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Question for February 2008

How big was the Aztec army?? Asked by Oak Farm Junior School. Chosen and answered by Our In-House Team

Seriously big! Professor John Pohl, an expert on this subject, calls the Aztecs 'the greatest military empire that the western hemisphere had ever known', and the figures speak for themselves...

By the time of the Spanish Conquest, the Aztecs could maintain in the field - for months, even years on end if needs be - armies running to several hundred thousand soldiers, of whom at least 100,000 would be porters accompanying the troops, each carrying as much as 50 pounds in material. One figure that all experts agree on is that during the siege of Coixtlahuaca (southern state of Oaxaca) in 1458 a Triple Alliance army (led by the Aztecs) numbering 300,000 marched 500 miles south frokm the Valley of Mexico to defeat and kill Atonal, the lord of Coixtlahuaca, (who had earlier made the fatal mistake of executing a group of 160 Aztec merchants...) In 1506, just 15 years before the Conquest, a Triple Alliance army of 400,000 men attacked the Mixtec coastal kingdom of Tututepec and burnt the city.

Find out about how the Aztec army was organised by following the link below...

(Illustration courtesy of Osprey Publishing)

'Ask Us' page on the Aztec army

Our In-House Team has answered 25 questions altogether.

Comments (2)

D

Daniel

17th Dec 2023

I don’t have arguments, it’s just a genuine question. How can a smaller empire have a bigger army than a bigger empire? Is it because of a higher population density in Mesoamerica?

M

Mexicolore

No worries, you’ve raised a good question! But do you know how big the Inca army was, so we can compare?

D

Daniel

15th Dec 2023

How could the Aztecs be the largest military empire in the Western Hemisphere if the Incas had a larger empire and therefore a larger army?

M

Mexicolore

For the moment I think you’ll forgive us if we take the word of a world expert on this, Professor John Pohl, before your own... Feel entirely free to provide detailed figures to sway the argument...

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