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Aztec

(Encyclopedia)Aztec ăzˈtĕkˌ [key], Indian people dominating central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. Their language belonged to the Nahuatlan subfamily of Uto-Aztecan languages. They arrived in the V...

Aztec Ruins National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Aztec Ruins National Monument, 318 acres (129 hectares), NW N.Mex., near Farmington; est. 1923. Ruins of a 12th-century Pueblo town contain interesting kivas, one of which has been completely restored...

Nahuatlan

(Encyclopedia)Nahuatlan näˈwŏtˌlən [key], group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock of North and Central America. A Nahuatlan language of great historical importance is ...

Chichimec

(Encyclopedia)Chichimec chēchēmĕkˈ [key], general term for the peoples of the Valley of Mexico between the periods of Toltec ascendancy and Aztec ascendancy. Before the 11th cent. the Chichimec were nomadic peo...

National Museum of Anthropology

(Encyclopedia)National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City. The present building, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and inspired by ancient Mexican architecture, was opened in 1964 and houses choice and extensive...

Tenochtitlán

(Encyclopedia)Tenochtitlán tānōchtētlänˈ [key], ancient city in the central valley of Mexico. The capital of the Aztec, it was founded (c.a.d. 1345) on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco. It was a flourishing ci...

Montezuma

(Encyclopedia)Montezuma mŏk– [key], 1480?–1520, Aztec emperor (c.1502–1520). He is sometimes called Montezuma II to distinguish him from Montezuma I (ruled 1440–69), who carried on conquests around Tenocht...

Cortés, Hernán

(Encyclopedia)Cortés, Hernán, or Hernando Cortez kôrtĕzˈ, Span. ārnänˈ, ārnänˈdō kōrtāsˈ [key], 1485–1547, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Mexico. In Cortés's absence his enemies at home grad...

Cuauhtémoc

(Encyclopedia)Cuauhtémoc ko͞o–outāˈmôk [key], d. 1525, Aztec emperor. Succeeding the brother of Montezuma II in 1520, Cuauhtémoc failed to unite the native city-states of the Valley of Mexico against the Sp...

Cholula

(Encyclopedia)Cholula ᵺā rēˌvädävˈyä [key], city, Puebla state, E central Mexico. The site...

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