A sudden surge of Mayan militarism is the main characteristic of the Post-Classic stage.

The population undergoes great turmoil and numerous migrations; people move everywhere and anywhere they can find allies to fight their common enemies.

Wars cease to be waged for territorial expansion and become a means for exacting tribute and for capturing prisoners to be sacrificed to the gods.

For the first time, architecture centers on defense and fortification.

Numerous civilizations will rise and fall during this period, including the Zapotec and Mixtec in southern Mexico and the Toltec culture in central Mexico.

The Oaxaca Valley, where the dry climate has conserved sites as old as 10,000 years, was settled by the Zapotecs, who over the centuries had developed a hierarchical society governed by kings and nobles.

While the valley is relatively isolated, the Zapotecs do have contacts with other Mesoamerican peoples.

The influence of the city at the site of Monte Alban had declined outside and inside the valley of Oaxaca by the Late Classic (Monte Albán IIIB/IV, circa 500-1000), and elites at several other centers, once part of the Monte Albán state, had begun to assert their autonomy, including sites such as ...

...Cuilapan and ...

...Zaachila in the Valle Grande and ...

...Lambityeco, ...

...El Palmillo, and Mitla in the eastern Tlacolula arm.

The latter is the focus of an ongoing project by Gary Feinman and Linda Nicholas of Chicago's Field Museum (Feinman and Nicholas 2002).

By the end of the same period (circa 900 to 1000) the ancient capital has been largely abandoned, and the once powerful Monte Albán state has been replaced by dozens of competing smaller polities, a situation that is to last up to the Spanish conquest.

The Mixtecs take control of the area around 1000 CE, although the area remains populated by the Zapotec.

While Monte Albán was most important as the political center, Mitla is the main religious center.

The name Mitla is derived from the Nahuatl name Mictlán, which is the place of the dead or underworld.

Its Zapotec name is Lyobaa, which means “place of rest.” The name Mictlán will be Hispanicized to Mitla by the Spanish.

The main distinguishing feature of Mitla is the intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that profusely adorn the walls of both the Church and Columns groups.

The geometric patterns called grecas in Spanish seen on some of the stone walls and door frames are made from thousands of cut, polished stones that are fitted together without mortar.

The pieces are set against a stucco background painted red.

The stones are held in place by the weight of the stones that surround them.

Walls, friezes and tombs are decorated with mosaic fretwork.

In some cases, such as in lintels, these stone “tiles” are embedded directly into the stone beam.

The elaborate mosaics are considered to be a type of “Baroque” design as the designs are elaborate and intricate and in some cases cover entire walls.

None of the fretwork designs are repeated exactly anywhere in the complex.

The fretwork here is unique in all of Mesoamerica.

Some time after 1000, at the time of the first Mixtec invasions from the west, the Zapotec convert the hill to the west of Mitla into a fortress.

Mitla, with the northern part of the Valley of Mexico under Mixtec control, becomes one of the main centers of southern Zapotec culture.

Mitla’s Zapotec inhabitants after 1200 construct new palaces, decorated with elaborate raised Mixtec-influenced mosaic patterns made of small, individually carved pieces of stone arranged in geometric designs.

Frecsoes at the site are executed in the same style as the (later famous) Mixtec painted manuscripts.

Southern North America (1252 – 1395 CE): Toltec Aftermath, Mayapán Ascendancy, and Highland Maya Formations

Geographic and Environmental Context

Southern North America includes: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

• Anchors: the Valley of Mexico (Azcapotzalco, Culhuacan, Texcoco lakeshores), Michoacán lake basins (Tarascan heartland), Oaxaca highlands (Mixtec kingdoms), northern Yucatán (Mayapán, Chichén Itzá), Guatemalan highlands (Quiché, Kaqchikel), and the Pacific coast (Soconusco, El Salvador, Nicaragua).

• The region bridged Mesoamerica’s inland basins and tropical coasts, sustaining maize, cacao, and cotton economies.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The Little Ice Age onset (~1300) brought episodes of drought, especially in Yucatán, and fluctuating rainfall in the highlands.

• Irrigation and chinampa systems in the Valley of Mexico buffered stresses; coastal cacao zones remained productive.

Societies and Political Developments

• Central Mexico:

  • Post-Toltec era: no single dominant power; instead, rival city-states (altepetl) like Azcapotzalco, Culhuacan, and Texcoco contested the Valley of Mexico.

  • Mexica (Aztecs) arrived c. 13th century as migrants; established Tenochtitlan in 1325 under Tepanec overlordship.

• Michoacán: Tarascan (Purépecha) polities consolidated around Lake Pátzcuaro; metallurgy advanced.

• Oaxaca: Mixtec lords (Tilantongo, Tututepec) and Zapotecs at Mitla competed; dynastic marriages linked elites.

• Yucatán: Mayapán League (with Uxmal, Chichén Itzá) dominated c. 1200–1450; centralized tribute in northern Yucatán.

• Petén and Belize: smaller Maya polities persisted; many Classic centers long abandoned.

• Guatemalan Highlands: emerging Quiché, Kaqchikel, Mam states organized around fortified hilltop capitals.

• Pacific Coast: cacao-rich Soconusco integrated into Maya and central Mexican trade; Pipil towns in El Salvador linked Nicaragua to Mesoamerica.

Economy and Trade

• Staples: maize, beans, squash, cacao, cotton, chile, turkeys.

• Luxury goods: obsidian (central Mexico, Guatemala), jade (Motagua Valley, Honduras), turquoise, cacao beans (currency), featherwork, copper bells.

• Networks: coastal canoe trade connected Yucatán ⇄ Honduras ⇄ Nicaragua; overland caravans moved obsidian, salt, and cloth into the Valley of Mexico.

Belief and Symbolism

• Postclassic Mesoamerican religion: worship of Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan, Itzamna, Ix Chel, and war–sun gods.

• Ritual calendars, codices, and temple schools perpetuated cosmology.

• Mayapán and Central Mexican altepetl used temple-pyramid plazas for legitimacy.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Valley of Mexico chinampas sustained population growth despite climate variability.

• Yucatán drought adaptation: cenote water management, shifting milpa cultivation.

• Highland fortifications protected Maya from raids and resource stress.

• Tarascan metallurgy and fishing diversified subsistence.

Long-Term Significance

By 1395, Southern North America was a fragmented but dynamic arena:

• Mexica Tenochtitlan founded but still subordinate.

• Mayapán dominated Yucatán.

• Highland Maya kingdoms crystallized.

• Tarascans consolidated in Michoacán.
  The stage was set for Aztec hegemony and further upheaval in the 15th century.

The city of Cholula in the region of present central Mexico has revived under the influence of the Mixtec, and has become famous for its painted pottery.

The dense population of the Valley of Mexico meant that there was nowhere to go when the Mexica arrived in  the region as a semi-nomadic tribe.

They had first settled on Chapultepec, a hill on the west shore of Lake Texcoco, the site of numerous springs, in roughly 1248.

The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, derive their names from the word "Mexica".

The Mexica will be the dominant partner of the Aztec Triple Alliance, which is to become the hegemon over large parts of Mesoamerica in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.