By Manasi Shah
 Lived
in Northern Mexico
in Tenochtitlan, an island
in Lake Texcoco
• Modern day Mexico City
 Called
themselves the Mexica
 Lived in a warm climate with lots of water
available
 Had a relatively large empire which was
only surpassed by the Incas
 Spoke Nahuatl
 Groups
of families were called calpulli and
they owned land together
• The leader of a calpulli would make decisions for the
group
 Nobility
and the priests had a lot of power
 In cities, all of the calpulli leaders would
come together and form the city council
 Nomadic until they settled down
 No real form of money
 Horticultural
 Believed
to have originally lived in Aztlan
which was somewhere in northern Mexico
• This may be myth because they cannot actually find
Aztlan
 Moved
around a lot because of wars with
other native groups, but finally settled in
what is now Tenochtitlan (one of three major
city councils that became known as the
triple alliance)
 In 1519 Spanish traveler, Hernan Cortes,
reaches Mexico. By the end of the year he is
headed towards Tenochtitlan
 The
leader at the time, Montezuma II
assumes Cortes is Qeutzalcoatl, an Aztec
God, so he welcomes him
 Cortes tries to convert the Aztecs to
Christianity and is repulsed by their
practice of sacrifice
 Cortes realizes that his people might still
be in danger so he plans to take the
emperor out of power
He
has him kidnapped
and then manages to
take control of the empire
Cortes has to go back to
Cuba and while he is there, his
people lose control for a while
When he returns they regain power
and eventually take down the Aztec
civilization.
 Polytheistic
 Had many agricultural
gods
because their life was mostly
based on farming
 Had a hierarchy of gods with
3 main gods, 4 gods below
them, and then hundreds below them
 i.e. god of rain, god of growth, the sun
god, etc.
 Warriors were honorable and believed to
become stars in the night sky after they
died. Other people could become almost
anything
 Believed
that the gods sacrificed
themselves to become the Sun, Earth, wind,
etc.
 Made human sacrifices because they
believed that human blood was the gods’
diet
 Bloodletting was common
 People of a higher status were
expected to give more blood
 Hearts were also good believed
to be good nourishment.
Whoever was the bravest at war had the
strongest heart and would be taken to a
temple to be sacrificed.
 Polygyny
was permitted
 The dead were cremated
 Men got married in their early 20s,
women in their teens
 Marriage was a rite of passage into
adulthood and independence
 It was believed that babies were trapped
in their mothers’ wombs so when they
were born religious leaders read hymns
 It was also common to have someone
study the child’s astrology
 Introduced
popcorn, chocolate, and
chewing gum to the Europeans
 “Physicians” were curious about the
body and medical research
 One of the first to have a system, of roads
built
 Their culture did not spread, but many of
their inventions did. A lot of the food we
eat today was introduced to Europeans
through the Aztecs and Mayans
 Merchants were called pochtecas
• They kept to themselves and lived in a separate
part of the city
• Served as spies when they traveled to nearby
lands
• A class below nobles but above common
farmers
 Traded
golden jewelry, feather caps,
tortoise shell cups, spices, cocoa beans,
cotton, rubber, etc.
 No real money, cocoa beans were valued
so they were often used for trade
 Did not interact with other civilizations
except for trade or during war
 Didn’t
have plows or vehicles for
transportation
 Used mostly crops, plants, and water as
resources
 Clothing was colorful
 Cloth was made form
twisting cotton and fibers
on a stick and then put
on a spindle to make threads
 Men wore capes and loincloths, women
wore dresses
System
of writing similar to the
Mayans
Books were folded like a fan and
were called codices
Some famous codices include
the Paris Codex, Dresden Codex,
and Madrid Codex
 Education
in the early years was the
responsibilty of the parents
 One of the first to make education
mandatory for everyone
• Children had to attend school until age 15
 Music
was an important subject in
school
 Many songs were sacred hymns which
told stories of things the Gods had
done
 Relied mostly on crops
 Maize (corn) was a common
ingredient
• It was used to make tortillas, bread,
tamales, and even some drinks
 Domesticated
a lot of
animals such as turkeys
for meat and bees for honey
 Hunted and fished to get food
 Chocolate, especially cocoa
beans, were highly valued
 Did not eat chicken
 Most
art depicted Aztec
gods and much of it was
used in worship
 Variety of pottery, sculptures,
and reliefs of gods were made
 Used pictographs representing
objects or sounds, as symbols
 Masks and warrior art was made to
honor Aztec gods or important Aztec
leaders
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