How Did the Aztec Empire Rise and Fall?

The Aztec Empire grew strong and then fell apart because of how it treated its people and neighbors.

Imagine you're playing a game with your friends. At first, everyone is happy, you take turns being the boss, and everyone gets to do cool things. That’s like the Aztecs when they were growing their empire: they started small and kept winning battles.

The Aztecs used something called a triple alliance, which was like having three best friends who all helped each other win games. These friends, the Aztecs, the Texcocanos, and the Tlacopans, worked together to take over new lands and make more people pay them taxes (like giving you candy every time you win a round).

But then things changed. The Aztecs started acting like they were the only important players in the game. They made other groups of people do really hard work, like building big pyramids, and when they didn’t get their way, they would sometimes kill people. That made a lot of people angry.

Then came the Spanish, who were like new kids at school with cool tools (like metal swords) that no one had seen before. The angry people joined forces with them, and together they beat the Aztecs, just like how you might team up with another kid to take down the biggest player in the game.