This study is founded on two premises: first, that no region in Mesoamerica can be understood in isolation, and second, that Central Mesoamerica had a sequence of rise and fall of state level polities, which during periods of upswing in state development correlated with an increase in the geographical scale of interregional communication and integration. Broad-scale interaction interconnected many regions through links with polities of different levels of complexity, in some cases involving core–periphery relations. However, at no time did any state level polity control Mesoamerica through conquest, or colonization.

Integration had considerable effects, stimulating changes and transformations in the societies which were part of this interaction process. When state level societies faced disintegration and demise, the long-distance interregional relationships loosened and frayed. The resulting retrenchment significantly reduced interpolity interaction to a regionalized scale. The present study will focus on the interregional interaction of two state level polities, Teotihuacan and Tula, and the links they formed with West Mexico during their rise as powerful core states in central highland Mexico.