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Aztec Flower War Institution

Type Object Region Mexico Time 1454–1521

The flower war (xochiyaoyotl) was a form of limited warfare agreed upon between the Aztec Triple Alliance and neighbors such as Tlaxcala, Huejotzingo…

Timeline

  1. 1440–1469Tenochtitlan · MexicoUnder Montezuma I (r. ca. 1440-1469) and his brother and chief advisor Tlacaelel (ca. 1397-1487), the Aztecs bound warfare to the sacrificial needs of the sun god. Accounts such as those of Diego Durán state that Tlacaelel initiated the flower wars, regularly conducted among Nahuatl city-states such as Tlaxcala.
  2. 1454–1519Tlaxcala-Puebla Valley · MexicoAfter the establishment of the Triple Alliance, from the mid-1450s the Aztecs fought limited wars aimed at capturing prisoners with neighbors such as Tlaxcala, Cholula, and Huejotzingo at agreed times and places; warriors used these to rise through the eagle and jaguar warrior ranks, and the flower war became the main means by which the Aztecs maintained military contact and obtained sacrificial victims.
  3. 1519–1521Tenochtitlan · MexicoCortés's expedition and a smallpox epidemic broke the Mesoamerican military balance; the Aztec warrior system failed in total war, and the religious sacrifice and rank-promotion system on which the flower war depended ended with the collapse of the empire.

Sources