Editing History of Mexico (section)

==Major civilizations==
[[File:Olmeca head in Villahermosa.jpg|thumb|[[Olmec colossal heads|Olmec colossal]]]]
During the pre-Columbian period, many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige. Ancient Mexico can be said to have produced five major civilizations: the Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec, and Aztec. Unlike other indigenous Mexican societies, these civilizations (except the politically fragmented Maya) extended their political and cultural reach across Mexico and beyond.

They consolidated power and exercised influence in trade, art, politics, technology, and religion. Over 3,000 years, other regional powers made economic and political alliances with them; many made war on them. But almost all found themselves within their spheres of influence.

===Olmecs (1500–400 BCE)===
{{main|Olmec}}
The Olmec first appeared along the Atlantic coast (in what is now the state of [[Tabasco]]) in the period 1500–900 BCE. The Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican culture to produce an identifiable artistic and cultural style and may also have been the society that invented writing in Mesoamerica. By the Middle Preclassic Period (900–300 BCE), Olmec artistic styles had been adopted as far away as the Valley of Mexico and Costa Rica.

===Maya===
{{main|Maya civilization}}
[[File:Maya Chac Mool by Luis Alberto Melograna.jpg|thumb|[[Chacmool]], Maya, from the Platform of the Eagles, Chichen Itza, Mexico, ca. 800–90 CE]]

[[Maya peoples|Maya]] cultural characteristics, such as the rise of the ''[[Ajaw|ahau]]'', or king, can be traced from 300 BCE onward. During the centuries preceding the classical period, Maya kingdoms stretched from the Pacific coasts of southern Mexico and Guatemala to the northern [[Yucatán Peninsula]]. The egalitarian Maya society of pre-royal centuries gradually led to a society controlled by a wealthy elite that began building large ceremonial temples and complexes. The earliest known long-count date, 199 AD, heralds the classic period, during which the Maya kingdoms supported a population numbering in the millions. [[Tikal]], the largest of the kingdoms, alone had 500,000 inhabitants, though the average population of a kingdom was much smaller—somewhere under 50,000 people.

===Teotihuacan===
{{main|Teotihuacan}}
[[File:Tetitla Diosa de Jade.jpg|left|thumb|Goddess, mural painting from the Tetitla apartment complex at Teotihuacan, Mexico, 650–750 CE]]
Teotihuacan is an enormous [[archaeology|archaeological]] site in the [[Valley of Mexico|Basin of Mexico]], containing some of the largest [[Mesoamerican pyramid|pyramidal structures]] built in the [[pre-Columbian]] [[Americas]]. Apart from the pyramidal structures, Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the Avenue of the Dead, and numerous colorful, well-preserved [[mural]]s. Additionally, Teotihuacan produced a thin orange pottery style that spread through Mesoamerica.<ref>Ancient Mexico and Central America</ref>

[[File:View from Pyramide de la luna.jpg|thumb|[[Teotihuacan]] view of the Avenue of the Dead and the [[Pyramid of the Sun]], from the [[Pyramid of the Moon]]]]

The city is thought to have been established around 100 BCE and continued to be built until about 250 CE.<ref name="Teotihuacan">{{cite web|title=Teotihuacan|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/teot/hd_teot.htm|work=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History|date=October 2001|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date=2011-06-09|archive-date=2020-05-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519101457/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/teot/hd_teot.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries CE. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the [[1st millennium]] CE, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. At this time, it may have had more than 200,000 inhabitants, placing it among the world's largest cities in this period. Teotihuacan was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population.<ref name="Teotihuacan"/>

The civilization and cultural complex associated with the site is also referred to as Teotihuacan or Teotihuacano. Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the center of a state empire, its influence throughout [[Mesoamerica]] is well documented. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is also a subject of debate. Possible candidates are the [[Nahua peoples|Nahua]], [[Otomi people|Otomi]] or [[Totonac]] ethnic groups. Scholars have also suggested that Teotihuacan was a multiethnic state.
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===Toltec===
{{main|Toltec|Toltec Empire}}
[[File:Telamones Tula.jpg|thumb|right|Colossal atlantids, pyramid B, Toltec, Tula, Mexico, ca. 900–1180 AD]]

The Toltec culture is an archaeological [[Mesoamerica]]n culture that dominated a state centered in [[Tula (Mesoamerican site)|Tula, Hidalgo]], in the early post-classic period of [[Mesoamerican chronology]] (ca 800–1000 AD). The later [[Aztec]] culture saw the Toltecs as their intellectual and cultural predecessors and described Toltec culture emanating from Tollan ([[Nahuatl language|Nahuatl]] for Tula) as the epitome of civilization; indeed, in the Nahuatl language, the word "Toltec" came to take on the meaning "artisan."

The Aztec oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the Toltec empire, giving lists of rulers and their exploits. Among modern scholars, it is a matter of debate whether the Aztec narratives of Toltec history should be given credence as descriptions of actual historical events. Other controversies relating to the Toltecs include how best to understand the reasons behind the perceived similarities in architecture and iconography between the archaeological site of Tula and the Maya site of [[Chichén Itzá]] – no consensus has emerged yet about the degree or direction of influence between the two sites.

===Aztec Empire (1325–1521 CE)===
{{main|Aztec Empire}}
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Murales Rivera - Markt in Tlatelolco 3.jpg
| caption1 = [[Diego Rivera]] mural of the Aztec city of [[Tenochtitlan]]
| image2 = 2013-12-24 Coatlicue 01 anagoria.JPG
| caption2 = Aztec statue of [[Coatlicue]]
| image3 = 1479 Stein der fünften Sonne, sog. Aztekenkalender, Ollin Tonatiuh anagoria.JPG
| caption3 = Aztec [[Sun stone|Sun Stone]]
| image4 = Florentine Codex IX Aztec Warriors.jpg
| caption4 = Aztec warriors in the [[Aztec codices#Florentine Codex|Florentine Codex]].
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[[File:Eagle Relief MET DT4850.jpg|thumb|[[Toltec]] carving representing the Aztec Eagle, found in [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]], 10th–13th century. [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/307599 |title=Eagle Relief, Toltec |website=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] website |access-date=2023-12-06 |archive-date=2023-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231214035302/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/307599 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
The Nahua people began to enter central Mexico in the 6th century CE. By the 12th century, they had established their center at [[Azcapotzalco (altepetl)|Azcapotzalco]], the city of the Tepanecs.

The Mexica people arrived in the Valley of Mexico in 1248 CE. They had migrated from the deserts north of the Rio Grande {{citation needed|date=October 2011}} over a period traditionally said to have been 100 years. They may have thought of themselves as the heirs to the prestigious civilizations that had preceded them.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} What the Aztecs initially lacked in political power, they made up for with ambition and military skill. In 1325, they established the biggest city in the world, [[Tenochtitlan]].

Aztec religion was based on the belief in the continual need for regular offerings of human blood to keep their deities beneficent; to meet this need, the Aztecs sacrificed thousands of people. This belief is thought to have been common throughout the Nahuatl people. To acquire captives in times of peace, the Aztecs resorted to ritual warfare called [[flower war]]. The Tlaxcalteca, among other Nahuatl nations, were forced into such wars. Though human sacrifice was common in Mesoamerica, the scale of [[Human sacrifice in Aztec culture|human sacrifice under the Aztecs]] was likely unprecedented in the region.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Miguel León-Portilla |last=Leon-Portilla|first=Miguel|title=Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Náhuatl Mind|year=1963 |translator-last=Davis |translator-first=Jack E. |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press | pages= 6, 161–162}}</ref>

In 1428, the Aztecs led a war against their rulers from the city of Azcapotzalco, which had subjugated most of the Valley of Mexico's peoples. The revolt was successful, and the Aztecs became central Mexico's rulers as the [[Aztec Triple Alliance|Triple Alliance]] leaders. The alliance was composed of the city-states of [[Tenochtitlan]], [[Texcoco (Aztec site)|Texcoco]], and [[Tlacopan]].

At their peak, 350,000 Aztecs presided over a wealthy tribute empire comprising 10 million people, almost half of Mexico's estimated population of 24 million. Their empire stretched from ocean to ocean and extended into Central America. The westward expansion of the empire was halted by a devastating military defeat at the hands of the [[Purépecha people|Purepecha]] (who possessed weapons made of copper). The empire relied upon a system of [[taxation]] (of goods and services), which was collected through an elaborate [[bureaucracy]] of tax collectors, courts, civil servants, and local officials who were installed as loyalists to the Triple Alliance. 

By 1519, the Aztec capital, [[Tenochtitlan]], the site of modern-day [[Mexico City]], was one of the largest cities in the world, with an estimated population between 200,000 and 300,000.<ref>{{cite book|title=Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs|last=Levy|first=Buddy|publisher=Bantam Books|year=2008|isbn=978-0-553-38471-0|page=106}}</ref>
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