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The Aztecs:
According to Aztec legend, they were advised by their Gods to construct their home when they viewed an eagle perched on a cactus.
When they finally viewed the Eagle on the Cactus, they found themselves in the middle of Lake Texcoco, where they founded the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325.
• They built Great Pyramids there that rise 60 meters above the City.
• With Tenochtitlan as its nucleus, the Aztecs expanded outward and solidified control over the Valley of Mexico.
• The Aztec empire ruled over the people/territory it conquered in an indirect way. The Aztecs allowed local leaders remain in power, so long as they paid tribute to Tenochtitlan.
• Some people resented having to pay tribute, and Cortez would exploit this.
• Cortez describe a thriving market-place culture in the New World. Over 60,000 people met and traded for Cocoa beans, Eggs, Turkeys, Rabbits, etc.
• Roads were built throughout the empire for tribute, communication, and troop movements
• Rest areas were station approximately every 6 miles.
• Veneration of Huitzilopochtli, the God of the Sun and of War, was central to the religious, social and political practices of the Aztecs.
• The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice on a grand scale.
• For the Sun to keep moving they believed that the Gods needed a daily diet of human hearts and blood.
• The Aztec are famous for their accurate calendars:
• The Aztec staple foods included maize, beans and squash to which were often added chilies and tomatoes. All of these foods would be brought by the Spanish back to Europe.
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The Exchange between the Americas and Europe is known as the “Columbian Exchange”.
• As literally millions of the Native Americans died from diseases brought by the Spanish, the Europeans decided that to make their newly acquired plantations profitable, they needed to find a new workforce.
• This workforce would be found in West Africa.
• Thus the Slave Trade began.• You have heard testimony in the trial
about the horrors of the “Middle Passage”
The Triangle Trade