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all leader, or tlahtoani, and subordinate leaders for each of the several calpolli units. These calpolli units were often dispersed among and incorporated into the larger armies of a major campaign, but they apparently were not divided. They were the basic command, logistical, and tactical units, and violating their integrity would have caused too many supply and control problems. |
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In theory the army was organized by xiquipilli (units of 8,000 men). In the war with Coaixtlahuacan, the army reached twenty-five xiquipilli, or 200,000 warriors.
58 But Aztec military requirements often dictated smaller armies than could be created if whole xiquipilli were used. And since the responsibility for supplying men was dispersed throughout the allied cities and their basic units were not divided, towns and calpolli each apparently contributed fewer men than a xiquipilli. |
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If each calpolli in Tenochtitlan had been responsible for a xiquipilli, the result would have been 160,000 soldiers, a number in excess of the city's male population. Instead, an equal manpower assessment was spread over the twenty calpolli in Tenochtitlan, requiring each to supply 400 men.59 This interpretation is supported by two widely reported facts: each calpolli marched under its own leadership, and there were leaders of 400-man units. It is apparent that the twenty calpolli taken together with the xiquipilli derived from the base-20 numerical system generate de facto leaders of 400-man units. There are also reports of 200-man units (and possibly of 100-man units if a Tlaxcaltec analogy is correct),60 which would have resulted either from unit subdivisions or from smaller mobilizations by half a xiquipilli; each unit had its own leader.61 The existence of a 20-man unit has been suggested,62 a logical assumption given the Mesoamerican counting system, but the existence of such units derive from Bandelier. He suggested them because paintings designated each unit by a banner and the Nahuatl word for flag or banner (though not the Nahuatl term for a war banner) was pantli, which is also the pictographic element indicating 20.63 There is no direct evidence of a unit of this size, but the army was divided below the level of 100 or 200 men, probably into squads of some type and certainly into tactical units. |
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In each squad veteran warriorscuahchicqueh, otontin, achcacuauhtin, or tequihuahquehwere placed between every four or five youths. They watched over these fledgling soldiers but did not fight unless some experienced enemy warrior advanced on the youths.64 |
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