Why did the Mesoamerican civilizations not expand further north (Teotihuacan could have done so) or south (the Mayans could have done so)?
>>18108890Because they weren't actually empires like a lot of historians have erroneously labelled them. They were tributary city-states that focused on controlling the valley of Mexico. They had a few merchants who would travel long distances to trade, but the north was basically considered a barren wasteland full of barbarian nomads. They did have contact with a few peoples in the south, but again this was never a part of any effort to expand territorially.
>>18108954The only ones which are laballed as empires are the aztec empire and the tarascan empire, but the rest are often laballed as just kingdoms.>>but again this was never a part of any effort to expand territorially.The thing is these kingdoms did wanted to expand more, an example is the war between Calakmul and Tikal, the war between Tonina and Palenque or the conquests done by Chichen Itza in the northern Yucatan.
>>18108890Nahuas travelled all the way down to Nicaragua though
>>18109066Nahuas ARE native to Nicaragua. But Nahua doesn't necessarily mean Aztec, nor did they have anything to do with the valley of Mexico either.
>>18108954>but the north was basically considered a barren wasteland full of barbarian nomads. They did have contact with a few peoples in the south, but again this was never a part of any effort to expand territorially.Maybe this is a dumb question, idk, but couldn’t they have went up the coast through Texas? They’d have seen that the coast wasn’t barren, and they would’ve eventually reached East Texas and then Southern US. Was there something immediately north of modern-day Mexican state of Veracruz preventing them? Some large hostile enemy? I specifically mean right along the coast. What about the other coast? Couldn’t they make their way up to Sonora and take interest in the Colorado river and eventually find the Garden of Eden known as Calfiornia?
>>18108954>>18109097Like why couldn’t they have done expeditions like picrel? Obviously the distance is a bit extreme, but I’m trying to convey a series of expeditions over decades after trade routes and outposts are established. Didn’t the Aztec’s ancestors migrate from modern day Southwest US originally? Wass there not memory of this via the Aztlan myth?
>>18109106No, the aztecs emigrated from Nayarit.Despite of this, there were indeed comercial routes between mesoamerica and nowadays southwest USA, im talking about the commerce between the toltecs and the puebloan civilizations.
>>18108890Chichen Itza was a Toltec colony. If you go to Chichen Itza there are murals depicting said conquest.
>>18108890>Why did the Mesoamerican civilizations not expand further northThey did. There were a couple Mesoamerican "trade colonies" up in the north like La Quemada.>or southThey did. There were Nahua city-states in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and Maya city-states in Honduras, established amidst less well-organized locals.And in both north and south, some peoples occasionally adopted the Mesoamerican way of life, to the point many cultures showed clear Mesoamerican influence as far north as what is now the american southwest and as far south as Costa Rica.So in conclusion, they did, but it was slow and usually at the city-state level.
>>18108890Mexican DNA
>>18108890They pretty much did
>>18108890deserts aren't jungles and without lots of fresh water, you're fucked in that heat. there were pretty extensive trade routes all the way up into places like Utah, but they were obviously different cultures/language groups despite being very closely related genetically.
>>18111187The overwhelming majority of Mesoamerica wasn't a jungle though
>>18109106The Aztec Triple Alliance was planning to invade the Maya kingdoms right before the Spanish arrived. Also, I remember reading about Nahuatl speakers being found in the Southeastern U.S. by the Spanish during their expeditions.
