The bloody, mass sacrifices of the Aztec empire have been documented and decried since the 16th century when the Spanish began using violence to justify their own domination of the Mesoamerican Indian population. Similarly, the violence of the Conquest, and the first years of the Spanish colonial occupation of Mexico, have been discussed and decried. However, researchers and scholars have discussed the violence of both societies only in descriptive terms, rarely attempting to offer explanations for the violence of the two periods. The unique feature of this analysis is a socioeconomic investigation of labor patterns, food production, trade, wealth, population, and environment, providing an explanatory framework for what otherwise appears as senseless and random violence. In this study, Johns analyzes the violence of Aztec and Conquest Mexico from a materialistic perspective.
