Why The Aztecs: Should Historians Emphasize Agriculture?

Can you imagine 2,300 people killed in one day every year? Or can you imagine spending the whole day farming. The Aztecs empire flourished from 1350-1519 in Central Mexico. The Aztecs lifestyle revolves around agriculture as for human sacrifices only happened once a year. HIstorians should mainly emphasize agriculture because of huge scales, everyday life, and because of clever construction. My first reason on why historians should focus on agriculture is because of how much acres there is for farming. Most of Aztec territory was covered with floating islands called chinampas. The chinampas helped the Aztecs have more room for crops. According to Peter N Stearns “Approximately 20,000 acres of chinampas were constructed around Tenochtitlan.” The chinampas were built very specific. Stearns states “These were floating islands approximately 17 feet long and 100 to 300 feet wide that rested in reed frames.” An acre is a size of a football field, so imagine 20,000 football fields put together. The chinampas were a very important aspect of the Aztecs life because it was the reason why they had food and were able to make tortillas and farm. My second reason on why historians should emphasize agriculture is because the Aztecs farmed every single day. The main crop the Aztecs grew was corn. The
Peter Stearns explains in document b “Anchored to the bottom of the lake. Willow trees were planted at intervals to provide shade.” It also prevented the chinampas from moving since they were islands. The willow trees were anchored into the bottom so the islands couldn’t shift. In the chinampas they grew squash, beans, flowers, and corn was the main crop that they harvested, with canals running through. The chinampas were held down by the willow trees as well as to provide shade. This evidence is unique because the structure of the chinampas was very different and