Pedro Carrasco’s comprehensive Estructura político-territorial del imperio tenochca is a culmination of many years of this productive scholar’s research on central Mexican ethnohistory. It paints a broad picture of the structure and dynamics of the Triple Alliance empire, while in addition presenting considerable detail on the empire’s numerous and diverse realms.
Throughout, this book emphasizes the importance of viewing the empire (typically called the Aztec Empire) as composed of three dynamically intertwined polities: the Mexica or Colhua-Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the Acolhua of Texcoco, and the Tepaneca of Tlacopan. Consistent with this approach, the major documentary sources used in this study derive from all three polities. While a variety of sources are consulted and applied to this study, Carrasco relies most heavily on available historical chronicles, lists of conquests, and lists of imperial territories. Therefore, the overall perspective of empire presented in this book emanates from the empire’s leading cities and their rulers and nobility.
Presenting a wealth of data in text and footnotes, Estructura político-territorial del imperio tenochca emphasizes two organizational principles: (1) segmentation of social and political entities, and (2) the interwoven nature of tripartite control throughout the imperial domain. Each of the three imperial capitals claimed its own realm of control, and Carrasco delineates the territorial extent of each of these realms. Yet, throughout the empire, rights to lands and tributes were not territorially exclusive to one or another of the three polities; each claimed such rights in the others’ territories. Carrasco argues that this intertwining of control and rights served to integrate the empire in social, political, and economic arenas, diluting the centrifugal effects of political segmentation (p. 586).
The organization of this large compendium follows these two principles. The book is divided into six general parts: the first presents the general features of the tripartite imperial structure; the second, third, and fourth parts respectively detail the political and territorial structure of the Mexica, Acolhua, and Tepaneca domains; and the fifth part describes the political and territorial arrangements of the more distant subject regions, emphasizing their links to the imperial powers. The sixth part offers integrating and concluding statements. Here, in an interesting and enlightening presentation, Carrasco describes activities surrounding well-documented signal events or groups (such as the installation of Tízoc and the inauguration of an expansion of the Great Temple under Ahuítzotl) to demonstrate aspects of imperial organization and dynamics. For instance, a close look at the events surrounding Ahuítzotl’s dedication of the Great Temple suggests the extent of imperial domination at that time in the empire’s history (p. 580).
Throughout, Carrasco painstakingly documents his evidence and provides the reader a service by frequently comparing information (in table form) from the major documentary sources he consults. Abundant maps locate centers discussed in the book. The presentation is clearly written and the reader will find many issues to ponder between the covers of this compendious and well-documented work. Estructura politico-territorial del imperio tenochca nicely complements other recent works treating the structure and dynamics of the Triple Alliance empire; for example, while this book looks at the empire broadly from “the top down,” a similar book, Aztec Imperial Strategies (Berdan et al., Washington, D.C., 1996), studies the empire broadly from “the bottom up.” Carrasco’s work also provides a good complement to informative archaeological studies of imperial centers and realms by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Michael Smith, Barbara Stark, Elizabeth Brumfiel, Thomas Charlton, and others. Scholars and students of Mesoamerican ethnohistory will find this book a valuable reference, and will undoubtedly find themselves consulting it time and again.
