The Aztecs were a small tribe that went to northwestern Mexico until 1116 BCE. According to a legend, one-day, Huitzilopochtli which is the god of sun and war, told the people to move south. He told them he would take them to a secure home. The new home would be marked with a sign. It took them 100 years until one day a priest saw the sign. It was in the middle of a lake called Texcoco. There were other tribes living in the place. They were reluctant and didn’t let them share the land. This left the Aztecs the swamp area around lake Texcoco to call their home.
The Aztecs Growth
The Aztecs found other ways to make the swamp into their property. They built canoes for fishing and hunting county birds. They started to make war …show more content…
and defeat the other tribes living in the area. They named the island, Tenochtitlan, “The place of the prickly pear cactus.” Tenochtitlan would become the capitol of Aztec civilization. In Ancient River Civilizations, empires often grew when the captain conquered neighboring territory. The Aztecs were similar. Unlike the ancient river civilizations, the Aztec empire grew relatively quickly. The Aztecs entered The Valley of Mexico in 1250 CE and set up their island capitol, Tenochtitlan, less than 100 years later. Within the next two centuries, the Aztecs came to control a civilization that covered not only the Valley of Mexico but also extend from Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Comparatively, the ancient Egyptian took more than 500 years to grow to this extent.
The Aztecs Fall
In 1519, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes arrived on the Gulf of Mexico. He had heard that about the Aztecs. Two years before the arrival of Cortes, disasters, floods, earthquakes, and a comet had alerted the Aztec leader, Moctezuma the second, that his rule was about to end. Cortes came with 500 men, the Aztecs thought he was a light skinned god named Quetzalcoatl. They began to honor him. But the Aztecs realized Cortes wasn’t a god. Cortes got other tribes who disliked the Aztecs to fight with him.
Fighting together, they defeated the Aztec nation.
The Aztecs Sacrifice
The Aztecs honored hundreds of gods, they believed that the gods will protect them. The Aztecs thought the gods needed human sacrifices to be safe. During ceremonies, they arrest slaves and put them on the altar. They had their hearts taken out, while they were still alive. Priest also sacrificed the Aztec people, they killed women, men, boys, and girls. Aztecs gave their blood to the gods during the ceremonies. The higher you are in the society, the more blood you were to give. This was done through bloodletting, getting blood from your body.
The Aztecs Calendar
The Aztecs were craftsmen, they built temples, and pyramids. The sacrifices took place on top of the temples. The temples were decorated with dragon heads, and scenes from nature. The emperor lived in a grand- two story house and a large courtyard. Aztecs and the Egyptians religions encouraged them to study astronomy. They created two calendars. The agricultural calendar is very similar to the one we use today. It had 365 days and recorded the days and seasons. There were five “unlucky” days. The second calendar had 260 days and was a calendar of the gods. The Aztec people showed a real understanding in math when they make two calendars and made one big wheel. Every 52 years both calendars will line
up.