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quiauhco had stopped paying tribute and was interfering with the passage of goods from the Pacific coast and Tecuantepec to Tenochtitlan. Among the towns conquered in that incursion were Tlachquiauhco, Iztac-Tlallocan, Centzontepec, Texocuauhtli (not a place name but possibly the name of a mountain; probably near Nopallan), Mictlan, and Xaltianquizco.
77 Also conquered around this time was Calli-Imanyan near Tolocan, as a separate action, along with Tetenanco, Zoltepec, Tlatlayan, Oztoman, Poctepec, and Tecaxic (see map 20).78 |
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There was also another flower war with Tlaxcallan at this time, in which the Aztec warriors who had been defeated in the previous xochiyaoyotl redeemed themselves. The disgraced warriors undertook the war on their own initiative, taking many prisoners, and the king pardoned them.79 But this renewed success against Tlaxcallan was short-lived. By the next war Huexotzinco had reallied with Tlaxcallan.80 The Aztecs and Huexotzinco allegedly fell out over the Aztec sacrifice of Tlaxcaltec prisoners to the goddess ToCih, which so offended the Huexotzincas that they burned ToCih's temple in Tenochtitlan, and hostilities broke out. But this was a rationalization: the fundamental reason for the break in relations between Tenochtitlan and Huexotzinco centered on their long-term political differences. Tlaxcallan, Atlixco, Huexotzinco, and Cholollan were united because of their opposition to Aztec expansion, but as the foregoing indicates, theirs was a fragile alliance, and by 1519 Cholollan had split with the others and become an Aztec ally.81 |
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In one of his final campaigns Moteuczomah Xocoyotl sent an expedition into the Chichimec lands, via the Huaxtec region, and conquered Mazatzintlan and Zacatepec.82 Two other towns listed as conquestsTzompanco and Tollanare sufficiently close to Tenochtitlan that their subjugation could have been carried out at any time.83 |
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How far the Aztecs might have expanded had the Spanish conquest not cut their rule short we cannot say. But there is little evidence that the Aztecs had already achieved their height and were on the wane. Rather, they appear to have been expanding on all fronts, at least over the long term. For example, an Aztec presence had been established in the area of present-day Tabasco/Campeche at Xicalanco and Cimatlan, possibly as a step toward further expansion into the Yucatan peninsula.84 |
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