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TheAcolhua are aMesoamerican people who arrived in theValley of Mexico in or around the year 1200CE.[1] The Acolhua were a sister culture of theAztecs (or Mexica) as well as theTepanec, Chalca, Xochimilca and others.
The most important political entity in ancient Mesoamerica was the Triple Alliance (Nahuatl,excan tlatoloyan), founded in 1428 when the rulers ofTenochtitlan,Texcoco, andTlacopan formed an alliance that replaced the Tepanec Empire ofAzcapotzalco and eventually integrated into a single polity the most developed regions of western Mesoamerica. Because of the predominance of Tenochtitlan, it has also been called the Mexica, Aztec, or Tenochca Empire. It came to an end with theSpanish conquest of 1521.
Each of the three allied kings led a group of lesser kingdoms that coincided with the three major ethnic components and political powers of previous times: theColhuas, the Acolhua-Chichimecs, and the Tepanecs. The domain of Tenochtitlan was the southern part of the Basin, with the Colhua towns ofXochimilco, andCuitlahuac. Tetzcoco's domain comprised the Acolhua kingdoms in the eastern Basin and beyond to Tollantzinco and Cuauhchinanco. Tlacopan ruled the Tepanec towns of the western Basin, includingAzcapotzalco and Coyoacán, and towns farther north to theOtomí center ofXilotepec.
These three allied groups of kingdoms constituted the core area of the empire, which as a unit then expanded its power over more distant areas.[2]
The Acolhua became the allies of the Aztecs against Tepanec.[3] The Acolhua settled most of the eastern Basin of Mexico,Acolhuacan. Their capital was Texcoco.[3]
It is likely that the ruling family of the Acolhua were descended fromOtomí speakers and did not speakNahuatl until decreed by their ruler (tlatoani)Techotlalatzin.[4]
