introduced, initiating an element of indiscriminate death from projectile fire that afflicted nobles and commoners alike. The war had shifted from one of martial demonstration (albeit an increasingly bloody and classless one) to one of attrition by death in combat. The Aztecs doubtless initiated the change. Although they were unable or unwilling to commit their forces to a sustained frontal assault in which the stakes were very high, Chalco's position was eroding, and the Aztecs increased the pressure by encircling the Chalcas. This tactic escalated the war by cutting the Chalcas off from potential allies and depriving them of room to retreat. Although the Chalcas did not immediately succumb, their position was growing increasingly precarious. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There was relatively little military activity during the famine that spanned 145054, but the next campaign was directed toward the northern Gulf coast,19 for the stated purpose of avenging the killing of Aztec merchants by the Huaxtecs in Xiuhcoac (Tziccoac) and Tochpan (Tuxpan).20 Aztec merchants traded over a wide area and were repeatedly the objects of attack, possibly because they dominated the markets and were detrimental to other merchants, but more probably because of their intelligence functions. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Traveling throughout Mesoamerica, as we have seen, Aztec merchants were a prime source of information about such matters as roads, defenses, and political conditions, so their presence could easily have inspired hostility. Moreover, their political role was such that they may have been sent into areas as deliberate acts of provocation by the Aztecs to create an excuse for war. Such incidents were used by the Aztecs so often and over such a wide area that they cannot be understood as reasons for the wars but as pretexts. On the |
|
|
|
|
|