Download Aztec Civilization

1250-1522 A.D.
<- LAKE TEXCOCO
 Located in the Valley of
Mexico around Lake
Texcoco
 Legend said find a
cactus with a bird
perched that had a
snake in its mouth
 Land dry
 Aztecs shifted from
hunting to farming
 Capital city
Tenochtitlán – present
day Mexico city
 Located in the
middle of a lake
 Linked to mainland
by strips of land
 Teotihuacán
 Dominated the
Valley of Mexico
from 100-750 A.D.
 Aztecs had one king/emperor who ruled over
all – chosen by a council of nobles and priests
 Nobles served as judges, officials, and
governors
 Wore elaborate gold jewelry
 Most crimes punishable by death or being sold
into slavery
 Economy based on agriculture
 Farming
 Chinampas – “floating gardens” on reed mats
piled with earth
 Filled in lakes and made channels for irrigation
 Grew corn, squash, and beans
 Aztecs conquered
others and made
them pay tribute,
or money paid by
conquered people
 Polytheistic
 Chief god was
Huitzilopochtli, the sun
God
 Fought with darkness
each night to raise
the sun
 No promise the sun
would win and rise
 Sacrifice ensured sun
would rise
 Human sacrifice
 About 20,000 per year
 Bodies taken to the top of pyramids ,chests were
cut open, heart ripped out, and body thrown off
 Mostly prisoners of war, some slaves, some nobles
 Constant warfare necessary to have enough
prisoners of war around to sacrifice
 Some historians say bodies were sometimes eaten
by royalty
 Emperor
 Nobles
 Priests who appointed King and conducted rituals
 Merchants who took goods like weapons and rope
for skins and cocoa
 Carried goods on their backs by a strap over their
foreheads
 Traded by feet or by small boat
 Also served as spies
 Commoners who farmed land
 Warriors who could rise in status by capturing and
killing enemies
 Landless peasants wandered in search of work
 Slaves were mostly prisoners of war and criminals
 Could own land
 Could buy freedom
Merchants
Farmer
 Priests were the keepers of knowledge and the
writers of history
 Schools ran for sons of nobles
 365 day calendar and a
260 day ritual
calendar
 Calculates the end of
the world as
December 21, 2012
 Treated with herbs
 Used prisoner of war
bodies to study
anatomy – could set
bones
 Steam baths used as
treatment
 Spanish came in 1519
A.D. search of Gold, God,
and Glory
 Led by Hernan Cortes
 Aztec thought Cortes
was the god
Quetzalcoatl
 Emperor Montezuma
II (Moctezuma II)
taken hostage and
neighboring tribes
joined Spanish
 3/4ths of the Aztecs
died from war and
disease