The Postclassic Mesoamerican Period

The Postclassic Mesoamerican Period, roughly 900 to 1521 CE, is the final of the three broad divisions of ancient Mesoamerican history, following the collapse of Classic-period lowland Maya civilization and the fall of Teotihuacan, and running until the Spanish conquest brought the pre-Columbian era to a close. The period was markedly more militarized and politically fragmented than the Classic era, characterized by fortified hilltop cities, more overtly warlike state ideology, and the rise of new powers built substantially on conquest and tribute, including the Toltec civilization centered at Tula in central Mexico, the Postclassic Maya city of Chichen Itza and later Mayapan in the Yucatan, and, in the period's final and best documented century, the Aztec, or Mexica, Empire, which came to dominate most of central Mexico through the Triple Alliance it led from its island capital of Tenochtitlan. Long-distance trade networks expanded significantly across the period, moving goods including obsidian, cacao, textiles and metal ornaments across enormous distances by professional merchant classes. The period, and the independent political history of ancient Mesoamerica, ends with Hernan Cortes's conquest of the Aztec Empire, completed in 1521.