Nahua

The Nahuas are the Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples of central and southern Mexico, divided before the conquest into competing altepetl city-states: among them the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, Acolhua of Tetzcoco and Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco. Their ancestors entered the Basin of Mexico from the north in waves from about the fifth century; by around 600 they dominated the central highlands, adopting maize agriculture and the 260-day ritual calendar.

Around 1000 the Toltecs built their dominion at Tollan; after its fall migrants carried Nahuatl as far as Central America. The last great migrants were the Mexica, who founded island capital Tenochtitlan in Lake Texcoco in 1325 and in 1337 were still vassals of Azcapotzalco's Tepanec rulers; their Triple Alliance with Tetzcoco and Tlacopan later built the Aztec Empire, spreading Nahuatl across Mesoamerica.

In 1519–1521 Hernán Cortés and Tlaxcaltec allies overthrew that empire. Under New Spain the Nahuas' towns and noble lineages survived under Spanish cabildos; writing Nahuatl in the Latin alphabet, they left wills and annals down to independence in 1821.