Download Intro: Contrary to the Spanish beliefs that the Aztec

(The Aztecs were sophisticated in religion in that they committed many complex
rituals and sacrifices in everyday life. They were sophisticated in architecture by their
intricate city designs and in the society part of life they had a complex economic
structure. Clearly the Aztec people are sophisticated, and it is shown in the
complexity of their religion, architecture and society.)
QUOTE: “
ALTHOUGH the native culture of Mexico was often portrayed as barbarous and
uncivilised by the Spanish writers as the above quote from….. shows, the reality was
that it was a highly sophisticated and complex culture. Typically the Spanish saw the
Aztecs as cruel and inhumane. This emerged largely from their observations of their
sacrificial practices. They also regarded them as people without civilizing influences.
This misconception was typical of Europeans who regarded all non-Christian cultures
they encountered as somehow lacking in culture and complexity. The Spanish largely
made these unjust claims to justify their merciless capture and colonisation of the
Aztec race, to steal their gold, land and to enslave them. Their sophistication is shown
in three particular areas: religion, architecture and nature of lifestyle.
P1: One of the main areas that the Aztec civilisation was sophisticated in was the area
of religion. One reason why the Aztec people had such a complicated religious life
was that they inherited a lot of their practises and rituals from conquered peoples. The
Aztec religion also combined elements of polytheism, shamanism and animism. But
the element that makes this religion so complicated is the huge number of different
gods the Aztec people worshipped. They had three main gods, Huitzilopochtli,
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, then followed four creation gods, and then followed
hundreds of lower gods for human activities or aspects of nature. Another element of
religion that shows that the Aztec race was sophisticated is the many sacrifices and
rituals they were involved in. The reason their sacrifices and rituals were so
sophisticated is that they had to satisfy the hundreds of gods they believed in. They
were also practised on a scale not seen anywhere else in the world at the time. These
rituals included cannibalism, human sacrifice, prayer, offerings of food, sports, and
even dramas. As it is shown the Aztec race had a complex religion that was hard to
understand, and also added to the sophistication of the Aztec culture.
P2: Another of the main areas that shows that the Aztec people had a sophisticated
race is the architecture that the Aztec people created. One of the main examples of
this complicated architecture is the planning and construction of the famous city
Tenochtitlan. The reason this great city was so complicated was because it was built
on land and in water. The public buildings and houses of lords and ambassadors were
built on land and the houses of the citizens were built over water. These buildings
weren’t just built randomly their sites were planned and grouped so that it was
unproblematic for every one who lived their and all building plans had to been
approved by calmimilocatl, a functionary in charge of the city planning. The civilian
structure was set out as follows. It was divided into four sections called campans.
These four campans were each divided into 20 smaller districts called calpullis’s. The
calpullis’s were crossed by streets, and held small communities of people. All of the
calpullis’s were divided by channels used for transportation, with wood bridges that
were removed at night. The buildings on land, which were public buildings, included
the main temple, the temple of Quetzalcoatl, the ball game, the tzompantli or rack of
skulls, the temple of the sun, the platforms for the gladiatorial sacrifice, and some
minor temples. There were also two Moctezuma’s, these are our equivalents of zoos.
Moctezuma’s held birds, reptiles and mammals. Even some of the soldiers and
conquistadors who invaded Tenochtitlan were amazed at it complexity, one of them
was Bernal Díaz del Castillo who quotes “These great towns . . . and buildings rising
from the water, all made of stone, seemed like an enchanted vision. . . . Indeed some
of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream”. As you can see the Aztecs
complex architecture is a very good example that shows the Aztec race was very
sophisticated.
P3: The final piece of evidence that shows how sophisticated the Aztec people were
was their nature of lifestyle. The Aztec lifestyle was complicated in that it had a large
and intricate economic structure. This is well shown in the city of Tenochtitlan.
Tenochtitlan had an over-whelming population, that needed support from surrounding
area’s, but for most of its history Tenochtitlan was a self supporting city. It was
estimated that the city had a population of around 200,000 people at its pinnacle It did
this by expanding their agricultural land by the method of chinampa. The chinampa
method of agriculture involves laying flat reeds on the shallow areas of the
surrounding lake, covering it with soil and cultivating it. This method allowed the
Aztec people to support their large population and also to trade this produce to
neighbouring civilisations for produce they couldn’t grow or farm. This also created
jobs for many of the citizens. But they did not only trade produce, a lot of the other
civilians were crafts people, and created both necessary and luxury items to trade with
the neighbouring civilisations. Each calpulli practised a specific craft or trade, such as
ropemaking and pot-making. This produce and goods was either sold in the large
market in the centre of the city, The Spanish estimated that 60,000 people crowded
this huge market. Each calpulli also had their own market where the goods that that
calpulli made were sold. As you can see the Aztecs had an amazing economy that
produced enough goods to support not only it’s own enormous population but was
able to trade a lot of its goods with other civilisations.
Conclusion: Dissimilar to the beliefs of the Spanish, that the Aztec culture was
barbaric and uncivilised, it is evident that it is actually very complex and
sophisticated. This statement is shown through the complexity of their religion, the
cleverness of their architecture in the city of Tenochtitlan and their intricate nature of
lifestyle, with a highly developed economic system.
Sources:
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/meso_america/tenochtitlan.html
www.wikipedia.com
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/AZTECS.HTM