"The place where the eagle screams, where he spreads his wings; the place where he feeds, where the fish jump, where the serpents coil up and hiss! This shall be Mexico Tenochtitlan and many things shall happen!" –Cronica Mexicayotl
Social Aspects
- Military leaders held great power in society, along with government official and priests (made up noble class
- Nobles owned estates and ruled over their land like lords
- Nobles lived a life of luxury and wealth
- Rulers (teteuhctin)>nobles (pipiltin)>commoners (macehualtin)>enslaved people (tlacohtin)
- Commoners were merchants, soldiers, artisans, and farmers that owned their own land
- Merchants formed special type of elite and traveled to other regions acting as spies for the emperor which increased their wealth
- The last social class were the enslaved people; captives who did various forms of labor on the land owned by people in upper classes
- Little room for social movement but some in the lower classes
- Diseases, especially smallpox, broke out when the Spanish arrived
- Rose to power through military conquest
Political Aspects
- The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, welcomed Spaniards into their capital
- Rulers called Tlatoani
- Military made up of adult males; wore padded cotton armor and carried a wooden or reed shield covered in hide
- Aztecs could not beat the Spanish in battle because they had weapons such as guns that the Aztecs did not
- Joined two other city states to form a Triple Alliance and conquered neighboring areas
- Forced citizens of this empire to pay tribute, and if they did not, the Aztecs responded brutally
Interactions
- Fought with people from Spain who wanted the New World for its resources
- Highly successful in agriculture
- Covered majority of northern Mesoamerica
- They built canoes to hunt and fish
- They created medicine from the many plants they found in the area
- Floating gardens were created for more places to grow food
- Dikes were built to hold back water in the swampy areas, to free up land for agriculture and building
- Thanks to the skills of their engineers the Aztecs were able to build their beautiful capital city Tenochtitlan on a swamp
Cultural Aspects
- Art and architecture
- Elite warriors wore feathered and animal skin costumes and headdresses to show their rank
- Aztec pantheon was composed of older Mesoamerican gods and Mexica deities
- Principal gods were Huitzilopochtli (war and sun god) and Tlaloc (the rain god)
- Both of these gods had temples on top of the Templo Mayor Pyramid
- Religious ceremonies centered around elaborate public ceremonies to communicate with the gods
- 260 day calendar divided into 20 thirteen day weeks
- Gods were honored with festivals, banquets, music, dancing, decoration of statues, burning of incense, burial of precious goods, blood-letting (withdrawal of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness or disease), and animal sacrifices
Economic Aspects
- Successful in trade
- Most valuable trade item was obsidian
- Tenochtitlan’s economy was based on agriculture
- Trade was very important to the economy
- Aztec farmers grew beans, squash, avocados, tobacco, hemp, and peppers
- Their most important crop was corn
- Farmers produced enough food to not only supply their own needs, but also those of the entire city
- The Aztecs also traded raw materials, finished products, jewellery, wood and even medicine