Azcapotzalco
Azcapotzalco
Azcapotzalco (Place of the Ant Hill), the capital city of the Tepanecs and the dominant military and political power in the Basin of Mexico from the mid-fourteenth century through the first quarter of the fifteenth century. Located on the western edge of Lake Tetzcoco, Azcapotzalco's preeminence coincides with the reign of its greatest ruler, Tezozomoc. Under this ambitious and long-lived ruler, the Tepanecs successively conquered cities to the west, south, east, and finally north of the lake. Following Tezozomoc's death in 1426, the legitimate heir was deposed. In the revolt that followed, Azcapotzalco was conquered in 1428 by a coalition of forces led by Mexico Tenochtitlán and Tetzcoco, former tributaries of Azcapotzalco, and Tlacopán, its former ally. The political strategies and administrative policies of Tezozomoc's Tepanec Empire served as a model for the so called Triple Alliance that was subsequently formed by the victorious new powers. Present-day Azcapotzalco is a part of Mexico City.
See alsoPrecontact History: Mesoamerica .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nigel Davies, The Toltec Heritage: From the Fall of Tula to the Rise of Tenochtitlán (1987).
Additional Bibliography
Carlos Santamarina Novillo and José Luis de Rojas y Gutiérrez de Gandarilla, El sistema de dominación azteca: El imperio tepaneca (2006).
Eloise QuiÑones Keber