text: Flower war The second kind of warfare practiced by the Aztecs was referred to as flower war (xōchiyāōyōtl ). This kind of warfare was fought by ceremonial armies after a previous arrangement between the parties involved. These armies were composed primarily of nobles and the more skilled warriors. It was not aimed directly at the enemy city-state (altepetl) but served a number of other purposes. These wars were a show of power for the competing armies; intimidation played a huge role in Aztec warfare in general. Another often cited purpose is the taking of sacrificial captives and this was certainly an important part of most Aztec warfare. Friar Diego Durán and the chronicles based on the Crónica X states that the Xochiyaoyotl was instigated by Tlacaelel during the great Mesoamerican famine of 1450-1454 under the reign of Moctezuma I. These sources state that Tlacaelel arranged with the leaders of Tlaxcala, Cholula, and Huexotzinco, and Tliliuhquitepec to engage in ritual battles that would provide all parties with enough sacrificial victims to appease the gods. Ross Hassig (1988) however poses four main political purposes of xochiyaoyotl:
  This kind of warfare gave the Aztecs a chance to demonstrate their military might. Since the Aztec army was larger than their adversaries that were normally smaller city states and since the numbers of combatants on each side were fixed, the Aztec army was sending a much smaller percentage of their total forces than their opponents. Losing a flower war would then be less damaging for the Aztec army than for its opponents.
  This also meant that an objective was attrition — the large Aztec army could afford to engage in small scale warfare much more frequently than their opponents, who would then gradually tire until they were ripe for actual conquest.
  It also allowed a ruler to maintain hostilities, at low intensity, while occupied by other matters.
  Mainly Xochiyaoyotl served as propaganda both towards other city-states and to the Aztec people allowing the Aztec rulers to continuously demonstrate their might with a constant influx of war captives to Tenochtitlan.