The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico

Book excerpt: The most important political entity in pre-Spanish Mesoamerica was the Tenochca Empire, founded in 1428 when the three kingdoms of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan formed an alliance that controlled the Basin of Mexico and other extensive areas of Mesoamerica. In The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico Pedro Carrasco incorporates years of research in the archives of Mexico and Spain and compares primary sources, some not yet published, from all three of the great kingdoms. Carrasco goes beyond cataloging and locating conquests and tributary towns. He takes in the total tripartite structure of the Empire, defining its component entities and determining how they were organized and how they functioned.