in 1250, a century after the fall of the
Toltecs, Chichen ltza was abandoned.
Nahua-speaking migrant groups from the
north, known as the Mexica (pronounced
"me-shee-ka"), settled into the central valleys of Mexico, establishing new cities such as Acolhuacan, Tenayuca, Azcapotzalco, and Texcoco. After two centuries of conflict, the Tenochca concluded a military alliance with the Acolhua of Texcoco and the Tepanecs
of Tlacopan, forming a powerful bloc linking
most of central Mexico. Their capital, witnessed by Cortes, was Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City. To the
•south the Chimu kingdom controlled the territories of coastal South America in the
13th and 14th centuries. Here they exploited their arid climate to build one of the world's largest cities ever made from adobe. In
the middle of the 15th century the Chimu were displaced by upstart rulers from the highlands of Peru, the Incas, with their capital in Cuzco. In their short life before
they fell to the Spanish, the Incas the dominated trade routes of coastal South America,
constructed long bridges with rope, and
built roads and cities with some of the most intricate and precise random rubble masonry ever seen in history.