Nahua

The Nahua group includes the Mexica, known as Aztecs, their Tlaxcaltec rivals, and the Pipil who carried Nahuat speech south into El Salvador. The Nahua are thought to have come from near Aridoamerica and migrated into central Mexico around 500 CE, settling the Basin of Mexico. Before the Spanish arrived they were divided into many groups without a common identity.

The Mexica founded Tenochtitlan in 1325 and in 1428 joined Texcoco and Tlacopan in the Triple Alliance, which ruled central Mexico. In 1519 Hernán Cortés landed, and the Tlaxcaltecs, enemies of the Mexica, joined the Spaniards, who took Tenochtitlan in 1521.