Download The Aztecs - Core Knowledge Foundation

CK_5_TH_HG_P104_230.QXD
2/15/06
6:28 AM
Page 129
The Aztecs
By 1325 CE, the Aztec (who called themselves the Mexica) had moved south
to Lake Texcoco [TESH-co-co] in the Valley of Mexico. They were originally a
small nomadic group, but their warrior culture enabled them to grow and eventually dominate their neighbors. They established an empire that in time encompassed south and central Mexico. The Aztec ultimately came to dominate
400–500 city-states and over 5,000,000 people. They did not directly govern
these other city-states; instead, they established a tribute system. In order to
maintain some level of independence, the subjugated peoples paid taxes and labor
to the Aztec. The Aztec Empire was similar to a union of city-states, a concept
that should be familiar to students from their study of the Greek city-states in
Grade 2. This lack of centralized organization, along with the tribute system and
the fear that the Aztec engendered among their subjects, created a great hatred of
the Aztec. The Spanish were able to capitalize on this hatred when they set out to
control the Aztec Empire in the early 1500s.
Teaching Idea
Compare and contrast the tribute system with the taxation system we currently have in the United States today.
What are the similarities and differences in these systems? Students
should recall “no taxation without
representation” from Grade 4.
Teaching Idea
Have students follow directions on
the Instructional Master 17, Create a
Codex.
Part of the fear that these other Indian peoples felt was based on the Aztec
religious practice of human sacrifice. Human sacrifice did not originate with the
Aztec; it had long been a part of religious practices among the natives of Middle
America. However, the Aztec sacrificed on a very large scale. One goal of the wars
fought by the Aztec was to capture rivals to use for human sacrifice. Prisoners of
war were often killed as ritual offerings to the Aztec deities.
Ritual sacrifices took place atop the great Aztec temple-pyramids. The victim
was placed on a stone altar and a priest used a stone knife to cut the still-beating
heart from a sacrificial victim. The heart was then presented as an offering to one
of the Aztec gods, and the body was pushed down the stairs of the pyramid and
dragged away.
Human sacrifice appears to have played a role in each of the Aztec 18 major
monthly religious festivals. The Aztec believed that the gods had to be appeased
with sacrifices. In particular, they believed constant sacrifices were needed to
keep the sun moving.
The Aztec worshipped many gods, including some known earlier to the
Maya. Key gods and religious figures included Tlaloc, the rain god,
Huitzilopochtli, the war god; and Quetzalcóatl, the “feathered serpent.” Religious
festivals were based on the Aztec calendar, which had 260 days. The Aztec also
had a 365-day solar calendar. This last was derived from the Maya calendar and
consisted of 18 months of 20 days and an extra five days.
The Aztec were governed by a king known as a “tlatoani” or “speaker.” When
the Spanish came, the ruler was Moctezuma II (also spelled Montezuma).
Moctezuma lived in a 10-acre palace of 300 rooms that provided private living
quarters for the king, offices, workshops, and council halls. Moctezuma also had
a zoo and many country retreats.
The ruler was assisted by a council of advisors. Below the advisors was a class
of nobles and war chiefs. Most Aztec were farmers, but there were also traders and
craftworkers. At the bottom of the social structure were slaves. Slaves were often
people captured in battle.
History and Geography: World
129
CK_5_TH_HG_P104_230.QXD
2/14/06
2:20 PM
Page 130
II. Mesoamerican Civilizations
Teaching Idea
Create an overhead of Instructional
Masters 18a–18c, The Civilizations of
the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, to orient students to the areas that each civilization
encompassed. Ask students to locate
the civilizations and cities in relation to
one another. Have students use the distance scale to estimate the size of each
civilization.
Although the Aztec had professional war leaders, armies were made up of all
of the able-bodied men available at the time of a campaign. Boys were taught
endurance and military skills as part of their schooling. Aztec who took captives
and were particularly valorous warriors increased their status in society.
The Aztec were noted for their gold and silver metalwork. Although the chief
economic activity of the empire was farming, the empire supported a large and
busy network in trade goods—both agricultural products and handcrafts. The
Aztec used a system of hieroglyphs to record business transactions, tribute payments, religious rituals, and their history. They recorded information in a special
kind of book called a codex.
Tenochtitlán
The center of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlán [te-noch-tee-TLAHN]. It
was built beginning in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the center of what
is now Mexico. According to legend, the Mexica would wander until they found
an eagle with a serpent in its beak perched on a cactus. There they should settle.
Supposedly, they saw this sign on an island in Lake Texcoco. The eagle, snake,
and cactus are still symbols of Mexico today; you can find them on the Mexican
flag.
Four causeways, or bridges, connected the Aztec capital to the mainland;
aqueducts brought fresh water into the city. A network of canals enabled people
in canoes to move their goods easily around the city. Islands of mud were
anchored to the lake floor and used as gardens and agricultural land. The city was
carefully planned and governed. Boatmen paddled around on the canals, transporting merchandise and other items.
By 1519, when the Spanish first saw it, Tenochtitlán was five square miles in
size and had a population of more than 300,000. This was larger than most cities
in Europe at the time. The city was centered around a large square of palaces and
whitewashed pyramids with massive temples atop them. Around this central core
were smaller palaces, brick houses, markets, and gardens. One of Cortés’s men,
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, gave a memorable description of his first glimpse of
Tenochtitlán:
Teaching Idea
Have students look at the flag of
Mexico to confirm the existence of the
eagle, snake, and cactus symbols on
the flag. Then have them research the
symbolism behind the 3 colors used in
the Mexican flag.
130
Grade 5 Handbook
Here we had a clear prospect of the three causeways by which Mexico
communicated with the land, and of the aqueduct of Chapultepeque,
which supplied the city with the finest water. We were struck with the
numbers of canoes, passing to and from the main land, loaded with provisions and merchandise, and we could now perceive, that in this great
city, and all the others of that neighbourhood which were built in the
water, the houses stood separate from each other, communicating only
by small drawbridges, and by boats, and that they were built with terraced tops. We observed also the temples and adoratories of the adjacent
cities, built in the form of towers and fortresses, and others on the causeway, all whitewashed, and wonderfully brilliant. The noise and bustle of
the market-place below us could be heard almost a league off, and those
who had been at Rome and at Constantinople said, that for convenience,
regularity, and population, they had never seen the like.