*Tlaxcala is the yellow circle beneath the word Tenochtitlan. It was an independent republic that held its own against the Aztecs, despite being surrounded by their territory.* The Tlaxcala were rivals of the Aztecs in [[Tenochtitlán]] whose territory east of [Lake Texcoco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Texcoco) was entirely surrounded by Aztec allies and vassals. The are remembered by history as adversaries of [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Moctezuma]]'s empire who allied with [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Hernán Cortés]] and helped him defeat the Aztecs in 1521. What's less well-known is that as Tlaxcala developed in the thirteen and fourteenth centuries, its people chose to not only resist the growing empire on the lake, but to adopt different social institutions and organizing principles, to distinguish themselves from their enemies. Their reaction to the Aztecs was both "we won't be ruled by you" *and* "we won't be like you". Anthropologists call this approach "schismogenesis". Whether or not their motivation was to organize themselves differently from their enemies, the Tlaxcala avoided centralized government. They had no king, but instead a council of elected representatives. People seeking election to the council had to prove they would subordinate themselves to the wishes of the people. Cortés observed (and [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Motolinía]] verified in his accounts of the conquest) that unlike Tenochtitlán, governed by a king, or Cholula, led by rotating office-holders drawn from an aristocracy, the council (*teuctli*) of Tlaxcala answered to the people.