Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire was one of the most powerful civilizations in the ancient Americas, based in central Mexico and extending across much of the region at its height. The Aztecs, who referred to themselves as the Mexica, founded their capital city of Tenochtitlan in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco, which grew into one of the largest cities in the world at the time. The empire grew out of the Aztec Triple Alliance, a political and military pact formed in 1428 between Tenochtitlan and the city-states of Texcoco and Tlacopan, and was ruled by a series of leaders known as the huey tlatoani, or Great Speaker. Aztec society was rich in culture, religion, architecture, and warfare, and the empire maintained its power through a tribute system that required conquered peoples to send goods and resources to Tenochtitlan. The Aztec Empire came to an end in 1521 when Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortés, allied with rival Mesoamerican city-states, conquered Tenochtitlan and brought down the empire.