Bellwork

• Write down at least two (2) things you know or have heard about the Aztecs.

World History

Section 5, Unit 1The Aztec

Objectives

• Describe the origins of the Aztec people• Examine the geography of the Valley of

Mexico• Analyze the beginnings of the great cities

of the Aztec, such as Tenochtitlan (ten-och-teet-lan)

• Analyze the significance of religion in Aztec life

• Discuss the fall of the Aztec peoples to the Spanish

Valley of Mexico

• The Valley of Mexico, which is a mountain basin 7000 ft above sea level, served as the home of several powerful cultures.

Valley of Mexico

• The valley had several large, shallow lakes at it’s center, accessible resources, and fertile soil.

• These benefits attracted peoples, such as the people of Teotihuacan and the Toltecs.

Teotihuacan

• While the Maya were growing a massive empire, an amazing city was built in the Valley of Mexico: Teotihuacan (teh-oh-tee-hwa-kan).

Teotihuacan

• The city, with it’s 125,000 people and 200-foot-tall pyramid, marked the land.

• There, the citizens built a thriving city that traded with peoples far into Central America.

Toltec• However, the

Teotihuacan was abandoned by 750 AD, with little information about who built it or if it was part of a larger empire.

• However, in it’s ashes grew the Toltec, a new peoples of central Mexico.

Toltec

• The Toltec were a group of fierce warriors who based their empire on conquest and human sacrifice.

• Toltec peoples, through trade and conquest, spread as far as the Yucatan, influencing the Maya.

• However, by the early 1200s, the Toltec reign had ended, but would inspire an entire new group of peoples.

Aztec• The Aztec- known as the

Mexica- arrived in the Valley of Mexico around 1200 AD.

• They were a group of poor, nomadic people from the harsh deserts of northern Mexico.

• Fierce and ambitious, they soon adapted to the local ways, finding work as soldiers-for-hire for local rulers of small city-states.

Aztec• Inspired by their

legends, the Aztec built a city on Lake Texcoco, at the center of the Valley.

• In 1325, they founded their city, named Tenochtitlan (teh-noch-teet-lan).

Aztec • Over the years, the

Aztec increased in strength and number.

• In 1428, they joined with two other city-states- Texcoco and Tlocopan– to form the Triple Alliance.

• This alliance became the leading power in the Valley and soon gained control over neighboring regions.

Aztec• By the early 1500s,

the Aztec controlled a vast Mesoamerican empire, which stretched from central Mexico to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and south to Oaxaca.

• This empire was divided into 38 provinces and had a population between 5-15 million peoples.

Aztec

• The Aztec state based it’s power on military conquest and the tributes it received from conquered peoples.

• The Aztecs exercised loose control over much of their empire and often let local rulers govern their own regions. Question: Why might this be an effective way

of governing it’s empire?

Aztec

• However, the Aztec did demand tribute, usually in the form of gold, maize, cacao beans, cotton, jade, and other products.

• If a ruler did not pay the tribute, the Aztec warriors would destroy villages, and capture or slaughter the inhabitants.

Aztec Society• At the height of the

Aztec Empire, military leaders held great power.

• Government officials, priests, and these military leaders made up the noble class.

• Many nobles owned vast estates, which they ruled over like lords.

Aztec Society

• The other two classes of Aztec society were the commoners and the slaves.

• Commoners included merchants, artisans, soldiers, and farmers who owned their own land.

Aztec Society

• The merchants were their own type of elite. They often traveled widely, and in were sometimes spies for the emperor and gained great wealth for themselves.

• Slaves, however, were captives who worked many different jobs.

Aztec Society• However, at the top of

the social pyramid was the emperor, who had absolute power.– Despite that, the emperor

did consult with top generals or officials.

• He lived in a magnificent palace, surrounded by servants and his wives. Visitors had to treat the emperor like a god–for example, they could not look at him directly.

Trade

• The Aztecs, much like the Toltec and Maya, controlled an extensive trade network.–Many different goods including gold, silver,

foodstuffs, coral, cotton, and more were sold throughout the empire.

• Most of the agricultural goods produced at the market was grown on chinampas, farm plots built on the marshy fringes of the lake.– These plots provided the food needed for a huge

urban population.

Tenochtitlan

• By the early 1500s, Tenochtitlan was an amazing urban center.

• With a population around 200,000 people, it was larger than any city in Europe at the same time.

Tenochtitlan

• To connect the island of Tenochtitlan to the mainland, Aztec engineers built three raised roads over the water.

The Palace complex with various canals and large roads shown.

Tenochtitlan

• Other cities ringed around the lake, created a dense concentration of people in the Valley of Mexico.

• In Tenochtitlan, palaces, temples, markets, and residential districts were connected by streets.

Tenochtitlan

• Canals divided up the city, while aqueducts funneled fresh water in from the mainland.

• At the center of the city was a large complex filled with temples, palaces, government buildings.

At the center of Tenochtitlan was a giant pyramid with twin temples atop it. It was the religious center of the Aztecs.

Religion

• Religion played a major role in Aztec society.

• In Tenochtitlan there were hundreds of temples and religious structures dedicated to the gods, many of whom they borrowed from the Toltecs.

Religion

• Aztec religious practices center on elaborate public ceremonies designed to communicate with the gods.

• At these ceremonies, priests made offerings to the gods and presented ritual dramas, songs, and dances.

• The Aztec calendar was filled with religious festivals, which varied according the god being honored.

Religion• The most important

rituals of the Aztecs involved the sun god, Huitzilopochtli (wit-silo-po-cht-lee).

• According to belief, the sun god made the sun rise every day, but only when he was nourished with human blood. Without it, the sun would fall from the sky and all life would perish.

Religion• For that reason, the Aztec

priests carried out human sacrifice on a massive scale, with some estimates as high as 20,000 people a year.

• Thousands of victims, usually prisoners (but in some cases children), were led to the altar atop the Great Temple, where priests carved out their hearts (a preference of the sun god). – However, some simply had

their throat cut or were beheaded instead.

At one point, it’s estimated that 80,400 people were sacrificed to commemorate the building of a new temple.

Religion

• To meet this supply of sacrifices, the Aztec pushed the military to carry out new conquests.

• The battle tactics of Aztec warriors were designed to provide live prisoners for the sacrifices.

Question: How might this need for sacrifices affect their military?

Decline

• Eventually, the Aztecs need for an ever-expanding empire created problems.

• In 1502, a new ruler, Montezuma II, was crowned emperor.

• Under Montezuma, the Aztec began to weaken.

Decline

• For decades, the Aztecs had been demanding tribute and sacrificial victims from the provinces.

• With the population of Tenochtitlan growing, the emperor called for more sacrifices.

Question: How might his prove to be a problem?

Decline

• In response, the provinces began to rise up in rebellion, which the military had to put down.

• Montezuma also tried to reduce pressure on the provinces caused by great demands for tribute payment, such as by reducing the number of government officials.

• However, the rebellions continued and the issues only grew when a new enemy appeared.

Decline

• In the early 1500s, the Aztecs came into contact with Spanish explorers, seeking to expand into what they thought was Asia.

• Many Aztecs feared the arrival of the Spanish, believing that their arrival signaled the end of their empire.

Decline• Ultimately, the Aztecs

were correct in their assumptions.

• The Spanish, who aligned them with the provinces that were against the Aztec, captured Tenochtitlan in in 1521, signaling the end of the empire.

• However, the arrival of the Spanish would prove to be disastrous for more than the just the Aztec.

Mesoamerica Falls

• Due to infighting, and the arrival of the Spanish, the great empires of Mesoamerica (and South America) would give way to the new expanding colonies of European explorers.

• Many of these groups of people would fall ill to the disease brought by Europeans and many were forced to work for Europeans, often in harsh conditions.

Aztec Legacy

• While the Aztec people lost their great empire, the culture of the Aztec still continues to influence modern cultures in Latin America– including language, food, and other aspects of their culture.

• Millions of people of Hispanic heritage can still trace their roots to the Aztec and the language of the Aztec people– Nahuatl– is spoken by around 1.5 million people.

Aztec Legacy

• As well, Mexico City was also built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan and is one of the oldest cities in the Americas.

• In the end, the Aztec, among the other Mesoamerican cultures, have had a long lasting affect on the cultural identity of millions of people in the Americas.

Questions?

• If you have any questions, please ask now.

Fun fact: the calendar to the left is the actual Aztec Calendar.

Next lesson

• In the next lesson, we will return to Europe and discuss the Renaissance and Reformation period

Review1. What allowed the Aztecs to gain power in

Mesoamerica? 2. How did the sacrificial practices of the Aztec affect

their military? Do you think that this change may have weakened them?

3. What was the social structure of the Aztec people? Please describe the social structure.

4. What was Tenochtitlan like? What did it look like and how did people farm there?

5. Why did the Aztec value human sacrifices so heavily? 6. Why did the need for more sacrificial victims lead to

problems with controlling the empire? 7. How did the arrival of the Spanish cause the fall of

the Aztec empire (and other American civilizations)?