Az: Aztlan date

[by way of "John F. Schwaller" <schwallr@selway.umt.edu>]

In a message dated 2/23/00 1:02:05 PM, you wrote:

From:    Victor Gonzalez <huitzi at operamail.com>

>Is there a recent consensus about the date the Aztecs left Aztlan?

Were the Aztecs called Aztecs or were they called Mexicas when
they left Aztlan?

Does the name Aztecs referred to all of the tribes under the
domination of the Mexicas during the 1500s?

------------------------------>>
Aztecs is used in the early colonial sources to mean people of
Aztlan. Aztlan in this context means the mythical homeland of the
people who in historical times were known as the Mexica.  So
Aztecs (or more properly Azteca) as so used refers to the Mexica
(and others) in a mythical era before the beginning of history.

The term was revived in the 19th century (if not in the 18th
century) to mean the people of the dominant state in Central
Mexico at the arrival of the Europeans.

That state was in theory an alliance of three powers, hence
scholars sometimes call it the Empire of the Triple Alliance.
These three powers were: Tenochtitlan (Mexica), Texcoco (Acolhua)
and Tlacopan (Tepaneca).

The people of Tenochtitlan called themselves Mexica and they
refered to their capital as Mexico-Tenochtitlan.  Since they
claimed dynastic intermarriage (of their royal family) with
Culhuacan, their Empire was sometimes called a Culhua empire.

For the historical period it is confusing and, in the usual
meaning of the term, erroneous to referal to "tribes" or "tribal
society" in the Valley of Mexico.  The area was divided up among
various states and, after the fall of Tollan, was part of at
least two Empires-- that of the Tepanecs (or Tepaneca) of
Azcapotzalco and, in the last prehispanic phase, that of the
Empire of the Triple Alliance (Tenochtitlan-Texcoco-Tlacopan).

LH Feldman
Lawrenc846 at aol.com