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from there would have benefited from the transportation and logistical advantages afforded by the lake. Based on the sequence in which the towns were conquered, however, the campaign was apparently launched through the valley of Tolocan. Xocotitlan was easily accessible from Xiquipilco, as was Atocpan to the northeast as the army passed through the previously conquered towns of Chiapan and Xochitlan. The return was probably directly south to Tenochtitlan. |
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These campaigns occupied most of their armies, but the Aztecs also used their military successes in one part of the empire to buttress their control of other parts. After the conquest of the Matlatzinca territory, the Aztecs sent messengers to Quiahuiztlan and Cempohuallan on the Gulf coast for feathers for the festival of Tlatlauhqui-Tezcatl (see map 10),
40 and this veiled threat resulted in the two cities' acquiescence without the use of force.41 The consequences of refusing the Aztec request were all too apparent to the solicited cities. The Aztecs' ability to commad respect at such distance was doubtless a reflection of their success in the western campaigns and the additional areas added to the empire. |
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Following the completion of the western campaigns, the Aztecs imposed a military government in Tolocan in 1479,42 which may have been a strictly internal political or successional matter. But thereafter the Tarascan war began (probably in campaign season 147980), suggesting that the Aztecs were ensuring their support in an area crucial to a thrust farther west43 (see map 11). |
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Accounts of the Tarascan campaign agree on the general outlines but conflict on the details.44 By one account45 the Aztecs and their allies fought the Tarascans at Matlatzinco (present-day Charo) but, outnumbered 32,000 to 50,000, were badly defeated. The army returned to Tzinacantepec, one of Tolocan's subjects, with only 100 warriors each from Tetzcoco, Acolhuacan, Tlacopan, Xochimilco, and Chalco, 10 each from the Otomies, mountain groups, and Chinampanecs, and only 200 Aztecs.46 By another account47 the Aztec army set up camp at the lagoon near Tzinapequaro (roughly the location of Matlatzinco), and spies were dispatched. The Tarascan army was on a nearby plain and the spies allegedly tunneled to their tents and overheard the strength of the army and their weapons. Although outnumbered 40,000 to 24,000, the Aztecs attacked, but they finally withdrew to Ecatepec with only 200 Aztecs, 400 Tetzcocas, 400 Tepanecs, 400 Chalcas, 400 Xochimilcas, 300 Otomies from Cuauhtlalpan, and practically none from the lowlands.48 The only signifi- |
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