Tenochtitlan was located on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco in what is today south central Mexico. The Aztecs were able to settle there because no one else wanted the land. At first, it wasn't a great place to start a city, but soon the Aztecs built up islands where they could grow crops. The water also worked as a natural defense against attacks from other cities.
While the reforms of glasnost and perestroika were not the sole causes of the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., the forces they unleashed destabilized an already weakening system and hastened its end.
