Mesoamerica and the Aztec Civilization
Henry Lesperance Alvarez
2
The Toltec 900 A.D. to 1200 A.D.
7
The Aztec 1300 A.D. to 1521 A.D.
The Aztec Migration
The official Aztec histories claimed that they had come from a
place called “Aztlan” (meaning “Land of White Herons”).
Codex Boturini
Aztlan
• Supposedly was an
island in a lake in the
west or northwest of
Mexico, and thus called
themselves the
“Azteca.” (Meaning
people from Aztlan)
Aztlan for Chicanos
• Some Chicanos
argue that Aztlan
was located in what
today is the United
States southwestern
region.
The Aztec Migration
• One Tradition says that they began their
migration toward central Mexico in AD
IIII, led by their tribal deity Huitzilopochtli
(Hummingbird on the Left). Along the
route of march, Huitzilopochtli gave
them a name, the Mexica, which they
were to bear until conquest.
Codex Mendoza
Folio 2 of the
Codex Mendoza
illustrates the
legendary
foundation of
Tenochtitlan in
1325, with the
eagle perched
on a cactus at
the center,
surrounded by
ten early Aztec
Chiefs.
Escudo Nacional Mexicano
Tenochtitlan
• Between 1325 and 1345,
the Azteca founded their
capital of Tenochtitlan on
the island in lake Texcoco.
Tenochtitlan
Lake Texcoco
• The last barbaric
tribe to arrive in the
Valley of Mexico, the
“people whose face
nobody knows.”
The Island City
• After Hernan Cortez first approached the island capital of
Tenochtitlan on the 8th of November of 1511 he wrote:
“During the morning, we arrived at a broad causeway and
contined to march towards Iztapalapa, and when we saw so
many cities and villages built in the water and other great
towns on dry land and that straight and level Causeway
going towards Mexico, we were amazed and said that it was
like the enchantments they tell of in the legend of Amadis, on
account of the great towers and temples and buildings rising
from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our
soldiers asked whether the things that we saw were not a
dream.”
Aztec Farming
• They farmed on raised fields, or
chinampas, created by piling earth over
the natural growing surface, as a way of
reclaiming swampland for cultivation.
By Diego Rivera
• The Aztec had a well-defined literature, some
of which has been preserved through oral
testimony. Much of this tradition has also
been conserved in codices, which consist of a
combination of pictographs and ideographs.
Religious and cosmological themes dominate
the codices.
Division of Labor in Aztec Society
Codice Mendoza
• Nations which had fallen to Aztec arms were speedily
organized as tribute-paying provinces of the empire.
• Confined to their
own communities,
Indians were under
the Aztec and Inca
empire, obligate to
pay tributeincluding forced
labor to their new
rulers.
Codex Mendoza
• Cuatequil-the Nahuatl name for system
employed by the Aztecs to extract labor.
Under this system each adult male
Indian had to contribute about forty-five
days of labor a year.
• Mita-was a similar system used by the
Incas.
Codex Mendoza
Codex Mendoza
Tezcatlipoca
Quetzalcoatl
Mixcoatl
Aztec Sacrifice
• Human sacrifice and war were
interwoven as part of the Azteca
religious practice. The Aztec rationale
for human sacrifice was a cosmic view
that encompassed the demands of their
god Huitziloposchtli, lord of the sun and
god of war.
Huitzilopochtli
Codex Florentino
Codex Borgia