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The Triple Alliance was a military and political pact that arose in the year 1428 between three Mesoamerican city-states (Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan) that shared land in the Basin of Mexico. This alliance was made up of sociopolitical units that included the Mexica-Tenochca peoples, as well as their allies, the Tetzcocanos and the Tlacopanecas.
The alliance arose after the death of Huehue Tezozómoc, from Azcapotzalco, former leader of the triple alliance formed by Tepanecas, Coatlichantlacas and Culhuacanos. After his death, a series of tensions arose that caused succession problems and conflicts between States; this destabilized the region and provoked new social and political regroupings.
The formation of a new Triple Alliance between Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan (replacing Azcapotzalco, Coatlichan, and Culhuacan) reorganized the territory and land distribution into a new sociopolitical entity. This administrative conformation allowed the city-states to obtain tributes from the subject towns; the income was distributed according to the military power of each of the three capitals. Some authors report that the distribution corresponded to 2/5 for Tenochtitlan, 2/5 for Tetzcoco and 1/5 for Tlacopan; consequently, all three cities received income from the subject provinces or towns. This confederation between city-states is a characteristic of the postclassic period of the pre-Hispanic world.
Context
- The Mexicas settled in Tenochtitlan in the year 1325, after a long pilgrimage in Aztlán (the place of origin of the Mexicas). Later, in this territory, Mexico City would be founded.
- At the end of the 14th century, two dominant conformations arose: on the western side of the basin, the leaders were the Tepanecs, while the dominant ones on the eastern side were the Acolhua.
- The constitution of the Triple Alliance begins in the year 1428 and would last almost a century, until the Spanish Conquest began in 1519. The territorial extension of the domain of the kingdoms of the Triple Alliance was located in the basin of Mexico; Some time later it would be the capital of his magnificent empire, one of the largest cities of its time in the world, which also dominated a large part of Mesoamerica.
- The Triple Alliance included the three most important ethnic groups in the highlands: the Colhua branch (Mexico-Tenochtitlan); the Toltec-Acolhua branch, with the addition of the Chichimeca peoples (Tetzcoco) and the Ottoman branch (Tlacopan). Alliances between them were built and maintained through a vital trade network and a common bond of symbols and artistic styles. This mixture of ethnic groups would mark the location and cosmology of the alliance, namely, that the Colhua-Mexicas were warriors, belonging to the Sun; The Acolhuas were dedicated to intellectual functions (legislative, literary, engineering), belonging to the High Heaven, and the Tepanecs exercised production and trade functions, belonging to the Underworld.
- The Mexicas demanded tribute from the towns that surrounded the lakes. In this way they began to generate many enemies, since these towns began to resist submission.
- With the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, numerous indigenous nations would try to ally with them in order to be able to face the Triple Alliance, particularly the warriors of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
Formation of the Triple Alliance
It is considered that the war between the cities of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Azcapotzalco in the fifteenth century was the starting point for the formation and emergence of the Triple Alliance between Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco and Tlacopan.
This type of alliance was not unknown among the peoples of Mesoamerica. There are references to other known alliances, such as Tollan, Culhuacan and Otompan; then Azcapotzalco, Coatlichan and Culhuacan in the lake basin. In the north of the Yucatán peninsula, alliances are known between Mayapán, Uxmal and Chichén Itzá first and Mayapán, Izamal and Chichén Itzá later.
During the Late Postclassic or Aztec period in the Basin of Mexico, there was a rapid centralization of political authority. Relations between the city and the State were consolidated when the Triple Alliance was formed, which brought more political, military and economic power. Each city was governed by a small king and remained in conflict with the subject towns to which they demanded tributes and warriors; there was no peace but small and frequent wars. Each region king or tlatoque (Supreme Lord in Nahuatl) received a particular title:
- Itzcóatl (of Tenochtitlan) the one of Colhuatecuhtli.
- Nezahualcóyotl (of Tetzcoco) the one of Acolhuatecuhtli.
- Totoquihuatzin (from Tlacopan) the one from Tepanecatecuhtli.
The towns subjugated by the Triple Alliance participated with their warriors in military expeditions (military garrisons) and provided labor and materials for the works. Also many of the warriors of the subjugated towns were captured as offerings to make sacrifices to the gods. On the other hand, the most distant towns paid special tributes for each region; in many cases, the tributes made up luxury items and food.
Alliances to dominate more territory
In the year 1428, a great confederation of Mesoamerican peoples from the pre-Hispanic world would appear in Mexico, something that would become a huge and fierce battle in the search for power and dominance in the region. Thus, three of its cities would decide to combine their forces and form an alliance to fight their opponents: Azcapotzalco, Tenochtitlan (later known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan) and Texcoco. The alliance had a great development in its beginnings, after taking power in the city of Azcapotzaldo; from then on they would continue their plans in the subjugation of other city-states.
The Triple Alliance sought to subdue the other city-states in the Basin of Mexico. First they conquered the south (1432), then they went west (1435) and later they took the east (1440). Thus control was imposed and each capital controlled its city-states, with Tenochtitlán to the south, Texcoco to the northeast and Tlacopan to the northwest.
During the reign of Ahuitzotl, the penultimate Aztec emperor (1487-1502), the Triple Alliance was consolidated as a militaristic state. Its main ideology was war and the greatest virtue was the value of its warriors; The military exercises began at the age of 15 and at the age of 20 the men were authorized to go to war, with the main teaching being to capture prisoners from the towns under their domain to be offered as sacrifices.
The great evolution in Mesoamerica
The main functions of the Triple Alliance were oriented to establish military coalitions with hegemonic purposes to expand the domain that would guarantee its power; In the same way, they could maintain control of the commercial routes and the centralization of wealth thanks to tributes. According to the researcher Carrasco, in cases of conflicts that affected two or more of the kingdoms of the triple alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco and Tlacopan, collegiate tribunals of the three allied tlatoques were held every eighty days, and the venue for the meeting it was determined “by its wheel and turn” in each of the capitals.
There was a great impact in political, commercial and military terms among the peoples who paid tribute to the alliance. Tenochtitlan would be the State with the best position in the coalition, consolidating its power and domain more efficiently, which is why they became the leaders of this alliance. With the conquests and pacts, Mexico-Tenochtitlan became the city with the greatest political and military power and the best economy in much of the Mesoamerican world; meanwhile, Texcoco maintained prominence in law, engineering, and the arts. Likewise, the Triple Alliance imposed its way of focusing on urban development, dividing areas into neighborhoods and encouraging the influx of immigrants to their capitals.
However, the Triple Alliance did not have total control of all the towns: Tlaxcala and Michoacán were two towns that managed to prevail independent of this domain, the first becoming known and named as the Republic of Tlaxcala. Michoacán also managed to stand out as a region with a strong political organization, independent of the rule of the Triple Alliance; it even managed to expand its borders, something rare in the Mesoamerican world.
Political autonomy in the associated states of the union
Each of the states associated in the Triple Alliance controlled their territorial domain as independent city-states. Their military forces, however, shared the expansionist goals of the Empire, as well as the markets and distribution of tribute across the alliance’s borders.
Each of the associated States was politically autonomous, so each king ( tlatoque ) made his decisions separately, as well as his way of establishing policies. The powerful families of these three cities established ties and fostered social and political interactions through alliances and marriages among the elites of the three partners and throughout their empire to maintain status. However, the differences in their societies began to be noticed; The tlatoque of Tenochtitlán rose up , which imposed its state policy and military supremacy.
end of alliance
The tlatoque of Tenochtitlán would soon be the supreme face of this alliance and would make the final decision on all military actions of the union. There came a time when Tenochtitlán began to make its allies uncomfortable, so the coalition inevitably dissolved; First the independence of Tlacopan was given and then that of Texcoco.
However, hostilities between the Triple Alliance persisted, and it was with the help of Texcoco forces that Hernán Cortés was able to overthrow Tenochtitlán in 1591.
Sources
Chapman, Anne M. Roots and Consequences of the War of the Aztecs Against the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco . Mexico, National School of Anthropology and History. 1959.
Carrasco, Peter. Political-territorial structure of the Tenochca Empire. The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco and Tlacopan . Mexico, FCE. nineteen ninety six.
Gibson, Charles. Structure of the Aztec empire . In Handbook of Middle American Indians, Austin, University of Texas Press, vol. 10. 1971.
