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Moreover, they would offer free and safe access to coastal lowland areas possessing otherwise unavailable goods. Second, they would weaken the Aztecs by depriving them of additional tributaries, removing free trade and transit areas, and, perhaps most important, they would break Tenochtitlan's encirclement of the area, which was the Aztecs' primary long-term strategy for subjugating a powerful region. |
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So when the Aztecs demanded that Ahuilizapan and Cuetlachtlan submit, the Tlaxcaltecs, Huexotzincas, and Chololtecs urged that the emissaries be killed, and they promised assistance if the Aztecs retaliated. Given the Aztecs' momentary weakness, the great distance from Tenochtitlan, and the assurances of assistance from Tlaxcallan, Huexotzinco, Atlixco, and Cholollan, Cuetlachtlan felt sufficiently strong to resist the Aztecs' threats and killed the messengers. In response, Moteuczomah Ilhuicamina sent his army against Ahuilizapan and set up camp at the city's borders.
44 Despite the assistance of a large army from Tlaxcallan, Huexotzinco, and Cholollan,45 the Aztecs conquered Ahuilizapan, taking 6,000 captives. The lords of Cuetlachtlan asked for peace and agreed to become tributaries, but in a marked departure from previous practice, the Aztecs named an Aztec governor, Pinotl, to rule them.46 Also conquered on this campaign were Tlahuitollan, Tototlan, Cuauhtochco, Tlatlactetelco, Tzapotlan, Tepzolco (Tepzol), Coxolitlan, Teohuacan, Cozcatlan, Cuextlan (Cuetlachtlan?), Chichiquillan, Teoixhuacan, Quimichtlan, Tzauctlan, Macuilxochitlan, Tlatictlan, and Oceloapan, as well as Cuetlachtlan, Ahuilizapan, Maxtlan, Cempohuallan, Quiahuiztlan in the Totonac area, and possibly Tlatlauhqui-Tepec.47 But most of these towns probably capitulated with the approach of the victorious Aztec army.48 |
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The round trip to Ahuilizapan required twenty-four to forty-one days (780 km. or 484 mi.), exclusive of rest, combat, and regrouping days. If the towns to the north of Ahuilizapan were actually conquered, an additional five to nine days' journey (163 km. or 100 mi.) would have been entailed each way. Teotitlan (del Camino) also appears to have come under Aztec sway at this time.49 |
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On their return from the Gulf coast the soldiers reached a place called Acachinanco, at the entrance of Tenochtitlan, where Moteuczomah Ilhuicamina received them. Then the army continued to the temple to Huitzilopochtli and paid reverence to the king and other leaders.50 This campaign was of pivotal importance, coming at a time |
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