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Many basic operations had to be performed to put the armies in the field. Among these were gathering and assessing intelligence, securing moral and material support on the home front, mobilizing and arming the troops, and supplying them en route. Because of the hegemonic nature of the Aztec system, security did not lie in the static defense of fortified sites or in the questionable loyalties of subjugated tributaries. Security lay in the offensive, so of all martial preparations none was more important than intelligence. |
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Intelligence and communications were two of the most crucial aspects of Mesoamerican warfare: the former kept leaders apprised of political and military events, and the latter allowed them to establish and maintain political initiatives and ties and to direct armies in the field. Because the empire was held together by Aztec action or threat of action rather than by structural reorganization, communications and intelligence concerning both foreign and internal areas were vital. To gather information and convey messages, both formal and informal, four institutions were used: merchants traveling throughout Mesoamerica, formal ambassadors, messengers, and spies. |
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General information could be gleaned from many sources, including returning troops and travelers, but perhaps the most useful and organized conduits of general intelligence were the merchants. |
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The pochtecah (merchants; sing. pochtecatl)
8 traded in a wide range of commodities throughout a vast geographical expanse. Not only did they travel throughout the Aztec Empire, they also went beyond it to trade with independent groups owing no allegiance to Tenochtitlan. In both areas the merchants brought back specific information for the state as well as general assessments of the local political climate, based on the way they had been received.9 |
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Much of the merchants' intelligence gathering was incidental to their primary trading functions, but they were sometimes given intelligence duties to perform for the state. King Ahuitzotl ordered merchants to penetrate the lands of Anahuac, ostensibly to trade but actually to reconnoiter.10 On at least some occasions when entering hostile areas beyond the Aztec Empire, the merchants disguised |
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