Chichimec

Chichimec

(chēchēmĕk`), general term for the peoples of the Valley of Mexico between the periods of ToltecToltec
, ancient civilization of Mexico. The name in Nahuatl means "master builders." The Toltec formed a warrior aristocracy that gained ascendancy in the Valley of Mexico c.A.D. 900 after the fall of Teotihuacán.
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 ascendancy and AztecAztec
, Indian people dominating central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. Their language belonged to the Nahuatlan subfamily of Uto-Aztecan languages. They arrived in the Valley of Mexico from the north toward the end of the 12th cent.
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 ascendancy. Before the 11th cent. the Chichimec were nomadic peoples on the northern fringes of the valley. The Chichimec period (c.950–1300) was one of intertribal warfare and political confusion, but it prepared the way for the tributary empire of the Aztec.