The Aztecs

According to legend, in 1325 ad, a group of Nahua-speaking ‘nomads’¹ arrived on a swampy island in a lake, where they encountered an eagle of extraordinary size, perched with a snake in its beak on a prickly pear, amongst some rocks. The ‘nomads’ considered this sight auspicious, and settled on the seemingly dismal spot. Thus, supposedly, began the altepetl (city-state) of Tenochtitlan [‘among the prickly pears growing among rocks’].² Today it is Mexico City, and the nation of Mexico is named after the wanderers. They called themselves ‘Mexica’ after their god of war, Mexitli. We call this group ‘the Aztecs’. ³

It is significant that the Mexica named themselves after their war god. War was of immense importance in Aztec culture and religion. Evidencing this – only a century after settling their island – they dominated central Mexico through military prowess. Over the next ninety years (until 1519 ad), they forged the largest, richest and most populous empire Mesoamerica had ever seen – 200,000 square kilometres; 371 city-states and between 10 and 25 million inhabitants.⁴

This chapter examines how the nature of the Aztec Empire, its ideological attitudes to conflict and death, and its conditions for social advancement fed the distinctive Aztec ‘war machine’. The ongoing debate over whether Aztec military objectives were primarily religious will be addressed by analysing the impact of Aztec ‘angry wars’ (cocoltic yaoyotl) against the so-called ‘flowery wars’ (xochiyaoyotl), and the nature of Aztec weapons systems. Little was recorded on the Aztec laws of war, meaning our journey is one of reconstruction, using implications from early texts. However, we identify some unusual restrictions around the practice of warfare, especially in the treatment of prisoners of war.