316 | 13 Pax Tolteca? Collapse, Confict, and the Formation of the Tula State CHRISTOPHER MOREHART, ANGELA HUSTER, ABIGAIL MEZA-PEÑALOZA, AND SOFÍA PACHECO-FORÉS https://doi.org/10.5876/9781646424078.c013 INTRODUCTION In complex societies, the relative stability of the political landscape shapes the nature of war, confict, violence, and coercion. Geopolitical and socio- logical views of confict indicate that an inverse relationship exists between political stability and violence (e.g., Aron 1966; Kalyvas 2006; Tilly 1990). The idea that regional violence and confict are widespread characteristics of frag- mented, decentralized political landscapes also has archaeological support (e.g., Arkush and Allen 2006). Arkush and Tung (2013), for example, examined Andean settlement patterns and osteological data and argued that levels of vio- lence were highest during periods of low regional centralization, which likely refected confict between competing groups. Such confict and such insta- bility are the product of competition between actors in a political landscape where regional mechanisms for integration and, hence, stability do not or no longer exist. The sociopolitical landscapes that exist in the wake of state col- lapse are not a simple return to previously existing organizational conditions (Feinman 1998:111–12). But regional decentralization is nonetheless common Source: The Legacies of the Basin of Mexico, edited by Carlos E. Cordova and Christopher T. Morehart. 2023. University Press of Colorado, Denver.