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is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central
Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the
Nahuatl language and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of
Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in
Mesoamerican chronology.
Often the term "Aztec" refers exclusively to the people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who called themselves Mexica Tenochca or Colhua-Mexica.
Sometimes it also includes the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan's two principal allied city-states, the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which has also become known as the "Aztec Empire". In other contexts it may refer to all the various city states
and their peoples, who shared large parts of their ethnic history as
well as many important cultural traits with the Mexica, Acolhua and
Tepanecs, and who like them, also spoke the Nahuatl language. In this
meaning it is possible to talk about an Aztec civilization
including all the particular cultural patterns common for the Nahuatl
speaking peoples of the late postclassic period in Mesoamerica.
From the 12th century the Valley of Mexico was the nucleus of Aztec civilization: here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the city of Tenochtitlan, was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco.
The Triple Alliance formed its tributary empire expanding its political
hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states
throughout Mesoamerica.
At its pinnacle Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious
traditions, as well as reaching remarkable architectural and artistic
accomplishments. A particularly striking element of Aztec culture to
many was the practice of human sacrifice.
In 1521, in what is probably the most widely known episode in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hernán Cortés,
along with a large number of Nahuatl speaking indigenous allies,
conquered Tenochtitlan and defeated the Aztec Triple Alliance under the
leadership of Hueyi Tlatoani Moctezuma II; In the series of events often referred to as "The Fall of the Aztec Empire". Subsequently the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital.