[8] In 583, led by two notables named Chalcaltzin and Tlacamihtzin, the Toltecah rebelled against their overlords in Huehuetlapallan[9] and after thirteen years of resistance they ended up fleeing Tlachicatzin.

[13] (Some authors such as John Bierhorst have translated the Anales de Cuauhtitlan as stating that the Toltecs arrived in Tula in 726 and created their monarchy in 752).

[2] According to one of those legends, during the reign of Tecpancaltzin Iztaccaltzin, a Toltec man named Papantzin invented a type of fermented syrup made from the maguey plant.

After some more visits, the tlatoani granted lands and nobility status to Papantzin, and eventually married Xochitl, who would give birth to a boy named Meconetzin (Child of the Maguey in nahuatl), who became prince of Tollan.

[22] Quetzalcoatl was regarded as a wise and benevolent ruler, who made Tollan a "prosperous city in which their inhabitants -the Toltecs- were endowed with great qualities".

[24] According to Bernardino de Sahagún,[25] one day, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl was visited by an elderly man (said to be Tezcatlipoca in disguise[23]) who offered him a "medicine" that would make him younger.

After this humiliation, Quetzalcoatl left Tollan in 947, and traveled to the east, to the mythical land of Tlapallan, which according to tradition was located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

[23] Some authors, like Mexican historian Vicente Riva Palacio, argue that Quetzalcoatl died earlier, in 931; and that said event would trigger political instability in Tollan, eventually leading to an important migration of Toltecs to other parts of Mesoamerica around 981, especially to the Yucatan Peninsula, where they would mainly settle at the city of Uxmal.

Because of the violence, many of those who supported Ce Acatl Topiltzin fled Tollan, with a sizeable portion of these exiles heading towards the Maya cultural area.

According to Mexican archaeologist Román Piña Chan, the cult of Quetzalcoatl (known as Kukulkan in Yucatan) was introduced in the region by the Itza around 987 AD.

[28] One of these groups of Toltec exiles eventually took over the city of Cholula, in the present-day Mexican state of Puebla, around 1200[32] According to Durán, in 1115, tribes from the north (probably Chichimecas, Otomi[5] or Huastecs[28]) attacked the domains of Tollan.

[5] Soon, the king would be abandoned by his closest followers, who chose a man called Nauhyotl as their leader;[5] while the majority of the Toltecs would split in smaller groups and begin their diaspora across Mesoamerica.

[37] The monumental Atlanteans are at the top of the Temple of Tlahuizcalpantecutli (also called "Morning Star"), wherefrom which all the main plaza can be seen; these sculptures are characterized by their large size and detail.

[38] This hypothesis was defended in the 20th century by Herbert Joseph Spinden, an art historian who became obsessed with the idea and often used pseudo-historical sources to back his claim about a conquest of the Itza Maya by Quetzalcoatl.

[39] The conquest hypothesis of Charnay and Spinden has been largely abandoned in modern archaeology as more evidence suggests that instead of a conquest of Chichen Itza by the Toltecs, the Itza people had already embraced Toltec teachings before moving to Yucatan;[29] also, according to Mexican historian Miguel León-Portilla, many of the references to leaders with the name "Quetzalcoatl", "Kukulkan" or "Q'uq'umatz" in the Maya sources may not even refer to Cē Ācatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl himself, but to some of his followers and their disciples who also took the name of the Feathered Serpent deity for themselves.

Chupícuaro developed in a vast territory in, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Guerrero, Mexico State, Hidalgo, Colima, Nayarit, Querétaro and Zacatecas.

A standing army, garrisons, forts and reserve units comprised a formidable weapon against inhabitants of regions coveted by the Toltec and against enemies.

Because of their skill and their bravery in battle, the Toltec were able to instill enough awe and respect among their neighbors that cities such as Tula could be built without heavy defenses incorporated into their design.

[46] The upper ranks of the Toltec army wore cotton armor, heavily padded to deflect enemy, arrows and spears, with breastplates, in the form of coyotes, jaguars or eagles if the warrior belonged to the order of one of these animal totems.