CORONADO

Central Mexico might as well have been the wild west. The Aztecs were just one tribe trying to make it in a land of many tribes. But,

Herman J. Viola, Carolyn Margolis, eds., Seeds of change: a quincentennial commemoration, (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), pp.31-32:

"After numerous battles with already established states that, despite Aztec legend, had actually forcibly relegated the newcomers to a small island in a lake, the Aztecs ...became the main power in the Valley of Mexico. In less than two hundred years they built the most powerful and extensive empire in Mesoamerica. They demanded tribute from their conquered neighbors in the valley and took control over the surrounding chinampas, the famous ‘floating gardens’ of Mexico. All this is from a book you can get at the library. Check it out.

Aztec society was tightly stratified and contained many hereditary classes, such as the priesthood, the nobility, the military, certain classes of merchants, commoners, and slaves. There were, however, means for achieving some class mobility, chiefly through the military. The social structure was organized around the calpulli, twenty corporate groups probably derived from the community’s original clans. Each calpulli appointed one chief for civil and religious affairs and, almost always, a second chief for war. Since agriculture was the basis of life in ancient Mexico, the calpulli controlled the land that supported its members. Warfare brought new lands and riches in the form of goods and slaves. Successful warriors were granted lands and people to work them. This system of rewards was much like that of the Spaniards, who gained land in Spain at approximately the same period through the reconquest from the Moors. The Spaniards would eventually repeat this tradition in Mexico. In fact, a century before the encomienda, the Spanish system of land grants and indentured servitude, was initiated in Mexico, the Aztecs were in the habit of appropriating entire village populations, moving them into more controllable regions and forcing them to work on state construction projects. Conquered peoples were forced to pay tribute to the Aztec overlords in quantities of finished goods, such as textiles, pottery, and other craft articles. They also paid in raw materials - jade, gold, and silver and other items considered precious, such as tropical bird feathers. In addition, tribute payers were required to supply human beings for slavery or sacrifice. Considering the enormous payments extracted from conquered peoples, it is not difficult to imagine the resentment that [defeated] groups … must have harbored toward the Aztecs.

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