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The Founding of Tenochtitlan

1325 CE/Mesoamerica/Aztec (Mexica)
Today Mexico City, Mexico (built atop the Aztec capital)Span Aztec Empire · 1325–1521 CE

Following a prophecy — an eagle perched on a cactus, devouring a snake — the wandering Mexica built their capital, Tenochtitlan, on an island in a lake and grew it into one of the largest, most spectacular cities on Earth, laced with causeways and floating gardens. From it they forged an empire that dominated Mesoamerica through tribute and ritual warfare. It followed the same path as the earliest states: a people binding a region together around a capital, a faith, and a god-backed elite.

◆ Worth knowingTenochtitlan may have held over 200,000 people — larger than any city in Europe at the time — and the eagle-and-serpent vision that founded it still sits at the center of the Mexican flag today.
◆ The mechanismState formation & institutional founding

A durable new order — a state, an institution, a system of rule — is deliberately built and consolidated, outlasting the people who founded it.

Also: Ideological movement · Wealth concentration & leveling

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