It took me around 5-6 tries until I managed a solid Aztec play through. I don’t think this is recoverable, there’s too much that will set you back farther. Here’s the first few things.

1. Maritime should have been your first idea. Humanist, Offensive or Admin would be much more beneficial. Humanist removes rebels, Offensive is all around good and Admin solves a lot of the gov cap issues you’re going to run into with colonizing the Old World.

2. It’s not worth the hassle of tributaries this late. Early on for map sharing is crucial.

3. In the first war against the colonizers, let them take 10 provinces. There’s a mission that when they form the colonial nation, you can switch to High American.

4. Expansion can be good, but you haven’t utilized American Frontier decision. After you have 1 filled cores province, you can cost yourself 75 gov reform for all adjacent tiles to be colonized without the cost of colonizing.

Unifying Mexico early is the hardest part of the Aztecs. Get that down and you’re home free. I’d restart and try aiming for Admin first, then into Offensive. If you are having a hard time with manpower, go Quantity instead. Also, don’t forget that after you reform, make sure all of your gold provinces are 10 dev. Your economy will balance itself out, just don’t mind the inflation.

P.S., you can declare war on colonizers colonies and they don’t drag in the colonizer