Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica was dominated by a Nahuatl-speaking ethnic group properly known as the Mexica. Popularized in the 19th century, the familiar term "Aztec" derives from the name of their legendary homeland in northwestern Mexico, Aztlan (Land of the Heron).

In the late 13th century, Aztec migrants settled in the Valley of Mexico, founding their capital Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco. Around 1428 they formed the Triple Alliance with the neighboring kingdoms of Texcoco and Tlacopan. Under the reign of the ninth emperor Motecuhzoma II Xocoyotzin (ruled 1502–1520), the Aztec Empire reached the pinnacle of its wealth and size, stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean and south to coastal Chiapas.

This map of Mexico highlights the extent of the Aztec empire by 1521 and marks principal sites mentioned in the exhibition The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire.

Map of the Aztec empire in 1521