We've already talked about the Aztec civilization in several videos, but what we're going to focus on in this video is the Aztec Empire, which shouldn't be confused with the Aztec civilization. The civilization is referring to the broader groups of people over hundreds of years, but the Aztec Empire is a very specific entity that formed in the hundred years before Spanish colonization. What you see here is a zoomed in version of what today would be southern Mexico and right over here on the globe, and you can see many city states formed here. A city state is a city that also considers itself a state that has its own political organization, its own way of functioning. It's not dependent on any other government forms, and it's analogous to what we see in classical Greece, where you have the city states of Athens and Sparta. Now, what's particularly interesting is what's going on around Lake Texcoco in the 14th century. In 1325, you have the city of Tenochtitlan form on this island in Lake Texcoco, and initially, Tenochtitlan is one of the weaker city states around Lake Texcoco.