- [Lecturer] We've already talked about
the Aztec civilization in several videos,
but what we're going to focus on in this video
is the Aztec empire which shouldn't be confused
with the Aztec civilization.
The civilization is referring to the broader
groups of people over hundreds of years,
but the Aztec empire is a very specific entity
that formed in the 100 years before Spanish colonization.
What you see here is a zoomed in version
of what today would be southern Mexico
and right over here on the globe
and you can see many city-states formed here.
A city-state is a city that is also considers itself
a state that has its own political
organization, its own way of functioning.
It's not dependent on any other government forms,
and it's analogous to what we see in classical Greece
where we have the city-states of Athens and Sparta.
Now what's particularly interesting is what's
going on around Lake Texcoco in the 14th Century.
In 1325 you have the city of Tenochtitlan form
on this island in Lake Texcoco
and initially Tenochtitlan is one of the
weaker city-states around Lake Texcoco.
You see many of these city-states,
some of the stronger ones you have Texcoco right here,
and in particular you have Azcapotzalco,
but as we fast forward roughly 100 years,
you get to a situation where Azcapotzalco
falls into a civil war.
Their ruler dies and there's a succession battle
and the various city-states around Lake Texcoco take sides.
What eventually happens is Tenochtitlan,
Texcoco, and Tlacopan form what is known
as a triple alliance or the triple alliance
and are able to conquer the Azcapotzalco.
And so in conquering the Azcapotzalco,
what you have forming is known as the Aztec empire.
Now it starts as an alliance between
these three city-states and other city-states in the area,
but over time Tenochtitlan which is sometimes
referred to as Mexico Tenochtitlan
because it is a city-state of the Mexico people
and this is where the name Mexico
or Mexico actually comes from.
Now even though it's an alliance,
over time, Tenochtitlan essentially
becomes the capital of this alliance,
or the capital of this Aztec empire
which continues on for roughly 100 years
until 1521 when it is defeated by Hernando Cortes.
Now the story of how Hernando Cortes
is able to conquer this empire is fascinating
and I'm not going to be able to go into
all of the details in this video, but needless to say
he's able to convince several hundred conquistadors
to come and try to conquer the empire
and he's able to do so by recruiting tens of thousands,
some estimates I've seen are 100,000 soldiers
from neighboring city-states who had issues
with the Mexico or with the Aztec empire
and so he's eventually able to take over
the famed city of Tenochtitlan.
It's really important to recognize
how advanced they were at the time.
You see these causeways, these bridges
leading into the island.
They had a fairly advanced dam system
to collect freshwater from the rain
while also to control flooding.
In fact a lot of that was destroyed
when the conquistadors came and Mexico City
which eventually gets founded over this lake
is going to have issues with flooding
for some time in the future.
In fact the Spanish, in order to control the flooding,
end up draining this lake and it's where Mexico City forms.
But the big takeaway here is near the end
of the Aztec civilization,
as we get to the 100 years before the conquistadors arrive,
you have this empire form.
This empire which starts as an alliance of city-states
but eventually becomes a tributary empire.
Unlike the neighboring Mayans,
which were on the Yucatan peninsula.
On this map they would be in this region right over here,
the neighboring Mayans were autonomous city-states.
Some might have had more power, more influence
at different times, but the Aztec tributary state means
the other city-states are paying tribute to Tenochtitlan.
They are paying revenue, they are paying service
to what essentially is the capital
or the seat of that empire until it is conquered
by the Spanish with, and remember,
the Spanish are able to do this
with several hundred conquistadors
with the help of neighboring city-states
and a smallpox epidemic which kills
50% of the population of the region.