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Fig. 30.
Moteuczomah Xocoyotl ("He-frowned-like-a-lord The-younger"). (Tovar
117; courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University) |
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ing members of the nobility, but the roots of many of these changes are to be found in the ill-fated reign of Tizoc. |
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The king's support lay among on both commoners and nobles, but after decades of cultivating the nobility and securing its loyalty with economic goods gained by conquest, the Aztec rulers had the hereditary nobility firmly allied behind them. The calpolli did not emerge as a powerful force because potential leaders from the commoner class were made meritocratic nobles. Thus they were both separated from the calpolli leadership and tied to the king through the same economic interests that bound the hereditary nobility. This helped secure the king's position vis-à-vis the commoners, but he was still vulnerable to noble intrigues, as evidenced by Tizoc's demise. To avert a threat from that quarter, Moteuczomah Xocoyotl broadened his base of support and diluted the power of any competitors by instituting social changes that accentuated the distinctions between nobles and commoners. He replaced all the com- |
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