Initially the Mexicas (as the Aztec actually called themselves) used warfare for the purpose of conquest, territorial and trading network expansion. As the empire consolidated in the early fifteenth century, they waged a series of wars they called "Flowered Wars" with the purpose of giving young warriors coming out from a sort of military academy a chance to gain actual combat experience and veteran warriors a chance to get rank promotions on the basis of the number of prisoners captured in the battlefield. The ultimate purpose of these yearly wars was to capture war prisoners in order to offer them as a sacrifice to the Mexica Sun God Huitzilopochtli, since the Mexicas believed that he needed human blood to feed on so that he could continue his journey across the sky.
