The new hereditary elite unified the clans that had been the center of Aztec life and paved the way for a conquest empire.
•
As the Aztecs began settling what would later become their homelands, an elite emerged (the pipiltzin) that claimed descent from the Toltecs, the former empire of Central Mexico.
•
Pipiltzin helped increase social stresses which attributed to internal weaknesses of the Aztec Empire's downfall.