Founding of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire

Also called: Aztec Triple Alliance, Mexica

The Mexica of the Mexican highlands founded the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco. In the 15th century they formed the Triple Alliance and built the Aztec Empire.

According to legend, the Mexica, who had migrated into the Valley of Mexico from the north, were told by their god to build a city where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake, and around 1325 they founded Tenochtitlan on a small island in Lake Texcoco. The legend appears on the flag of Mexico today. The date comes from tradition, and some place it slightly differently. They raised fields of earth on the lake (chinampas) and linked the city to the shore with causeways and canals.

In 1428 Tenochtitlan formed a Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan and overthrew the regional power of Azcapotzalco, then by conquest built the Aztec Empire, which drew tribute from cities across central Mexico. In the Great Temple (Templo Mayor) at the heart of the city the sun and war god Huitzilopochtli and the rain god Tlaloc were worshipped with human sacrifice. With perhaps 200,000 people in the early 16th century it was one of the great cities of its day, and it fell in 1521 to the Spaniards led by Cortés.