Mexicas-Aztecs-cc

The Aztecs By Conor H. Curtin

Introduction During the time that Europe was under going its “Renaissance” there was another great culture undergoing change and it was not in Europe. These changes took place in a part of the world that was almost unknown to the people in Europe, the place was Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica is the combined territory of bolth Centeral and South America. Among the many indian tribes that inhabit these regions the Aztec are one of the most well known. The history of this facinating tribe is one that shows the rise and fall of one of the most interesting, and at one point the most powerful, peoples in the Americas in their time. It is also the story of where a people can take themselves if only given the right opprotunity.

Region The people known as the Aztec inhabited the region that we now know as Centeral America, in the country now known as Mexico. A land of river valleys and lakes that was not well suited to farming(wes.edu). The people that we would call the Aztecs came into that Valley of Mexeco around 1248 and set up shop. For about the next 90 years thay remained a nomadic people known as the Chichimec or the wild people(wes.edu). Then around the year 1325 an official capital was formed and it was called Tenochtitlan. This city was on an island in the middle of a lake now known as Lake of Texcoco. This lake has since been drained and the area around the anchient city has grown into Mexieo City, the largest city in the world today interms of its population(wikipedia.org).

History The people that we call the Aztecs first arrived on the scene in 1168 where they lived as a small people on the banks of a lake north of the Valley of Mexieo. In their religion the people where commanded by their god called Huitzilopochtli who told the people to go south. It was this journey that took the fleeing people into the Valley of Mexeco in the year was 1248. It was around this time that the people, now known as the Toltec ended their wonderings and settled and started the culture that we today call the Aztecs. The Toltec did well initialy, but soon ran into difficulty with other tribes over their practicies of human sacrifice. In time the surrounding tribes revolteded and crushed the Toltec people who were scattered to the winds. Some of the tribsmen who remained gathered on a island in the middle of a lake. This town soon had a name, Tenochtitlan. True building of the city began in around the year 1300en(wsu.edu). Soon after the founding of the city the power of the Toltec began to grow. Finaly they won their indepedence from the surrounding tribes in 1440. This victory led to great expansion in the city including the building of temples and roads. The already strong military grew even strogner. It was in this time that the powerful chief Mocteuzma began his conquests of the surrounding area. It was these conquests that led to the greatest expansion of the population(wsu.edu). Their were also many great scientific and mathimetical advanses made in this time as well as the many great buildings and monuments that where constructed. All was going relativily well for the Toltec people until 1519 when a frource of coquering spaniards led by a man named Cortez arived in the Ameraricas. And so the destruction of the Toltec empire begame under the Spanish assault. This was no regular army on a mission from Spian. Cortez actually had ented Mexico against his orders. He is perhaps most famous for the burning of his ships when he reached the New World. It is said that he did this so that for his men their would be no turning back. In the begining that Cortez won the respect of many of the Toltecs because of his cloce resemblance to one of the Toltec gods. However the Toltec soon found that thay where wrong where Cortez began his burtal and bloody campaign. In 1524 the Spanish would capture the current king of the Toltecs, Mocteuzma. He would be killed and it was soon after his death that the great city of Tenochtitlan would fall. After that it would not be long before the wonce grate Toltec empire would fall, leaving us only ruins as a sign of its grest power(wsu.edu).

Economy In the begining when the city of Tenochtitlan was just a small vilage it was able to sustain itself. But after the vilage became a city the inhabidents where forced it find a new way to support themselves. In the end thae turned to the surrounding areas for the resources to support thier growing empire. The city became probably the largest and perhaps the first true urban enter in the Americas with at one time 100,000 to 300,000 inhabetents going out into the fields to work(wsu.edu). It is need less to say that the great size of the city was in the end one of the greatest weekness as its size made it almost imposable to sastain in the face of dwindleing resourses.

Religion The religion in one of the thing that the Aztecs and the Toltec are most famous for then anything else and that is the practice of human sacrifice. It is true that this was a big part of the religion, but there where also many other facets of the Toltec religion including the worship of idle gods. It was said that in one day at the Pyramid of Tenochtitlan 84,000 prisoners where sacrificed, but this number is disputed. There is one thing that is very much undisputed and that is the evidence that much of the Toltec culture revolved around this now legendary practis. All in all it is their religion that in some ways is perhapsthe one of the thing that we today associate the most with this legendary people(wikipedia.org).

Work Cited unknow-en.wikipedia.org-11/28/06 unknow-www.ancientmexico.com-11/28/06 unknow-www.wsu.edu-11/30/06

Image Work Cited 1 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztecs 3 www.tqnyc.org/NYC051314/ tenochtitlanandmap.GIF 2 edstravel.tripod.com/ 4 jlbc193.tripod.com/.../ humansacrifice.gif