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THE HISTORY OF THE AZTECS
The Aztec were a band of hunter-gatherers living on a
small island is northwestern Mexico, when their
God, Huitzilopochtli, told them to leave their
homeland.
“Go where the cactus grows, on which the eagle sits
happily…”
They journeyed through deserts and
over steep mountains.
THE JOURNEY
They were hungry and thirsty, hoping at every turn to see the
promised sign: an eagle sitting on a prickly pear cactus,
eating a snake.
After 200 years of wondering, they found the eagle and a small,
swampy island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico.
TENOCHTITLAN
They named their new home, Tenochtitlan – “Place of the
Prickly Pear Cactus”.
• Tenochtitlan was the place where the Aztecs started to build
a powerful empire.
BUILDING AN EMPIRE
• So they settled on a soggy, uninhabited island in Lake
Texcoco. The island was about 12 miles square in size.
• Because the land on their island was mostly swamp, they
couldn’t grow crops such as corn for food or cotton for
clothing.
• They learned to collect and eat algae from the lake.
ADAPTING TO THE LAND
• Another challenge for the Aztecs, was building shelter. The timber
and stone they needed to build huts was scarce on the small
island.
• But, the Aztec learned to use what was around them to their
advantage.
• They used reeds and mud from the swamp to make huts. They
caught and ate birds and fish that lived on the island or in the
water around it.
CHINAMPAS
• From the tribes around the area, the Aztec learned a method of
farming that was suited to the swampy areas in which they lived:
• Chinampas “Floating Gardens”
• Chinampas are narrow strips of land about 300 ft. long and 1530 ft. wide, almost completely surrounded by canals.
• The Aztec built these around their central city.
• They used rows of canals to tend to the chinampas by boat.
CHINAMPAS
• They used the rows of canals to tend to the chinampas by
boat.
• On these floating gardens, Aztec farmers were able to produce
corn, squash, chili peppers, beans and tomatoes.
• The canals around the chinampas were used for travel via
canoe to the city of Tenochtitlan
• Aztec also raised roads to the mainland so they could travel
on foot.
• One CAUSEWAY (roadway raised above water) was over five
miles long.