In the mid-fifteenth century one catastrophe after another occurred in Aztec world: first, locusts ate crops; then, the lake flooded the fields; and later, frosts killed more crops. Many Aztecs died from hunger and disease while others fled to different regions. During the years of catastrophe, the Aztec priests began to practice human sacrifice on a scale never known before, killing thousands of prisoners of war as offerings to the gods. When the famine ended in 1455, the Aztecs probably reasoned that the sacrifices had worked, and they continued the practice of human sacrifice on a huge and horrific scale from this time forward. From every battle, they captured many soldiers to sacrifice to the gods.

During the occasional periods when there were no wars being fought, the Aztecs would arrange to enter into battles, called "flower wars," with a neighboring city, usually Tlaxcala. These were staged battles fought solely for the purpose of taking prisoners to sacrifice. Although the arrangement with Tlaxcala was agreed to by both sides, at some point the Aztecs must have angered their partner in ritual war. When the Spanish attacked the Aztecs, an estimated two hundred thousand Tlaxcala soldiers were fighting alongside the Spanish, providing invaluable help in the conquest.

According to the Aztec religion, the world had been created and destroyed four times before the present world. Each of these worlds had its own sun, which died as the world ended. The Aztecs believed their sun--the fifth sun--would be extinguished and the world would end if they did not supply the gods with enough blood and beating hearts from human sacrifice.

When the emperor Ahuitzotl organized a ceremony to dedicate the building of a pyramid and temple to Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec army, along with its allies from Texcoco and Tlacopan, rode off to start a flower war with the cities of Tlaxcala and Huejotzingo. The war was waged solely for the purpose of bringing sacrifice victims to the dedication ceremony. In 1487 the Aztec army was said to have brought twenty thousand prisoners of war from the battle. The captives were lined up in columns that spanned the long streets of Tenochtitlan as each awaited their turn to be sacrificed on the temple stairs.

Empreror Ahuitzotl expanded the empire to its fullest, gaining territory south all the way to Guatemala, and holding most of central Mexico, including large portions of the present-day Mexican states of Oaxaca, Morelos, Veracruz, and Puebla. In 1502 Montezuma II (1466-1520; ruled 1502-1520) took the throne. He was known to be a great warrior whose forces were constantly at war, but Montezuma was also a thoughtful and quiet man, with a strong religious sensibility.

According to some, Montezuma II was also quite superstitious. By the time of his reign, there were signs the Aztec people were tiring of constant war and sacrifice. Aztec poetry from the last years of the empire expressed a longing for human kindness and mercy and an end to the blood and violence. On what new paths Montezuma might have led his empire, had it not been invaded by the Spanish, will never be known. The Aztec empire was conquered during Montezuma's reign and he was the last of the great Aztec huey tlatoanis ("great speakes").

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