Late Middle Ages · North America · War
1428
Triple Alliance Overthrows Azcapotzalco
1428
Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan combined armies and crushed the Tepanec overlord who had dominated the Valley of Mexico. The three cities split the spoils and declared themselves eternal allies. The empire that Cortes would meet ninety years later was born in this single rainy-season campaign. The victory transformed Tenochtitlan from a tributary island into central Mexico's dominant military power, controlling a basin of two million people.