The Rise of the Aztec Empire
• The Aztecs were a small group of people who migrated into the Valley of Mexico from the north, establishing Tenochtitlán as their capital around 1400 B.C.
Aztec Empire
Many competing small empireswar ends in 1428
Triple Alliance (Texcoco, Tlacopan, and Tenochtitlan)
3 states to form the Aztec Empire
Aztec Empire 1428-1520
Tenochtitlan (tee-noch-tit-lan)
ISLAND IN LAKE TEXCOCO = capitalwith causeways to mainland
TENOCHTITLAN 200,000- 250,000 in city (4x pop. of London in 1500)
DRAWBRIDGES FOR protection
Aqueducts forfreshwater
Clean
Temples, plazas
Aztec Daily Life
• The Aztec Empire in the Valley of Mexico was home to 800,000 to 1.25 million people in the early 1500’s
• Aztec city-states were incorporated into the empire as semiautonomous administrative units
• Markets, plazas, temples, residences, and full-time craft specialists were a part of each city-state
• Have texts, codices of life, tribute, war– Ritual almanacs that priests used
Modern Mexico City and the Zocalo – central plaza
TEMPLE MAYOR
Major temple
1978 found in Mexico City
Private inner space – drains, altars
SKULL RACK
Quetzal godFeathered Serpent
Quetzal bird and snake
100’s of named gods and goddesses spirits or forces
many were transformations
Rain godTlaloc War god
Huitzilopoctli(wee-zil-o-poch-tli
Tonalli = animating spirit is located in the blood
blood concentrates in the heart when scared
Without sacrifice allMOTION Stops
Sun would not riseWorld would come to an end
sacrifice kept world in balance
War god – needed to be fed every day
Human sacrifice
Dresden CodexSpanish observations
war captives, slaves, youths, maidens
Why? intimidation, power, world was unstable, (protein??)
Aztec Militarism
The End of the Aztec Empire
Aztec expansion grew to incorporate much of central and southern Mexico
Aztec policy was one of expansion, not consolidation (military and commercial)
nearly impossible to administer Spanish conquest - Cortez 1520
has help from “dispossessed” conquered peoples
Overthrows Montezuma