subject = High School -> History
title = Aztecs
papers = 

           
       Aztecs
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.