Editing History of Mexico (section)

===Aztec Empire (1325–1521 CE)===
{{main|Aztec Empire}}
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| title = Aztec Empire
| 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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