Richard Townsend gives the complete history of the Aztec civilization’s rise from humble nomads to empire builders.Within a hundred years, the Aztecs established the largest empire in Mesoamerican history, and at Tenochtitlan built a vast, shimmering city in a lake, a Venice of the New World. The book ends with a dramatic narrative of the Spanish conquest, as seen from the Aztec viewpoint. 16 color and 154 black-and-white illustrations