The Spaniards were advancing on an Aztec empire in a fragile state, striken with military failures, economic trouble, and social unrest. Aztec military virtues and the rigid class structure had loosened. No innovator, Montezuma had attempted to centralize power and maintain the over-extended empire bequeathed to him. This domain, which had rapidly expanded over the Valley of Mexico, and into Central America during the fifteenth century, was an extortionist regime that relied on force to extract prisoners, tribute, and food levies from neighboring peoples. There was no idea of consolidation, nothing in it for the subject peoples. As the Aztec state weakened, its rulers and priests continued to demand human sacrifice to feed its gods. By 1519, the Aztec Empire was not only weak within, but despised and feared from without. When hostilities with the Spanish began, the Aztecs had few allies. The Aztec Empire