The Aztec Empire (c.1428–1469)

The 1428 pact between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan that founded the Aztec Empire after defeating Azcapotzalco.

A succession crisis in the dominant city Azcapotzalco gave Tenochtitlan's ruler Itzcoatl the chance to ally with Texcoco and Tlacopan and defeat it.

Ritualised battles fought mainly to train warriors, capture prisoners for sacrifice, and display power to rivals like Tlaxcala.

No — warriors really died in them, even though their main goal was prisoners and prestige rather than territory.

Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, c.1440–1469, who expanded the empire's territory and reformed its laws and religion.

Formalised law codes and strengthened central control over conquered provinces.

Goods, food or labour paid by conquered peoples to their Aztec rulers — the economic engine behind expansion.

The Codex Mendoza, a pictorial record made around 1541 for Spanish administrators, listing conquered towns and tribute.

It was made decades after conquest, for a Spanish colonial audience, so it may present Aztec order to impress or justify colonial rule.

Before: a regional alliance around the Valley of Mexico with looser systems. After: an expanding empire reaching the Gulf Coast with formal law and a stronger warrior class.

Explaining how the content of two sources can be used to answer the inquiry question (6 marks).

The standpoint or viewpoint from which a source was created, shaped by who made it and why.

A high-altitude (c.2,200m), enclosed basin ringed by mountains with no river outlet to the sea, so water collected in lakes at its centre.

Lake Texcoco — the largest of the valley's five connected lakes, partly saline in its centre and east.

A rectangular garden plot built from mud and lake vegetation, anchored by willow trees, used to farm on the shallow lake itself.

A c.16km stone-and-timber dyke built c.1449 that separated salty from fresh lake water and blocked floods.

An aqueduct carried fresh spring water from Chapultepec into the city along raised causeways.

A severe famine in 1454 (the Aztec calendar year One Rabbit), caused by drought following a damaging frost and poor harvests.

Rising food prices and reported sale of children into servitude, plus expanded tribute demands on conquered regions.

Some historians argue the famine pushed the state to intensify Flower Wars to secure captives and resources.

Chinampas were more productive in normal years, but in the 1454 drought even they could not fully offset the shortfall since rainfall itself was scarce.

Most surviving accounts were recorded after the 1521 Spanish conquest, decades after 1454 — the gap affects accuracy and may reflect later purposes.

Explain how the CONTENT of two sources can be used to answer the inquiry question (6 marks).

Analyse how a source's CONTEXT — origin, purpose, time, place — shapes how it can be used (6 marks).

On an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. The Mexica founded it in 1325, and by Moctezuma I's reign (1440-1469) it had grown into the Aztec capital.

A raised road built across water or wet ground, connecting an island city to the shore.

Iztapalapa (south), Tepeyac (north), and Tlacopan (west).

So the Aztecs could pull them up in wartime, cutting off the mainland and turning the island city into a defensible fortress.

A raised, highly productive garden plot built up from lake mud, reeds, and stakes in the shallow waters around Tenochtitlan.

Constant contact with water kept the soil fertile year-round, allowing several harvests a year — crucial for feeding a capital of well over 100,000 people.

The Totonac region on the Gulf coast of Mexico, home to valuable resources like cotton, cacao, and vanilla.

To secure tribute (cacao, cotton, vanilla, feathers) and resources the Valley of Mexico could not produce itself, strengthening the growing empire's economy.

Goods or resources that a conquered or subordinate people is forced to pay regularly to a ruling power.

A network of canals ran through the city like streets, letting canoes move people, chinampa produce, and building materials efficiently across the island.

Causeways solved the problem of connecting an island city to land; canals solved the problem of moving goods and people within the city itself. Together they made an island capital workable.

Origin (who made it), purpose (why), time (when), and place (where) — together these shape how reliable or useful the source is for a given inquiry question.