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King Itzcoatl takes over in 1428 CE, officially beginning the Aztec Empire. According to legend, the Toltec Empire came before the Aztecs.

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The Toltec collapses in 1150 CE.At the time, the Mexica were forced out of their homeland which they called Aztlán. The name “Aztec” developed in part from “Aztlán,” the name of their homeland. These events are part of Aztec legend, but historians believe that they are based on fact.

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The Aztec roamed around the marshes surrounding Lake Texcoco, looking for the cactus and eagle. When they found it, they stopped on the spot to build their empire. In 1325, they settled on an island in the southwestern part of Lake Texcoco. They named this place Tenochtitlán.

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Itzcoatl was the fourth leader of the Mexica, or Aztec, people. The Mexica called their leaders tlatoani, which means emperor. Itzcóatl became emporeor in 1428 CE. He created a powerful empire by joining with two neighboring cities to form the Triple Alliance. The three allies were the leaders of the cities of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. The three leaders decided not to fight one another for supreme power over other local towns and peoples.

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Religion played a large role in the daily life of the Aztec people. The Aztec religion was a combination of many beliefs and practices. It drew from other Mesoamerican cultures. The Aztecs believed that the current world was one in a series of four worlds. These worlds were called suns. The Aztecs believed that each of the first three worlds had been destroyed before the new world began.

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Aztec religion was polytheistic. One of the most important gods was Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. Other main gods were Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent, and Tonatiuh, the sun god. The Aztecs spent a lot of time and resources in worshiping these gods. Their religious customs were guided by the Aztec calendar. This calendar was the one used in much of Mesoamerica. It consisted of two separate calendars. One divided the year into 365 days, and the other divided the year into 260 days.

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As the Aztec grew, a class system developed. Itzcoatl gave large areas of land to his allies. This class system greatly affected the daily lives of people in the empire. Classes were strictly divided. The upper and lower classes of society never mixed. Over time, the split between the classes grew larger as the nobles and wealthy members of society were given more lands by the emperor. When the Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s, they found a sharply divided society. The lower classes of Aztec society were not even allowed to enter the palace.