A BRiLLiANT MiLiTARY LEADER

Ahuitzotl began his reign in 1486. Unlike his brother, Ahuitzotl had a brilliant military mind. As soon as he took office, he began planning a campaign of wars to expand the Aztec Empire. Ahuitzotl was adding a new layer to the top of the Great Temple, to make it even taller. The celebration of its completion would be marked by a magnificent sacrifice, and the Aztecs needed to collect a sufficient number of captives.

No one knows how many people were sacrificed in the four-day celebration for Huitzilopochtli’s temple. The number may have been in the thousands. So many prisoners of war were sacrificed that the event was the bloodiest celebration the Aztecs ever had.

War and Human Sacrifice

There are stories of the Aztecs sacrificing hundreds and even thousands of people a year, but these stories are exaggerated. Some were told by the conquering Spanish as a way to justify their own violence in taking over Aztec lands. Some were told by the Aztecs themselves to glorify their ancestors.

But when historians look at the most reliable, most specific descriptions of Aztec rituals and actually count the number of human sacrifices they demanded, the number is in the dozens per year. occasionally, special events were observed with extra sacrifices. Ahuitzotl's temple dedication in 1487 is one famous example. But there is no evidence for the high numbers of sacrifices regularly mentioned in some accounts.

Still, human sacrifice was a major focus of Aztec state rituals. Warfare was conducted so that soldiers were captured alive for sacrifice. (this meant there were much fewer deaths in war than in European warfare of the time.) this practice has lead to stories that the Aztecs made war with the purpose of capturing people for sacrifice. capturing victims for sacrifice was one of the many ways they justified their warfare. But the Aztecs also expanded their empire to gain access to the riches of their neighbors: cotton, chocolate, jade, quetzal feathers, turquoise, building stone, and other items of value.

In this way, their wars of expansion were very similar to the later conquests of the Spanish. And they were similar in another way, too. the Aztecs and the Spanish were both motivated by a desire for power and glory. they assumed wealth was their well-deserved reward for their military success.

Next, Ahuitzotl turned his attention to unconquered lands surrounding the Aztec Empire. Between 1491 and 1495, the Aztecs brought the region of Oaxaca fully under their rule. The defeated peoples there included the zapotec. To the west and south of Tenochtitlan, Ahuitzotl took control of Acapulco, on the Pacific Ocean, and the prized region of Soconusco, where cacao beans (which are used to make chocolate) grew. Gold and cotton also poured in as tribute from newly dominated regions.

By this time, the empire of the Triple Alliance had expanded so far that the three city-states lost their ability to control the people under their rule. The burden of constant taxing and providing young men to

The Aztec leader Ahuitzotl carried this featherwork shield. It shows a mighty beast holding a knife between its teeth.

Tenochtltian Rebuilt

In the early 1500s, a flood poured through Tenochtitlan, destroying many homes, farm plots, and public buildings. The Aztecs offered sacrifices to please their gods and make the waters retreat. As the water levels lowered, the Aztecs saw how badly their city had been damaged. Ahuitzotl immediately ordered that the city be rebuilt.

Stonemasons (people who work with building stone), carpenters, and other craftspeople arrived in Tenochtitlan. They built magnificent palaces that were surrounded by plazas, open streets, and gardens.

The dikes that held back the water were made stronger so that flooding would not damage the city again. The city that was nearing its 200th birthday took on a new look.

Fight in the army was heavy for those who had been conquered. They believed that the Aztecs had bled their homelands dry so that rulers in Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan could sit on their jaguar-skin thrones wearing fine clothes and jewelry.

When the Aztecs conquered a people, they usually left the local ruler in place. That ruler became responsible to the leaders of the Triple Alliance. He collected tribute and sent it on to the capital cities. He administered Aztec laws and arranged for young men to serve in the military. In return, the Triple Alliance offered the region protection from outside invasion, a sense of security, and a large trading network.

There was no way for the Aztecs to actually control all the people in the lands they had conquered. They simply had too few warriors and officials to enforce their rule. Their success lay in the ever-present threat of punishment for any rebellion and in the willingness of the local leaders to go along with Aztec wishes.

The Aztec expansion created a never-ending cycle that eventually led to their destruction. They sought more wealth, and that meant they needed to conquer more people. The cost of clothing, arming, and feeding an army, as well as supplying soldiers, put more demands on the conquered people. The endless need for more tribute to pay for the army was a terrible burden that could only be completely filled by conquering still more people. The Aztec Empire under Ahuitzotl grew, but so did its problems.