Sacrifice of an Aztec noble. Illustration of the sacrifice of the Aztec noble Ezhuahuacatl (yellow clothes, centre right) during a war against the Chalco in the mid-15th century. A cousin of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma I (far right), he was taken prisoner by the Chalco lord (bottom left) and danced on a pole, throwing himself off it to his death. The Aztec Empire (ruled by the Mexica) was an alliance of three city states that ruled in central Mexico from 1428 until their defeat by Spanish conquistadors in 1521. Artwork from a 19th-century copy of a 16th-century post-conquest codex and history of the Aztecs by Jesuit missionary Juan de Tovar.