A closer look
Selling exotic tropical feathers was just a convenient cover job for the Aztec pochteca. These elite, heavily armed merchant guilds commanded immense wealth and monopolized foreign trade, but Emperor Ahuitzotl secretly weaponized them as state intelligence agents. Venturing deep into hostile enemy territories disguised as simple traders, the pochteca mapped enemy fortifications, assessed troop strengths, and purposefully provoked trade disputes that provided a perfect legal justification for brutal Aztec military invasions.
