Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/216

96 pyramids of Teotihuacan and Cholula. For five centuries this people flourish, sustained by a confederation of kings whose capitals become in turn famous as seats of learning and of imperial splendor. Religious strife, developing gradually into civil war, with attendant famine and pestilence, opens the door to ruder tribes, and the Toltecs pass off the stage. Throwing off the Toltec veil so long shielding them, a number of tribes now rise into distinct political existence, and the stronger, in connection with somewhat ruder yet more energetic incomers, form the new ruling combination, the Chichimec empire. Of the leading power, denominated the Chichimec, nothing is known; but the permanency of Nahua language and civilization leads to the supposition that it is of the same race as its predecessors. In later times the name is also applied to the wild border tribes of the north. For several centuries Anáhuac becomes the scene of intrigues and struggles between the different branches of the combination for the balance of power, during which a number of towns figure as dominating centres, and a number of tribes rise to prominence under the traditional term of conquerors and immigrants. Among these are the Aztecs, the representative nation of the Nahua civilization at the coming of the Spaniards.

Upon opposite sides of the largest of a cluster of lakes which illuminate the oval valley of Mexico have stood, since the beginning of the fourteenth century, three cities, Tezeuco, Mexico, and Tlacopan, capitals of three confederate nations, the Acolhuas, the Aztecs, and the Tepanecs. To the first belonged the eastern portion of the valley, to the second the southern and western, and to the third a small portion of the north-west. Of this confederation, Tezcuco was for a time the most powerful; Tlacopan was least. While keeping to their respective limits within the valley, beyond its classic precincts the three powers made common cause against the