High Middle Ages · North America · War

1151

Toltec capital of Tula destroyed

1151

The Mesoamerican city of Tula, capital of the Toltec civilization that had dominated central Mexico for two centuries and whose trade networks reached from the Pueblo Southwest to the Yucatan, was sacked and burned by unknown attackers - most likely a coalition of Chichimec warrior bands from the arid northern frontier. The fall of Tula created the vast power vacuum that Aztec mythology would later brilliantly rewrite as divine destiny.