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The Toltec culture existed between AD900-1200. They
appeared during the 10th century when they established their city of Tula. It is believed that they were refugees from
the northern Teotihuacán culture and migrated after its fall in 700 AD.Their most concentrated area of population was in the
city is Tula. Not much is know of them due to the fact the the aztecs used thier ruins to make their own empire from
it. With this they destroyed any evidence of that remained. Any knowledge that we may have of the toltecs themselves
has come from legends that have been told by the later cultures. The Toltec Empire was the first of the extreme
militaristic cultures in the region that used their might to dominate their neighbors, an idea that was later passed on to
the later cultures in the region, especially the Aztecs. Eventually the empire spread across most of Mexico, Guatemala, and
as far south as the Yucatan, as they conquered lands previously controlled by the Mayans. Toltec organization became dominant
in their influence on warfare, ideology, craft specialization including architecture and artifacts. They played a significant
role in its leadership in Mesoamerica.Myth has it that thier people were not only religious leaders, but also political leaders.
The most famous leader wasTopiltzin Quetzalcoatl he was the son of Mixcoalt ( "cloud serpent"
)who was persumed to have been a chichimec lord or ruler of the early toltec capital. Topiltzin's mother the other hand
was a princes of a the early toltec aristocracy, her name was Chimalman she was princess of the branch of toltecs who ruled
Culhuacan. She died four days after giving birth to her son who was born from her chest fully armed and ready
to join his fathers armies.
Topiltzin proves himself at a very young age taking captives for sacrifice at Xicalanco
a place whose location is unknown.
Topiltzin and his father formed many succesful campaigns from which they created the toltec empire that took over most
of the valley of Mexico.
Mixcoalt was murdered by his 400 brothers (The Mimixcoa), they then go to try and kill Topiltzin but Topiltzin tricks
his uncles in a battle when a civil war comences, in a battle on top of a temple he sacrifices them by cutting them open and
smearing their bodies with chili peppers. Soon after his victory his sets of to rescue his fathers bones so that he could
have a proper memorial in a great temple, to do that his hunts the rest of his uncles and kills them.
His Conquests
Topiltzin, now at the head of elite groups of the Jaguar and Eagle warrior cults, formed from
the unified Toltec nations, they continue to make conquests in the Valley of Mexico, Puebla, Cholula, and along
the Gulf Coast at Coatzalcoalcos. After annexing the Itza people and their merchant fleets at Acallan, Topiltzin and his armies
reach as far as Chichen Itza, the capital of the Yucatan Maya. Topiltzin conquers the Maya, and builds an exact duplicate
of his capital at Tula near the sacred Well of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza. Now known as Kulkulcan, the Feathered Serpent, he gives kingdoms
to his new allies and loyal followers such as the Jaguar Priests of the Quiche Maya, whose history is recorded in the Popol
Vuh. At last, after years of war and conquest. Topiltzin dies in Acallan--the land of the Red and the Black, the Maya
Country.
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The Toltecs
The Toltecs were
considered a legendary race of superhuman beings until recently.According to the efforts of the early Mixtec codex painters,
the early Spanish chronicles, and the intensive field work of "glorious amateurs" such as Charnay, and modern scientific archaeologists
such as Richard Diehl and Wigberto Moreno that we are able to firmly state the Myth of Quetzalcoatl does have real historical
grounding in the sense that "Tollan" did indeed exist, and was situated in Tula, Hidalgo. The Toltecs were real people, and
at one point in their history they were ruled by a man who is identified as a Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl. These people sometime
in the middle Tenth Century Influenced a very large part of Mexico which would last for 400 years.
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