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Perhaps the most unique reason for the expansion of the Aztec Empire was the need for more human sacrifice victims. The Aztecs believed that human blood was needed to ensure the planting cycle and the arrival of water in the form of rain. Human sacrifice was also a way to appease specific gods, such as the warrior god Huitzilopochtli, who specifically desired live hearts, and other deities associated with kingship and coronation festivals. Finally, the ever bellicose Aztecs also employed human sacrifice for practical reasons. The constant public spectacles of human sacrifice served to desensitize the Aztec people to violence in general and specifically toward their enemies, and on the other hand it demoralized and weakened the resolve of their enemies – those who opposed the Aztecs knew that they faced being the victims of mass sacrifice rituals on the top of their pyramids. <ref> Townsend, pgs. 74-77.</ref> Because warfare played such an integral role in the Aztec Empire, the warriors were among the most exulted members of society.

The Aztec king was the chief warrior of the empire and was believed to have been descended from Huitzilopochtli, whom modern scholars believe was once a real person. <ref> Townsend, p, 201</ref> Warfare provided young commoner Aztec males with a way to escape their lowly status to some extent as they were able to attain all but the highest positions in the military. Commoners who performed twenty deeds of battlefield bravery could wear cotton and sandals in the royal palaces, drink the alcoholic beverage <i>pulque</i> in public, have concubines, dine in the royal palace, and most importantly they could become members of the elite jaguar and eagle corps. <ref> Townsend, p. 204</ref> The problem was that once the Aztecs conquered most of Mexico the opportunities for advancement became fewer and fewer. Modern scholars believe that the Aztecs found the answer to this problem through the creation of the “Flower Wars.”