Itzcoatl
Aztec/Mexica · mortal · triple alliance · Recorded classification
Itzcoatl is where the Mexica stop being anyone's tributaries and start being the problem. He took the throne after Chimalpopoca died in Tepanec hands, allied with Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco and with Tlacopan, and destroyed Azcapotzalco — and then did the thing he is most remembered for among historians, which is to burn the books. The Florentine Codex reports the reasoning without embarrassment: the old paintings were destroyed because it was not fitting that the common people should know them. The history the Mexica told afterwards, including most of what is in this registry's Aztec records, is the one written after that fire.
Parentage
- parent: Acamapichtli
Domains
- sovereignty
- war
Relations
- ally: NezahualcoyotlThe alliance with Texcoco that made an empire possible. Nezahualcoyotl had his own reasons — the Tepanecs had killed his father and taken his city — and the two of them together took Azcapotzalco apart.Reference treatment of the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan formed after the defeat of Azcapotzalco. (secondary)
Sources
- Itzcoatl is the fourth tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, reigning 1427-1440, who broke Tepanec domination, founded the Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan, and ordered the destruction of the earlier historical codices.: Reference treatments of Itzcoatl, the Tepanec war and the Triple Alliance. (secondary)