Download THE AZTEC EMPIRE

WATERWAYS AND GARDENS
• Tenochtitlan was a magnificent capital city, at its center were an
open plaza and one or more towering pyramid- temples.
• To supply the city with enough fresh water, the Aztecs built
aqueducts which carried spring water from distant sources.
• As the population grew, they realized they needed more farmland
so they build island gardens in the shallow lakes.
•
These raised fields, called chinampas were made from rich soil dredged up from the bottom
of the lake.
•
Trees planted along the edges prevented soil from washing away.
AZTEC ADVANCES IN MEDICINE AND
TECHNOLOGY
•
Aztec doctors used many herbal remedies both to cure and prevent illness. They
knew cures for all sorts of things. For fevers they suggested to take regular steam
baths, and they thought that the heat would clean and relax them and also sweat out
the evil spirits that were poisoning them.
• Aztec doctors understood a great deal about the
human body. There were plenty of bodies to practice
on with all the wars and sacrifices.
• The advances demonstrated in Aztec technology are so
remarkable that they are still looked upon adoringly to this
day. Just a few of the Aztec accomplishments have been the
development of mathematics, the canoe, the highly
specialized Aztec calendar, and remarkably helpful forms of
medicine.
AZTEC SOCIETY
• They had a strict class structure:
Emperor
Royal family:
nobles, priests,
military leaders.
Soldiers
Artisans
Slaves
AZTEC SOCIETY
• Most young men over the age of 15 served as soldiers for a period of
time.
• Aztec women were not allowed to work as soldiers or military leaders,
but they could train to be priestesses.
THE END OF AN EMPIRE
• In 1519, Spanish conquistadors invaded the Aztecs empire. Some of the
peoples whose lands the Aztecs had conquered joined forces with the
Spanish.
• Diseases carried by the Spanish spread to the Aztecs and killed many of
them.
• In 1521, the Aztecs surrendered to the Spanish.
END OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE
•
The major event was the invasion of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in
1485-1547, who tricked the Aztecs into them worshipping him, and then attacked with
his superior military and destroyed them.
There was also the exposure to European diseases and the lack of national unity, as
many of the people of the region disliked the rule of the Aztecs (under Moctezuma II).
These factors also led to the decline of the Incas in Peru.