Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire was a Mesoamerican state centered on the Valley of Mexico that dominated much of central Mexico from the early fifteenth century until its conquest by Spanish forces under Hernan Cortes in 1521. It was founded as the Triple Alliance in 1428 by the city states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, an alliance that rapidly expanded through conquest and tribute demands to control most of central Mexico, extracting tribute in goods, labor and captives from dozens of subject city states. Its capital, Tenochtitlan, built on an island in Lake Texcoco and connected to the mainland by causeways, was among the largest cities in the world at the time of European contact, with a population estimated at well over two hundred thousand, elaborate temple complexes, and a chinampa agricultural system of artificial farming islands that supported its dense population. Aztec religion centered on a pantheon of gods including Huitzilopochtli and Quetzalcoatl and practiced large scale human sacrifice, which Spanish and allied indigenous accounts describe as being on a substantial scale, though the exact numbers are debated by historians. The empire fell to Hernan Cortes's expedition in a two year campaign that combined Spanish weapons and horses with a large coalition of indigenous peoples who resented Aztec tribute demands, culminating in the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 after a prolonged siege made more devastating by a smallpox epidemic introduced from Europe.