MEXICO.- If you're Mexican you probably grew up to the image of the powerful Aztec Empire dominating the entire Mexican territory, however, a study published on Wednesday by the Scientific Seminar of Architecture revealed that they didn't even dominate the region they lived in.

This was an eight-year investigation titled "Geopolitics of the Obsidian Resource in Tlaxcallan" by the State University of North Carolina, the Advanced Studies Center of the National Polytechnic Institute Unit in Merida, Colegio Michoacán and Purdue University.

"What the study does is put Tlaxcallan on the map, a place where the Spaniards arrived seeking their support to conquer Mexico and the Mexica's territory. We discovered that in spite of the Aztec domination, its area inhabitants were able to look after themselves," commented the study's coauthor, Verenice Heredia.

The main purpose of the work was to discover the place of where the people of Tlaxcallan obtained obsidian, a volcanic glass used to create weapons and home objects, something the people of Tlaxcallan's reserves lacked.

"It turns out that they extracted the material from a place called El Paredón, which nobody used given that it was in the outskirts of the Aztec Empire. So the real question here is, why the Aztecs, who were openly hostile towards Tlaxcallan, didn't intervene?," pointed out John Millhauser, another study coauthor.

For the expert "the popular conception that the Aztec Empire was all mighty and powerful before the arrival of Hernán Cortés is totally exaggerated. The region was a political and culturally complicated place."

It is expected that the investigation will take on more relevance in future years when the 500 anniversary of the Aztec Conquest is celebrated, highlighting Tlaxacallan as the republic that defended their independence against the most powerful empire in Mexican history.

With information from Sin Embargo and SDP Noticias

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