The Aztecs

This paper deals with the Native American people who dominated northern Mexico in the early 16th century; The Aztecs. It presents various aspects of Aztec civilization including society and religion. It illustrates how the belief of a people can influence their way of life and also how they can adapt to their environment to make the best out of it.

The Aztecs were a small, nomadic tribal people who originated from a place called Aztlan, somewhere in North West Mexico. During the 12th century, led by their chieftain Tenoch, they begun a period of wandering. Tenoch had a vision; Huitzilopochtli (the war/sun god) told him to lead the people to a swampy island in the middle of lake Texcoco. He was told to look for an eagle perched on a cactus eating a serpent. It was here they were to build their city. In 1325, they founded the city of Tenochtitlan.

Tenochtitlan was very hard to build because there was only a small piece of land in the surrounding marshes. The Aztecs made the shallow lake into chinampas. Chinampas were small islands made by piling up plants and black, sticky mud from the lake bottom. The edges of the chinampa were held in place by wooden posts. In addition, the

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The city had many public squares, which housed the markets and other places of buying and selling. They believed that their gods should be kept strong and they did this by making human sacrifices. Here all types of merchandise were found including articles of food, jewels of gold, silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones and feathers.

The slaves were at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

WAR

“That war among the Aztecs had a very immediate side, that it was for survival, for loot, for women, for personal glory and adventure, is unquestionable. Some of the pictographs symbolized ideas and others represented the sounds of the syllables. The rights of the owners were limited, and with the exception of labor, slaves were free, could marry, and could own property including other slaves. They moved about between the chinampas and the causeways to the city in canoes that they hallowed out from trees. These chinampas were the foundation of the city. Almost all the houses had two doors, one opening on the causeway and the other on the water where they kept their canoes. (Cortes: The life of the conqueror by his secretary, pg 162)

The Aztecs have been credited with the discovery of chocolate. They used the tlaxcallis to scoop up food and they wrapped it to form tacos. y planted trees so the soil would hold together.

From the life of the Aztecs, we see many positive achievements.

Approximate Word count = 1357
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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