Aztec Civilization
The Aztecs were very unique in every aspect of life. Their civilization, in my opinion was one of the best, based on their social structure, advanced farming, and architecture. They were a very important contribution to our modern world.
The Aztec Indians, who are known for their domination of southern and central Mexico, are believed to have migrated from Azatlan, the homeland of the north. The group that eventually founded the Aztec Empire, the Mexica, migrated to the Valley of Mexico in the middle of the 13th century. As late arrivals, the Mexica, a hunter-gatherer people, were forced by other groups in the valley to take refuge on two islands near the western shore of Lake Texcoco, one of the five lakes in the area. The Mexica believed in a certain legend, which says that they would establish a great civilization in a marshy area, where they would first see a cactus growing out of a rock with an eagle perched on the cactus while eating a snake. After the Mexica arrived at the swampy site on the shore of Lake Texcoco, their priests proclaimed that they had seen the promised land. The site turned out to be a strategic location, with abundant food supplies and waterways for transportation. The Aztecs built great cities and developed a complex social, political, and religious structure
Aztec society was highly structured, based on agriculture, and guided by a religion that spread through every aspect of life. The Aztecs worshiped gods that represented natural forces that were vital to their agricultural economy. Aztec cities were dominated by giant stone pyramids topped by temples where human sacrifices were dedicated to the gods. Aztec art was primarily an expression of religion, and even warfare, which increased the empire’s wealth and power. It also served the religious purpose of providing captives to be sacrificed.
The Essay on The Mayans, The Aztecs, And The Incas
From 250 A.D. to the late 1500’s A.D., three advanced civilizations, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Incas controlled Central America and South America. Each of them was different but all shared some of the same qualities. They all were civilizations that had a daily life than revolved around religion. Their religions also required a lot of human sacrifices to please the gods. Also, they all ...
By the year 1325 their capital city was finished. Tenochtitlan was the center of the Aztec world. The marvels of the island city were described by the Spanish conquistadors as the “Venice of the New World” in reference to Venice, Italy because of its many canals. At its height, the city had a population of about 200,000 people, making it one of the most populous cities in the ancient world.
Tenochtitlan was connected to the mainland by three well-traveled causeways, or raised roads. During the rainy season, when the lake waters rose, the causeways served as protective dikes. Stone aqueducts brought fresh drinking water into the city from the mainland. Tenochtitlan’s canals served as a passage and were often crowded with canoes made from hollowed logs. The canoes were used to carry produce to the public market in the city’s main plaza.
At the center of Tenochtitlan was a ceremonial plaza paved with stone. The plaza housed several large government buildings and the palace of the Aztec ruler, which was two stories high and contained hundreds of rooms. The most important structure in the plaza was a large, terraced pyramid crowned with two stone temples dedicated to the most important Aztec gods, the sun god, also the god of war, and the rain god. A surrounding enclosure contained buildings for priests and elite military groups, courts for sacred games, and smaller pyramids topped by temples where incense and sacrificial fires burned before enormous idols. Other temple pyramids were built in every section of the city.
Residents of Tenochtitlan lived in houses built around open courts, or patios. Houses of the nobility were made of plastered brick or stone and painted bright shades of red or white. The houses of the common people were smaller, made of interwoven twigs and mud, and covered with grass.
The Essay on The Aztec Aztecs Gods Religion
The Aztec The Aztec was a culture that dominated the Valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the Nashua-speaking peoples in the Valley of Mexico were Aztecs, while the culture that dominated the area called the Tenochca. At the time of the European conquest, they called themselves either 'Tenochca' or 'Toltec,' which was the name assumed by the bearers of the Classic ...
Farming provided the basis of the Aztec economy. The land around the lakes was fertile but not large enough to produce food for the population, which expanded steadily as the empire grew. To make more land suitable for farming, the Aztec developed irrigation systems, formed terraces on hillsides, and used fertilizer to enrich the soil. Their most important agricultural technique was to reclaim swampy land around the lakes by creating chinampas, which are islands that are known as “floating gardens.” To make the chinampas, the Aztecs dug canals through the marshy shores and islands, and then placed the mud on huge mats made of woven reeds. They anchored the mats by tying them to posts driven into the lake bed and planting trees at their corners that took root and secured the islands permanently. On these fertile islands they grew corn, squash, vegetables, and flowers.
Aztec farmers had no plows or work animals. They planted crops in soft soil using pointed sticks. Corn was their principal crop. Women grounded the corn into a coarse meal by rubbing it with a grinding stone called a mano against a flat stone called a metate. From the corn meal, the Aztecs made flat corn cakes called tortillas, which was their principal food. Other crops included beans, squash, chili peppers, avocados, and tomatoes. The Aztecs raised turkeys and dogs, which were eaten by the wealthy; they also raised ducks, geese, and quail.
Aztec farmers had many uses for the maguey plant, which grew in the wild to an enormous size. Cultivated varieties include the ‘Marginata’ with yellow stripes along the margins of each leaf, ‘Medio-picta’ with a central white band, ‘Striata’ with multiple yellow to white stripes along the leaves, and ‘Variegata’ with white edges on the leaves. The sap was used to make a beerlike drink called pulque, the thorns served as needles, the leaves were used as thatch for the construction of dwellings, and the fibers were twisted into rope or woven into cloth.
As an agricultural people, the Aztec depended a lot on the forces of nature and worshiped them as gods. Most important was their sun god, Huitzilopochtli, who was also considered to be the god of war. When the Aztecs sacrificed people to Huitzilopochtli the victim would be placed on a sacrificial stone. Other important gods were Tlaloc, the god of rain, and Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent, the god of wind and learning. The Aztecs believed that the gods must be kept strong to prevent the evil gods from destroying the world. For this purpose they sacrificed humans. Victims of sacrifice were usually prisoners of war, although Aztec warriors would sometimes volunteer for the more important sacrificial rituals. The god Tlaloc was believed to prefer children as sacrificial victims.
The Essay on The Malian Empire
The empire of Mali, in western Africa, started in about 1240. The empire is also called the Malingo Empire and Manden Kurufa. The empire was founded by the Malinke people led by Sundiata. During his reign, he developed the city of Timbuktu. The city became the center of trade and culture in the empire. After Sundiata’s death, Mansa Musa became emperor of Mali in 1307. Mansa Musa was a devout ...
The sacrificial rituals were elaborate in form, calculated according to the stars to please specific gods at specific times. A victim would climb up the steps of the pyramid. At the top, a priest would stretch the victim across a stone altar and cut out the victim’s heart. The priest would hold the heart aloft to the god being honored and then fling it into a sacred fire while it was still beating. Often many victims were killed at once. In 1487, according to legend, Aztec priests sacrificed more than 80,000 prisoners of war at the dedication of the reconstructed temple of the sun god in Tenochtitlan.
The Mexicas were especially interested in education. Boys and girls were carefully educated from birth. During the first years of life, fathers educated boys, while mothers took care of girls. Once family education was over, the children of the nobles and priests went to the calmecac, and all others went to the tepochcalli. The Aztecs believed that education was extremely valuable and insisted that boys, girls, and young people attended school. There were two main types of school, the so-called tepochcalli and the calmecac. Boys and girls went to both, but were kept separate from each other.
The tepochcalli was for the children of common families and there was one in each neighborhood. There, children learned history, myths, religion and Aztec ceremonial songs. Boys received intensive military training and also learned about agriculture and the trades. Girls were educated to form a family, and were trained in the arts and trades that would ensure the welfare of their future homes.
The Essay on Ideal Market Structure
Perfect competition sometimes is regarded as an ideal market structure because it supports the actual ideology of a free market economy where, for example there is no government intervention. The entrepreneur in perfect competition works independent of other entrepreneurs and each individual buyer or seller does not influence the market, there are perfect substitutes for all goods and the demand ...
The calmecac was for the children of the nobility, and served to form new military and religious leaders. Teachers were greatly admired.
Like other aspects of Aztec culture, life in an Aztec society was ruled by religious beliefs, right from the start. Each decision was ruled by the laws of religion, and often tied to the sacred days in the Aztec calendar.
The life of a new family began at marriage, typically in the early 20s for a man and mid-teens for the woman. Marriages were arranged by the relatives, though the children may have had an opinion. The parents would have to talk to the religious leaders and discuss the signs under which both of the children had been born. The wedding day, of course, was chosen for similar religious reasons.
The Aztec calendar is the calendar system that was used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica. The calendar consisted of a 365 day calendar cycle called xiuhpohualli, year count, and a 260 day ritual cycle called tonalpohualli, day count. These two cycles together formed a 52 year, century, sometimes called the Calendar Round.
Several types of money were in regular use. Small purchases were made with cacao beans, which had to be imported from lowland areas. In Aztec marketplaces, a small rabbit was worth 30 beans, a turkey egg cost 3 beans, and a tamale cost a single bean. For larger purchases, cotton cloth called quachtli was used. A man could also sell his own daughter as a sexual slave or future religious sacrifice, generally for around 500 to 700 beans. A small gold statue would cost about 250 beans. Money was used primarily in the many markets that were held in each town. A typical town would have a weekly market, while larger cities held markets every day. Some sellers in the markets were petty vendors; farmers might sell some of their produce, potters sold their vessels, and so on. Other vendors were professional merchants who traveled from market to market seeking profits. The pochteca, were specialized merchants organized into exclusive guilds. They made lengthy expeditions to all parts of Mesoamerica, and they served as the judges and supervisors of the market.
The Essay on Man Has Become Slaves To The Modern Day Gadgets
“Man has become slaves to the modern day gadgets “ Nowadays, Children are getting so addicted to these modern day gadgets that they tend to forget they have a life!!! People are becoming lazier day by day in performing everyday task, its due to human intelligence upto some extent as per my opinion. You must be wondering why did I bring human intelligence into the picture. Additional ...
The Aztec empire was an informal empire because it did not exert supreme authority over the conquered lands, it merely expected tributes to be paid. It was also a discontinuous empire because not all dominated territories were connected. The hegemonic nature of the Aztec empire can be seen in the fact that generally local rulers were restored to their positions once their city-state was conquered and the Aztecs did not interfere in local affairs as long as the tribute payments were made.
Although the Aztec form of government is often referred to as an empire, in fact most areas within the empire were organized as city-states, known as altepetl in Nahuatl. These were small areas ruled by a king. The Early Aztec period was a time of growth and competition among altepetl. Even after the empire was formed and began its program of expansion through conquest, the city-states remained the dominant form of organization at the local level.
The highest class was the nobles. The second class was the peasants. Next, were the slaves, also seen as an important class. Aztecs could become slaves because of debts, as a criminal punishment or as war captives. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. However, when you became a slave, all of the slave’s animals and excess money would go to his purchaser. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they had children with or were married to their masters. Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance. One final class was traveling merchants. They were a small, but important class as they not only facilitated commerce, but also communicated vital information across the empire and beyond its borders. They were often employed as spies.
In 1519 Hernando Cortes, a Spanish explorer, led over 500 men into Aztec territory to search for gold. Aztecs thought he was a representative for a certain white skinned god so they respected him. It all changed when the Aztecs saw that Hernando was melting down their golden statues and shipping them back to Spain. The Aztecs decided to attack Hernando and his men. The Aztecs were successful and drove the Spanish away, but in 1520 the Spanish attacked the Aztec’s capital city and destroyed their civilization. That was the end of the Aztec’s mighty empire.
The Essay on United States Empire Roman Class
"Will the United States Fall like the Roman Empire?" What makes a country or empire so powerful? Is it a leader, the military, or even the people? These all do. They make a certain connection due to the success of an empire. You can they " re the "Three Musketeers" of one. The old Roman Empire and the United States have that connection. Both were in great power, had prosperity, and were strong in ...
Even though the Aztec Civilization collapsed, they set the foundation for what is now Mexico City. The Aztecs might not have been strong enough to defeat the Spanish at the time of the attack, but they were certainly more than capable of defeating them if they had all worked together.
