What do you think made the Aztec empire stronger?

1.	What do you think made the Aztec empire stronger?
Answer» ANSWER: What is today central Mexico was once covered by a lacustrine system known as Anahuac (close to the water). The system was formed by the Chalco, Xochimilco, Texcoco, Xaltocan and Zumpango lakes, connected by channels among the lowlands and marshy areas. Before the arrival of the Mexica (AKA the Aztecs), Anahuac was divided in a multitude of petty KINGDOMS and ethnics ENCLAVES: Tetzcuco, Chalca, Colhuacan, Cuauhtitlan, Tlapacoya, Azcapotzalco, Copilco, Cuicuilco... These polities were weak but rather advanced, as cultural (and some of them ethnic) inheritors of the Toltec State, and influenced by the Olmec, Maya and Zapotec cultures. In 1215, a groups of peoples coming from the north, the Mexica, started to infiltrate the Anahuac Valley. To survive, they hired themselves as mercenaries, eager to fight for whoever needed some EXTRA muscle in the never-ending skirmishes among neighbors. After being evicted by their last employer, the Lord of Culhuacan, they decide to settle down in an islet in the Texcoco lake, in 1370, and founded the city of Tenochtitlan. Initially under the protection of the Lord of Azcapotzalco, in 1434 they joined forces with the Lords of Tetzcoco and Tlacopan and defeated Azcapotzalco. Together, this Triple Alliance conquered the smaller, weaker polities in Anahuac one by one (with the notable exception of Tlaxcallan) and by the middle of the XV century were already pushing their boundaries BEYOND the Valley, towards today Michoacan and Chiapas. _______________________________________ To (finally!) answer the question: the Mexica who established Tenochtitlan transformed themselves from a band of marauders and mercenaries into the hegemonic mesoamerican power, in less than three hundred years, thanks to: the division among the originary peoples in Anahuac, which allowed the Mexica to impose themselves over these weaker but more advanced peoples, who had developed quite sofisticated hydraulic and agricultural technologies, which allowed an economy strong enought to feed and equip the Alliance Army, which was religiously inspired to expand, conquer and subdue their neighbors And you have an unified Mexica state powerful beyond anything done by the previous, smaller states.

Answer»

ANSWER:

What is today central Mexico was once covered by a lacustrine system known as Anahuac (close to the water). The system was formed by the Chalco, Xochimilco, Texcoco, Xaltocan and Zumpango lakes, connected by channels among the lowlands and marshy areas.

Before the arrival of the Mexica (AKA the Aztecs), Anahuac was divided in a multitude of petty KINGDOMS and ethnics ENCLAVES: Tetzcuco, Chalca, Colhuacan, Cuauhtitlan, Tlapacoya, Azcapotzalco, Copilco, Cuicuilco... These polities were weak but rather advanced, as cultural (and some of them ethnic) inheritors of the Toltec State, and influenced by the Olmec, Maya and Zapotec cultures.

In 1215, a groups of peoples coming from the north, the Mexica, started to infiltrate the Anahuac Valley. To survive, they hired themselves as mercenaries, eager to fight for whoever needed some EXTRA muscle in the never-ending skirmishes among neighbors.

After being evicted by their last employer, the Lord of Culhuacan, they decide to settle down in an islet in the Texcoco lake, in 1370, and founded the city of Tenochtitlan. Initially under the protection of the Lord of Azcapotzalco, in 1434 they joined forces with the Lords of Tetzcoco and Tlacopan and defeated Azcapotzalco.

Together, this Triple Alliance conquered the smaller, weaker polities in Anahuac one by one (with the notable exception of Tlaxcallan) and by the middle of the XV century were already pushing their boundaries BEYOND the Valley, towards today Michoacan and Chiapas.

_______________________________________

To (finally!) answer the question: the Mexica who established Tenochtitlan transformed themselves from a band of marauders and mercenaries into the hegemonic mesoamerican power, in less than three hundred years, thanks to:

the division among the originary peoples in Anahuac,
which allowed the Mexica to impose themselves over these weaker but more advanced peoples,
who had developed quite sofisticated hydraulic and agricultural technologies,
which allowed an economy strong enought to feed and equip the Alliance Army,
which was religiously inspired to expand, conquer and subdue their neighbors
And you have an unified Mexica state powerful beyond anything done by the previous, smaller states.