Essay/Term paper: Aztecs

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Political Science

According to their own history, the Aztecs, who called themselves

the Tenochca

or Mexica, started as a small nomadic tribe originating from

a place called Aztlan.

Aztlan existed somewhere in the southern part of California

or the north west of

Mexico. At this time they were Nahuatl speaking. During

the twelfth century they

started a period of wandering and in the thirteenth

century they came across

Mexico's central valley. There they decided to settle.

The reason for this is a

prophecy. The prophecy said that when they saw an

eagle sitting on a cactus with

a snake in its mouth that was where they were

to build their great civilization. For

that reason they called it Tenochtitlan,

meaning place of the cactus. Since the

prophecy was filled upon an island

in the middle of a small lake, called Lake

Texcoco, land became short. They

built Tenochtitlan in the year thirteen twenty

five BC. They started as a

small struggling village continually fighting with other

Mexican city-states.

Tenochtitlan acted as a place of refuge.

Aztec Empire

At first the Aztecs

where ruled by the mightiest of the city-states in central Mexico

known as

Azcapotzlaco. They helped Azcapotzlaco to conquer surrounding

territory in

the early fourteen hundreds. By fourteen twenty-eight they had

Azcopotzlaco

itself with the help of neighboring allies. Tenochtitlan, by the year

fourteen

thirty-one, with an alliance with the neighboring city-states of Texcoco and

Tlacopan

had become and independent city-state itself. This triple alliance of three

city-states

soon controlled all of Mexico's central valley. Tenochtitlan, as the

dominate

city-state in this alliance, became a base for a program of military

expansion

and conquest. However the program was left incomplete even when the

empire

fell to the Spaniards. To connect the Capitol to the mainland the Aztecs

built

a network of canals, bridges and three stone causeways. Aztecs didn't rule

directly

over the lands they concord. Instead they demanded tribute such as food,

clothing,

woven blankets, precious stones, furs, feathers, fine woods and slaves or

captives.

As a result these products became available in the marketplace and

common

in people's homes.

The emperor's power came from his control of the

military, wich was

exceedingly large. Under him was his chief deputy, who

would communicate with

the gods and relate the gods wishes to the Emperor.

Below him there was a

council of four noble princes and three honored classes

of warriors who managed

day to day affairs in the empire. Below them were

four social classes, nobles,

commoners, serfs and slaves. Nobles: the nobles

owned private plots of land or

shared land with other families. Commoners:

The commoners were the largest

group who included priests, merchants, artisans,

and farmers who held land in

common with the nobles. Serfs: The majority

of the serfs farmed the nobles land.

Slaves: The slaves were the lowest

class of people. They were socially equal with

the criminals and people who

could not pay debts. Also woman and children who

were prisoners of war worked

as slaves for the nobles.

Aztec culture

For one hundred years the Aztecs

of Tenochtitlan held the greatest amount of

power in all of Mexico. Following

the model of established town dwellers, who had

been living there for over

one thousand years, they became civilized and

sophisticated.

The Aztec

civilization was made up of many loosely connected urban

communities. Each

local group of citizens owned a piece of land. Those groups

of people were

called a capulli. Each capulli consisted of a few families that

jointly owned

a piece of land. Since the people were generally farmers, a part of

the annual

crop that was harvested from the land was given to the state as a kind

of

tax. As the empire started to grow land for farming became tight. One of

the

Aztecs greatest innovations was the chinampas, witch were rafts on witch

mud

from the bottom of the lake, wich was extremely fertile, was piled and

crops grew

from that. With this innovation the Aztec empire surged to near

three hundred

thousand people. This resent growth made it bigger than any

European city at that

time. Tenochtitalan became large and many open plazas

and market places. In

these market places were products being sold by merchants

that traveled all over

mesoamerica thus resulting in rare commodities becoming

commonplace.

Aztec technology was dependant upon human skills rather

than upon

mechanical equipment. Although the wheel was known to the Aztecs

it wasn't

utilized. It was only used for childrens pull-along toys. No vehicles

incorporated

the wheel, and machines didn't use rotary motion. Iron was unknown

to the Aztecs

as was steel. Copper and bronze were known however, and they

were used in

tools. Aztec jewelers made beautiful jewelry out of gold, silver

and other known

alloys. Glass, glazes, gunpowder, plows and alphabetic writing,

wich were

common among Spaniards, didn't exist in Mexico. However lack of

these

seemingly precious items didn't stop the Aztecs from making art and

architecture

that was amazing to the Europeans. Wheat, barley, cattle, horses,

sheep, and goats

were absent from Mexico until they were introduced by the

Europeans. Without

these things the Aztecs were surprisingly efficient farmers

who fully utilized the

use of irrigation, terracing, and fertilization of

the fields.

As the Spanish invaders soon found and became appreciative

of, Aztec

Mexico was very rich and civilized although it's customs and technology

differed

greatly from that of Europe. The state controlled almost every aspect

of the Aztecs

life. Another thing that amazed the spaniards was the Aztecs

complex calendar.

It consisted of twenty named days, with symbols for each

day, that was based on

the motion of the sun. The Aztec calendar has been

proven incredibly accurate by

today's scientists, in fact it has been proven

more accurate than our own. It was

not uncommon for the name of an Aztec

child to have the name of the day on

which it was born.

All of the

Aztecs boys and girls were required to attend school. Schooling

for boys

mainly consisted of the martial arts and warfare as the main area of study

for

girls was homemaking and weaving. Both boys and girls could learn how to

read,

interpret the calendar, use machinery, make prophecies and debate. Both

boys

and girls were required to learn about Aztec history as well as religion.

Aztec

Religion

As most of Mexico, the Aztecs worshiped many gods, each of which

demanded

sacrifices and offerings. The Aztecs considered themselves the chosen

people of

HUITZILOPOCHTLI, the sun and war god, for who they conquered all

surrounding

lands. Huitzilopochtli shared the main temple, a pyramid at the center

of

Tenochtitlan, with Tlaloc, the rain god. Who was very important to farmers

in

a land where they were always threatened with drought. Another god of

importance

was QUETZALCOATL, the feathered serpent, patron of the arts and

crafts and

the god of self sacrifice. In fact this god was so important that in a year

the

Aztecs were said to have sacrificed twenty thousand prisoners. This was

because

it was the custom to sacrifice every male prisoner. The woman and

children

prisoners were sold into slavery to live a life of service to the nobles.

Sacrifice

was also important because the Aztecs believed that the sun ran off blood.