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TOLTEC
The Toltecs dominated central Mexico from the 10th
until the mid-12th century AD. Many of the region's later peoples claimed descent, notably
the Aztecs, who told Spanish conquerors about the Toltecs.
The Toltecs moved into the Valley of Mexico after the collapse of Teotihuacán in the late
7th century left a power vacuum. They quickly developed trade routes that reached from
modern-day Costa Rica to the American Southwest. By the 9th century the Toltecs were
established at Tula, Hidalgo, the most northern capital ever built for a Mesoamerican
culture.
For at least a century, the Toltecs shared profound contacts with Chichen Itzá in Yucatan. According to both central Mexican and Maya annals, the Toltec king Quetzalcoatl fled Tula and went to Yucatan in 987. Although there is no evidence that one conquered the other, similar art and architecture appeared at both Tula and Chichen.
In the 12th century, Toltec power waned as droughts disrupted agriculture and Tula came under heavy pressure from displaced peoples. About 1150, Tula was destroyed. Some Toltecs fled to the Valley of Mexico, where their lineages bore great prestige in the Aztec era
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