Central Mexico · Post-Classical Era
Aztec (Mexica) Empire
The lake-city empire that awed the conquistadors
1428 CE – 1521 CE · 93 years
A confederation of city-states centered on the lake-island capital of Tenochtitlan, conquered by Spanish forces in 1521.
Where it sits on the calendar
Government
Confederation
Writing system
Aztec pictographic-phonetic script
Estimated peak population
6,000,000
How it ended
Invasion or conquest
Traits
Monumental architecture Irrigation agriculture Standing army Long-distance trade Codified law Astronomical record-keeping Urban planning Bronze metallurgy Iron metallurgy Seafaring
How Aztec (Mexica) Empire ended
Conquered by Spanish forces and allied indigenous states, compounded heavily by introduced smallpox.
See other civilizations that fell the same way →Notable for
- Tenochtitlan's lake-borne chinampa farming
- Triple Alliance confederated rule
- Extensive tribute-based economic network
Who else was alive at the same time
6 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Aztec (Mexica) Empire's 93-year span.
See every overlap involving Aztec (Mexica) Empire →