{"id":2301,"date":"2018-08-15T09:27:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T09:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2301"},"modified":"2026-02-27T08:12:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T08:12:59","slug":"where-did-the-aztec-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/where-did-the-aztec-come-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where did the Aztec Come From?: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Where did the Aztec come from? Historians have studied this question by examining the early history and mythology of the Aztec<\/a> people. The\u00a0Aztecs\u00a0were a pre-Columbian society based in modern-day Mexico.\u00a0 Understanding their history is important to many other topics and people, including:\u00a0Age of Exploration<\/a>,\u00a0Hernan Cort\u00e9s<\/a>, and more.\u00a0 The Aztec civilization was one of the biggest in the New World, and the story of their collapse\u00a0is an important event in the world history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

WHO WERE THE AZTECS?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Aztecs, who referred to themselves as the Mexica, extended throughout much of central Mexico and existed from the 14th century until the 16th century when they were conquered by Spanish conquistadors<\/a> led by Hernan Cort\u00e9s<\/a>.\u00a0 However, to understand the Aztec Empire, its first important to understand their early history and how they came to be. \u00a0The capital city of the Aztec Empire was\u00a0Tenochtitlan<\/a>\u00a0and was first established in 1325 in the Valley of Mexico.\u00a0 Before establishing the city, the Aztec people are said to have come from the desert areas of northwest Mexico, such as the Sonora Desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map
Map of the Aztec Empire and Aztec Triple Alliance by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

WHERE DID THE AZTEC COME FROM?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The time period before the Aztec established the city of Tenochtitlan<\/a> is referred to as the \u2018Long Migration\u2019.\u00a0 During this time, Aztec history talks of the Aztec people leaving their homeland in the desert, called Aztlan, and migrating south over a period of two centuries.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t settle again until reaching central Mexico and Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico.\u00a0 This period of migration is an important aspect of Aztec history and highlights their religious beliefs.\u00a0 For example, in searching for a new homeland, the Aztecs waited until they came across a specific sign that was said to have been instructed to them by the god Huitzilopochtli<\/a>.\u00a0 The sign they searched for was an eagle on a cactus holding a rattlesnake.\u00a0 They supposedly came across this sign after two centuries of migration when they arrived on the swampy shores of Lake Texcoco in the Valley Mexico.\u00a0 Officially, the city was founded on July 20th, 1325 on the western shores of the lake and was named for their chief Tenoch.\u00a0 Tenochtitlan means \u2018the city of Tenoch\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time the Valley of Mexico was populated by many different powerful civilizations, including: Chalco, Tepanec, Tlacopan, Culhuacan, and Chichimec. Several of these civilizations were also on the shores of Lake Texcoco, including the Culhuacan which were on the south shore.  As such, when the Aztec people arrived in the Valley of Mexico they had to contend with the other civilizations.  In fact, the Aztecs clashed with several of these groups and were briefly expelled and forced to relocate to a different location on the lake.  Regardless, Tenochtitlan prospered quickly as a city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aztec
Artistic representation of the Aztec Empire and the capital city of Tenochtitlan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historians have long studied the Aztec Empire to understand – Where did the Aztec come from? This article details the early history of the Aztec and the ‘Long Migration’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":18,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[78,77,15,79],"class_list":["post-2301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aztec-empire","tag-ancient-history","tag-aztec-empire","tag-history","tag-mesoamerica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2301"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5834,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions\/5834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}