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the city as well. All of the adults were killed in Alahuiztlan and Oztoman, and more than forty thousand children were taken and distributed throughout the rest of the empire.
23 The reason the town were conquered in that sequence lies in the previous pattern of loyalties: Alahuiztlan had not been conquered by the Aztecs, but like Teloloapan, Oztoman had been an Aztec tributary, so its hostility was the more serious and had to be dealt with first. |
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Teloloapan, Oztoman, and Alahuiztlan were repopulated by married couples from the heart of the empire, two hundred each from Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan, as well as people from other towns in the empire, totaling nine thousand couples.24 When they reached the area, the people divided into three groups, the largest going to Oztoman. Those staying in Teloloapan acted as the garrison of that town, since it had not been depopulated as had the other two cities.25 |
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This campaign displayed considerable economy of purpose. By attacking cities that had refused to attend the ceremony in Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs demonstrated both their military power and the consequences of disloyalty or open hostility. The campaign itself encouraged submission by demonstrating that the fate of the conquered cities was partially in the hands of the vanquished: those who cooperated received more favorable treatment than those who did not. Moreover, it placed considerable value on splitting existing alliances. The Aztecs were also able to further their own strategic goals by placing armed adn loyal people at the border with Michhuacan, adjacent to the enemy Tarascan Empire.26 |
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The Tarascan Empire has been a persistent problem in the analysis of Aztec political adn military expansion.27 It was an empire of considerable geographical expanse, population, and military power, but what this represented to the Aztecs is unclear. Some writers consider the Tarascans militarily superior adn the Aztecs' likely successors as the dominant power in central Mexico.28 Except for the outcome of a few clashes, however, such an interpretation finds little support in the data. |
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There were few fortifications in most of Mesoamerica, and of those most were urban. The Tarascans' situation was radically different: they erected a series of fortification along their border with the Aztecs at key points dominating the valleys along which a conquering army would be likely to march. These sites were (from north to south) Tlalpoxahua (Tlalpujahua; not a proper Nahuatl town name), |
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