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happening there. Indeed, without supporting troops the governors lacked a direct means of implementing Aztec wishes, and no significant bodies of troops appear to have been delegated for this purpose. Rather, the governors headed off the emergence of any major rival leadership that might have acted against Aztec interests or sought alliances with hostile outside groups. It is unlikely that extensive meddling in local affairs took place. Instead, the governors primarily served as barometers of local sentiment and as suppliers of intelligence about local matters to Tenochtitlan. Enforcement remained a matter of Aztec projection of power. |
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At this time the Aztecs fought a flower war with Tlaxcallan, Huexotzinco, Cholollan, and, probably, Tliliuhqui-Tepec.
59 This was the first in a series of escalating flower wars to be fought with the city-states of the present-day Puebla/Tlaxcala valley. It was aimed at engaging these opponents at a relatively low level of violence while putting them on the defensive, permitting Aztec expansion elsewhere, and continuing the encirclement and ultimate strangulation of these troublesome cities. |
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Moteuczomah Ilhuicamina's last major campaign was into the Tepeyacac region, and it was probably tied to this strategy (see map 7). Again, the rationale for the campaign was that merchants from the Triple Alliance had been murdered. Although the cities of the present-day Puebla/Tlaxcala valley apparently played no role here, later events and their proximity to Tepeyacac suggest a relationship. Thus the Aztecs may have been preempting future problems while tightening their encirclement of those cities. The king prepared for war and sent four envoys to Tepeyacae with a message and a shield, swords, and feathers as a warning of war, but it did not submit. So an army was assembled from many towns, including Azcapotzalco, Tlacopan, Cuauhtitlan, Acolhuacan, Tetzcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, Colhuacan, Cuitlahuac, Mizquic, and Coyohuacan, and ordered to meet on an assigned day. After a few days' march it reached Cuauhpetlayo (Coyupetlayo or Coahuapetlayo), on the outskirts of Tepeyacac, where each unit set up camp.60 |
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Scouts were sent out and reported that Tepeyacac had no defenses, garrison troops, or fortifications. The use of scouts to reconnoiter enemy fortifications was a common stratagem. Though unrecorded for many campaigns, it was doubtless employed by the Aztecs from the time of their first imperial excursions outside the basin of Mexico into areas where specific local conditions were |
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