The+Aztec+Empire

Aztec culture is the culture of the people referred to as Aztecs, but since all ethnic groups of central Mexico in the postclassic period shared most basic cultural traits, many of the basic traits of Aztec culture cannot be said to be exclusive for the Aztecs. For the same reason the notion of "[|Aztec Civilization]" is best understood as a particular horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. Among the cultural traits that the Aztecs shared with many other cultures of central Mexico are the agricultural basis of maize cultivation, the basic social organization dividing society into classes of noble commoners, the complex religious beliefs and practices including most of the pantheon, the c alendric system of a [|Xiuhpohualli]of 365 days intercalated with a [|Tonalpohualli] of 260 days. Cultural traits particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the veneration of the Mexica patron God  Huitzilopochtli, the construction of twin pyramids, and the ceramic ware known as Aztec I to III.
 * Aztec Culture.**

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Aztec Empire.
The [|Aztec Empire] was a tribute empire, which extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. It originated in 1427 as a Triple Alliance between the city-states who allied to defeat the Tepanec state of A zcapotzalco, that had previously dominated the [|Basin of Mexico]. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance. The empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. It was never a true territorial empire controlling a territory by large military garrisons in conquered provinces, but rather controlled its client states primarily by installing friendly rulers in conquered cities or constructing marriage alliances between the ruling dynasties, and by extending an imperial ideology to its client states. Client states paid tribute to the Aztec emperor, in an economic strategy limiting communication and trade between outlying polities making them depend on the imperial center for the acquisition of luxury goods. The empire reached its maximal extent in 1519 just prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors led by Cortés who managed to topple the Aztec empire by allying with some of the traditional enemies of the Aztecs, the Nahuatl speaking Tlaxcalteca .

History:
The [|Nahua peoples] began to migrate into [|Mesoamerica] from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated [|central Mexico] as they spread their political influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the complex civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices the foundation for later Aztec culture was laid. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as [|Tula, Hidalgo]. In the 12th century the Nahua power center was in [|Azcapotzalco] , from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico. Around this time the Mexica tribe arrived in central Mexico.
 * ===Migrational period.===

At the time of their arrival, the Valley of Mexico had many city-states, the most powerful of which were [|Culhuacan] to the south and Azcapotzalco to the west. In 1323, the Mexicas were shown a vision of an eagle perched on a prickly bear cactus, eating a snake. This vision indicated that this was the location where they were to build their home. In any event, the Mexicas eventually arrived on a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco where they founded the town of [|Tenochtitlan] in 1325. For the next 50 years, until 1427, the Mexica were a tributary of Azcapotzalco, which had become a regional power, perhaps the most powerful since the Toltecs , centuries earlier. The union of the three city-states was the foundation of the Aztec Triple Alliance <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, which defeated Azcapotzalco in 1428. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The Triple Alliance would, in the next 100 years, come to dominate the Valley of Mexico and extend its power to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific shore. Over this period, Tenochtitlan gradually became the dominant power in the alliance.
 * ===Rise of the Triple Alliance.===

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The empire reached its height during Ahuzotl's reign in 1486–1502. His successor, [|Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin] (better known as Moctezuma II or Moctezuma), had been [|Tlatoani] for 17 years when the Spaniards landed on the Gulf Coast in the spring of 1519. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Despite some early battles between the two, [|Hernan Cortes] allied himself with the Aztecs’ long-time enemy, the Confederacy of Tlaxcala, and arrived at the gates of Tenochtitlan on the 8th of November of 1519. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The Spaniards and their Tlaxcallan allies became increasingly dangerous and unwelcome guests in the capital city. In June, 1520, hostilities broke out, culminating in the massacre in the Main Temple and the death of Moctezuma II. The Spaniards fled the town on July 1, an episode later characterized as [|La Noche Triste] (the Sad Night). After the death of Moctezuma II, the empire fell into the hands of severely weakened emperors. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Despite the decline of the Aztec empire, most of the Mesoamerican cultures were intact after the fall of Tenochtitlan. Indeed, the freedom from Aztec domination may have been considered a positive development by most of the other cultures. The upper classes of the Aztec empire were considered noblemen by the Spaniards and generally treated as such initially. All this changed rapidly and the native population were soon forbidden to study by law, and had the status of minors. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The Tlaxcalans remained loyal to their Spanish friends and were allowed to come on other conquests with Cortés and his men.
 * **Spanish Conquest.**

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">In 1520–1521, an outbreak of [|smallpox] swept through the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city. It is estimated that between 10% and 50% of the population fell victim to this epidemic. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Subsequently, the Valley of Mexico was hit with two more epidemics, smallpox (1545–1548) and [|typhus] (1576–1581). The Spaniards, to consolidate the diminishing population, merged the survivors from small towns in the Valley of Mexico into bigger ones. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The population before the time of the conquest is unknown and hotly contested, but disease is known to have ravaged the region; thus, the indigenous population of the Valley of Mexico is estimated to have declined by more than 80% in the course of about 60 years.
 * ===Colonial period population decline.===

Cultural Patterns:
<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The Aztec Empire was an example of an empire that ruled by indirect means. Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more of a system of tribute than a single system of government. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Although the form of government is often refered to as an empire, most areas within the empire were organized as city-states, known asaltepetl in Nahuatl. These were small polities ruled by a king from a legitimate dynasty. The Early Aztec period was a time of growth and competition among [|Altepetl]. Even after the empire was formed and began its program of expansion through conquest, the altepetl remained the dominant form of organization at the local level. The efficient role of the altepetl as a regional political unit was largely responsible for the success of the empire's hegemonic form of control.
 * ===Government.===

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Tribute was usually paid twice or four times a year at differing times. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 0px; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Archaeological excavations in the Aztec-ruled provinces show that incorporation into the empire had both costs and benefits for provincial peoples. On the positive side, the empire promoted commerce and trade, and exotic goods from [|obsidian] to [|bronze] managed to reach the houses of both commoners and nobles. Trade partners included the enemy [|Tarascan], a source of bronze tools and jewelry. On the negative side, imperial tribute imposed a burden on commoner households, who had to increase their work to pay their share of tribute. Nobles, on the other hand, often made out well under imperial rule because of the indirect nature of imperial organization. The empire had to rely on local kings and nobles and offered them privileges for their help in maintaining order and keeping the tribute flowing.
 * ===Tribute and Trade.===

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The Aztec economy can be divided into a political sector, under the control of nobles and kings, and a commercial sector that operated independently of the political sector. The political sector of the economy focused on the control of land and labor by kings and nobles. Nobles owned all land, and commoners got access to farmland and other fields through a variety of arrangements, from rental through sharecropping to serf-like labor and slavery. These payments supported both the prodigal lifestyles of the high nobility and the finances of city-states. The producers of featherwork, sculptures, jewelry, and other luxury items worked for noble patrons. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Many payments were used by the Aztecs. Small purchases were made with cocoa beans, which had to be imported from lowland areas. In Aztec marketplaces, a small rabbit was worth 30 beans, a turkey egg cost 3 beans, and a [|tamale] cost a single bean. For larger purchases, standardized lengths of cotton cloth, also called <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">quachtli, were used. There were different grades of quachtli, ranging in value from 65 to 300 cocoa beans. Money was used primarily in the many periodic markets that were held in each town. A typical town would have a weekly market (every 5 days), while larger cities held markets every day. Some sellers in the markets were petty vendors; farmers might sell some of their produce, potters sold their vessels, and so on. Other vendors were professional merchants who traveled from market to market seeking profits.
 * ===Economy.===

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Religion was very important to the Aztecs. Veneration of [|Huitzilopochtli], the personification of the sun and of war, was central to the religious, social and political practices of the Mexicas. Huitzilopochtli attained this central position after the founding of Tenochtitlan and the formation of the Mexica city-state society in the 14th century. Prior to this, Huitzilopochtli was associated primarily with hunting, presumably one of the important subsistence activities of the itinerant bands that would eventually become the [|Mexica]. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 0px; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">According to myth, Huitzilopochtli directed the wanderers to found a city on the site where they would see an eagle devouring a snake perched on a fruit-bearing nopal cactus (it was said that Huitzilopochtli killed his nephew, Cópil, and threw his heart on the lake. Huitzilopochtli honoured Cópil by causing a cactus to grow over Cópil's heart). <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">According to their own history, when the Mexicas arrived in the Valley of Mexico <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> around [|Lake Texcoco], the groups living there considered them uncivilized. To the Mexicas, the [|Toltecs] were the originators of all culture. Mexica legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of [|Quetzalcoatl] with the mythical city of [|Tollan], which they also identified with the more ancient [|Teotihuacan].
 * ===Mythology and Religion.===

Social Structures:
<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The highest class was the nobility. Originally this status was not hereditary. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> Later the class system took on hereditary aspects. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The second class were the peasants. An anthropologist <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">estimates that in later stages only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The other 80% of society were warriors, artisans and traders. Eventually, most of the peasants were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city. Slaves<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> also constituted an important class. Aztecs could become slaves because of debts, as a criminal punishment or as war captives. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. However, upon becoming a slave, all of the slave's animals and excess money would go to his purchaser. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they had children or were married to their masters. Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Traveling merchants were a small, but important class as they not only facilitated commerce, but also communicated vital information across the empire and beyond its borders. They were often employed as spies.
 * ===Class Structure.===

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Song and poetry were highly regarded. There were presentations and poetry contests at most of the Aztec festivals. There were also dramatic presentations that included players, musicians and acrobats. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">A remarkable amount of this poetry survives, having been collected during the era of the conquest. In some cases poetry is atributed to individual authors, such as [|Nezahualcoyotl], [|Tlatoani of Texcoco], and [|Cuacuauhtzin], but whether these attributions reflect actual authorship is a matter of opinion. [|Milguel Leon-Portilla], a well-respected Aztec scholar of Mexico, has stated that it is in this poetry where we can find the real thought of the Aztecs, independent of "official" Aztec ideology. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The most important collection of these poems is //Romances de los señores de la Nueva España//, collected (Texcoco 1582), probably by Juan Bautista de Pomar. As all other Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs played a variant of the Mesoamerican ballgame. The game was played with a ball of solid rubber, called an //olli//, whence derives the Spanish word for rubber, //hule//. The players hit the ball with their hips, knees, and elbows and had to pass the ball through a stone ring to automatically win. The practice of the ballgame carried religious and mythological meanings and also served as sport.
 * **Arts.**

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The capital city of the Aztec empire was [|Tenochtitlan], now the site of modern-day Mexico city. Built on a series of islets in [|Lake Texcoco], thecity plan was based on a symmetrical layout that was divided into four city sections. The city was interlaced with canals which were useful for transportation. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Tenochtitlan was built according to a fixed plan and centered on the ritual precinct, where [|the Great Pyramid in Tenochtitlan] rose 50 m (164.04 feet) above the city. Houses were made of wood and loam, roofs were made of reed, although pyramids, temples and palaces were generally made of stone. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Around the island, [|Chinampa] beds were used to grow foods as well as, over time, to increase the size of the island.
 * ===City-building and Architecture.===

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The pre-conquest Aztecs were a society that had four main methods of agriculture. The earliest, most basic form of agriculture implemented by the Aztecs is known as “rainfall cultivation.” The Aztecs also implemented terrace agriculture in hilly areas, or areas that could not be used for level ground farming. In the valleys, irrigation farming was used. Dams diverted water from natural springs to the fields. This allowed for harvests on a regular basis. The Aztecs built canal systems that were longer and much more elaborate than previous irrigation systems. They managed to divert a large portion of the <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Cuauhtitlan River to provide irrigation to large areas of fields. The network of canals was a very complex and intricate system. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">In the swampy regions along [|Lake Xochimilco], the Aztecs implemented yet another method of crop cultivation. They built chinampas. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">The Aztecs are credited with domestication of the subspecies of wild turkey, [|Meleagris Gallopavo], which is native to this region. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">While most of the farming occurred outside the densely populated areas, within the cities there was another method of (small scale) farming. Each family had their own garden plot where they grew maize, fruits, herbs, medicines and other important plants. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18pt; margin: 4.8pt 0cm 6pt;">Of the various crops grown by the Aztecs, maize was the most important. Aztec diets centered on it. Maize was grown across the entire empire, in the highland terraces, valley farms and also on the chinampas. Women ground maize into a coarse meal by rubbing it with a grinding stone called a mano against a flat stone called a metate. The Aztecs made tortillas from the corn meal. Other crops that the Aztecs relied upon were avocados, beans, squashes,sweet potatoes, tomatoes,chia, amaranth and chilies. These crops were also grown everywhere. Crops that were specific to the lowland regions were cotton, fruits, cocoa beans and rubber trees.
 * ===Agriculture.===

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