Frontier Polities

The Aztecs entertained special relationships of mutual benefits with kings in the fron­tier provinces; these polities helped to defend the imperial borders in exchange for protection against external enemies.

They served as strategic buffer zones between the inner empire and its frontiers, in a role similar to the client kings of the eastern Roman Empire.^[1726] In the initial publication on the Aztec frontier clients, nearby polities were grouped together by the authors into units called “strategic provinces.”^[1727] Because there is little evidence for any kind of provincial structure above the individual city­state, however, it is better to refer to them as client states. These polities did not pay imperial taxes. They are not included in the Codex Mendoza and other tax records, and some sixteenth-century sources state explicitly that they did not pay taxes, but they did send “gifts” of soldiers and luxury goods to the Aztec emperor.^[1728]

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