In 1519 Hernando Cortes and the Spanish
army landed on the east coast of Mexico.
From that moment the Aztecs I~ecame a part
of European history. This book is an attempt
to reconstruct Mexican life on the eve of the
Conquest, using both archaeological evi-
dence and early documentary sources. It
draws on the writings of the men who took
part in the Conquest, and saw with their own
eyes the city of Tenochtitlan before its
destruction: Cortes letters to Emperor
Oaaraes q, ~f~er~d~ ~D~at ~ C~titk~, b,~t~t~
de Tapia, Francisco de Aguilar, and an anony-
mous soldier. Warwick Bray has created an
intimate portrait of the Aztec peoples and civ-
ilization, a rich culture which lacked the arch,
the wheel, iron tools, and alphabetic writing,
and had a strange religion rife with idolatry
and human sacrifice.
Aztec history falls naturally into three
phases: the period of wandering, 1168-1325;
consolidation in the Valley of Mexico,
1325-1440; expansion and conquest,
1440-1521. The period of wandering ended
by the founding of Tenochtitlan. For this per-
iod the only documentation is the form of leg-
ends. The second phase was a period of con-
fusion when the new states in the Valley had
not yet achieved a balance of power. Petty
kingdoms, consisting sometimes of only one
city and rarely of more than three or four
important towns, squabbled among them-
selves to extend political influence, to
squeeze even heavier taxes from tributary
towns, or to gain a little more territory here or
there. The victors could now dictate terms to
the other states of the Valley, and the situation
was formalized in the Triple Alliance, a treaty
between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlaco-
pan, which provided for mutual defense an~ a
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