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Contents Part 2

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The Aztecs: A Tributary Empire (1)

Introduction

1. Words that are underlined the first time they are used in the text may be found in a glossary linked at the top of each page of this essay. In the glossary there are sound files to assist in the pronunciation. Also linked at the top of each page is a file containing maps and a genealogy of emperors. Because past readers have often stumbled over Nahuatl names, there is also an experimental low-quality sound file in which each page is read out loud (excluding footnotes and picture captions).

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, they discovered two large and conspicuously sophisticated empires: the Inca in Peru and the Aztecs [Note 1] in central and southern Mexico. Each of these exhibited great wealth flowing inward to the capital from a broad geographical region that constituted its empire.

(Among the most important groups encountered by the Spanish many writers include the Maya in the region that is today southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. But the Maya states were never really empires, and by the time the Spanish arrived, the greatest of them had already collapsed and been replaced by much less imposing successor states engaged in more or less constant local warfare. Their attempts to enlist Spanish forces against their enemies are a fascinating different story but a different one.)

This essay is concerned with the Aztec polity as an example of a "tributary empire," that is, one made up of communities that send goods as "tribute" to the capital because failing to do so would bring devastating punishment. The Aztec empire was very successful, drawing immense wealth to its capital and sustaining military power that usually intimidated or eliminated opposition. I shall argue that it was also fragile, for I see it as built almost entirely on intimidation, so that any sign of weakness at the center easily inspired rebellions. By that logic, the Aztec empire did not fall because of the very small force of Spaniards who attacked them, but because the Spaniards catalyzed a rebellion of conquered peoples and polities eager to throw off Aztec domination.

In this essay we shall not be concerned with the ultimate collapse of the Aztecs after the Spanish arrived, but rather with the way in which they came to power and with the ways in which they consolidated, maintained, and extended their power once they had it.

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