uld be the next ruler of Tenochtitln. Once the Great Speaker was elected, he was obeyed in everything, since he was the representative of the god, Huitzilopochtli on the Earth. The Great Speaker was also head of the government, and the main priest of the Great Temple. This selection process is due according to legends and Aztec tales, to the fact that the first Aztec Ruler Acamapichtli (1376), had for his main wife a woman called Ilancueitl, daughter of the lord of a nearby town. This girl was sterile, which caused that the Aztec Lords to offered their daughters to him and he also took women slaves as wives too. This resulted in multiple pregnancies of the Aztec King and each one claimed the right of carrying the future heir. When the majority of the sons of Acamapichtli were old enough, the Emperor ordered a group of priests and great warriors to gather to decide who would the next Great Speaker be. This originated the birth of the Council of Wise Men, whose members would be the greatest warriors and the wisest priests. Their selection was also democratic since their own Calpullis also elected these - I will talk about these later. This selection process lasted all the duration of the Aztec Empire. This way never did a dynasty exist (sometimes the Great Speaker was a close relative of the one before), of Aztec families, preventing with this the aging of the civilization, just like what happened with the Czars in Russia and the kings in France. The heart of the Aztec Empire was the Calpulli. Even before the empire existed, the Calpulli existed already. Relatives generally formed this or people of the same profession, in this manner there were Calpullis for priests, warriors, carpenters, clay workers, etc... Each Calpulli was a form of autonomous government, with its own Speaker or governor, who was elected by the oldest men living in the Calpulli. Each Calpulli had its own school, its own temple, and if the Calpulli was important someti...
