The Mexica-Tetzcoca Conquest of Coaixtlahuacan (1458)

With his plans for expansion continually blocked by alliances among the Chichimec states, Moteuczoma I turned his attention toward the rich lands to the south, toward the lands of the Mixtecs and Zapotecs and ultimately, beyond to the wealthy kakaw-producing Maya land the Nahuas called Xoconochco (Soconusco) in Chiyapan and Quauhtemallan (Chiapas and Guatemala).

A schematic map of Mesoamerica in the 1400s and early 1500s. The valley of Coaixtlahuaca is one of the major fertile valleys of Oaxaca.

One of the richest realms and largest market in all of Mesoamerica (Anahuac) was precisely the Mixteca state of Yodzocoo in Huaxyacac (Oaxaca). Yodzocoo was known to the Nahuas as Coaixtlahuacan. Merchants from all over Anahuac met there to trade with each other before the rise of Tlatelolco in the late 1400s and early 1500s, whose famous market would draw as many as 60,000 people at peak time: the population of a medium-sized European city at the time. Yodzocoo was, in the mid 1400s, perhaps the largest marketplace in all of southern Mexico.

As expected, the Excan Tlahtoloyan or Triple Alliance, likely egged on by Mexico, the most dominating of the allied Chichimec realms, pushed for unreasonable concessions and economic benefits. Their merchants made daring demands upon the local lord Atonal and as a result 160 of them were executed right in the marketplace--an automatic declaration of war to the Mexica.

A commander by the name of Cuauhnochtli was given the task in 1458 to march on Yodzocoo-Coaixtlahuacan with an enormous army of, supposedly, 300,000 men (which seems very likely an exaggeration) of which a third of them served its logistical needs. As a response, Atonal quickly fortified the borders of his realm in preparation for an imminent assault.

The Chichimec columns were ambushed by Mixtec units from nearby Tlaxiaco and Tilantongo in lightning fast assaults from strategically positioned hilltop fortresses nearby, to which they retreated after each carefully timed skirmish. Atonal mounted a full frontal attack on the bulk of the Chichimec troops, causing them to retreat back over the border.

When the armies returned, they laid siege to Yodzocoo with fortified camps and vast palisades. With Yodzocoo being such an important and strategic economic hub, other non-allied friendly Chichimec realms quickly came to their aid. Armies from Huexotzinco and the priestly realm of Cholollan set out to relieve the siege which dramatically shortened the time that Excan Tlahtoloyan commanders had to take the city. An immediate gain was necessary so they attacked and captured Tlaxiaco, leaving units of special shock troops--the equivalent of special forces-- behind in hiding.

Lord Atonal quickly sent units to liberate his ally from Chichimec control, leaving himself temporarily vulnerable. The special forces cut down thousand of trees to construct ladders and, upon receiving the signal, scaled various points of Yodzocoo's defensive walls all at once. The cuauhchicque, or Shorn Ones, were among the most daring fighters in the Chichimec armies and quickly captured the vulnerable and weakened Atonal after a brief period of very hard fighting.

Lord Atonal was executed by the Mexica for the killing of emissaries, the original pretext for war.


Unlike other Mexica tributaries, Yodzocoo was controlled directly by an appointed governor and a permanent force was garrisoned there. It became a strategic point from which the Excan Tlahtoloyan empire waged war on other Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya, and other lands.