Everything you wanted to know about the Aztecs

1st Essay Sample on Aztecs

The Aztec Indians, who were known for their domination of Southern and Central Mexico, ruled between the 14th and 16th centuries. The ancestors of the mighty Aztecs migrated for many years before settling sometime in the 13th century in the Valley of Mexico where the Empire later existed. The Aztecs were formed after the Toltec civilization occurred when hundreds of civilians moved towards Lake Texcoco. In the 1320’s the Aztecs had established their capital city Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City).

Soon after thisfirst city was built, temples and other structures and statues came shortly after.

The center of the Aztec civilization was the Valley of Mexico, which placed them at about 7.5 thousand feet above sea level, which provided them with a very reasonable climate in spite of being in the tropics. Even though their Empire was placed so high above sea level, the area had many marshes by Lake Texcoco, which made farming somewhat difficult. Families in these swamplands had only one piece of land to farm on, but they made useful chinapas.

Chinapas were little islands formed by piled up mounds of mud. On these mounds the Aztecs grew corn, beans, various chili peppers, avocados, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, and tobacco.

The Aztecs overcame their disadvantages and built their famous Empire. The Aztecs believe that the Empire was partially created by a deeply believed ancient legend. The legend stated that the Aztec people would create an Empire in a swampy place where they would see an eagle eating a snake while perched on a high cactus which was growing out of the rocks in the swamplands.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified

Proficient in: Culture

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

This is what the priests claimed they saw while entering the new land soon to be called Tenochtitlan, which means “The Land of Cactus”. In the Aztec religion, numerous gods and goddesses were worshiped.

Tenochtitlan, the capital city, was covered in giant religious statues in order to pay respect to these gods.

2nd Essay Sample on Aztecs

The Aztecs lived in the high central plateau among great mountain chains. This area is the valley of Mexico. There had been many previous cultures in Mexico: Olmecs, Toltecs, Totonacs, Zapotecs, Mixtecs and to the South and East there were the Maya. Each had its own sphere of influence. When the Aztecs arrived they found many growing city-states throughout Mexico.

The Aztecs reached Mexico in 1519.The Tenochca built small huts made of mud and wattle. Inside the houses, or huts, there were very little furniture. The people sat on mats on the earthen floor. They rolled the mats out for the night and covered themselves with a mantle.In one corner of the one-roomed house, there was a small fire pit. There, the mother of the house made two meals per day for her family.

One meal early in the morning before the men went out to work in the cornfields, and another meal when they came home. The rich peoples’ houses were made of dried brick called adobe.The Aztec Indians ate very many different kinds of foods. They ate avocados, chili, chocolate, fowl (chicken, pheasant, partridge, etc.), frijoles (ground beans), fruit, and mole (crushed peppers). Octli is a man’s drink only. Octli made a good drink during feasts.

Pinole is a mixture of ground cornmeal and water. Pinole is a women and children’s drink only. They also ate seafood, tomatoes, tortillas, corn and vegetables.The Aztecs farmed corn, beans, squash, peppers, tomatoes, sunflowers and tobacco. They hunted turkey, pheasant, duck, deer, wild pig and rabbits. Rabbits and ducks were also bred for food.

Bees were kept for honey. Peasant women made family clothing using a rough colorless cloth made from the Agave plant. Peasant men wore a white cloak tied over the right shoulder called a tilmantli. The peasant women wore ankle length skirts and blouses.

3rd Essay Sample on Aztecs

The Aztecs were a great empire in Mexico during the 1400’s and early 1500’s.They were one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas. They built many great cities, the biggest being tenochitian.This city lies within the borders of what is now Mexico.The Aztecs Accomplished many artistic achievments. The Aztecs were ruled by an emperor. Military units were put in spots around the empire to secure its safety. Many of the top positions of government were hereditary and ruled by family members, but if a citizen was to serve the empire in a special way, he could obtain a high office job.

The Aztecs accomplished many goals during their time.They erected many great cities, They also practiced a remarkable religion that had influence on many other of the Aztec people. They built huge temples, and performed human sacrifices to worship their god. They had a remarkable imagination, and made many sculptures and paintings. By early 1400’s Tenochtitlan had rose to become a powerful city, which controlled the region around it, forming a kind of city-state. This city and two others, Texcoco and Tlacopan, formed an alliance.

Tenochtitan began to build what became the Aztec empire. Then a man by the name of Montezuma I came to power and the civilization was at the highest of its power. In 1519 a Spanish explorer and his troops came in on the Mexican coast and marched into Tenochtitan and took it over. From there, the whole empire fell, because tenochtitan was the main city in the Aztec empire, and with out it, the Aztecs were powerless.

4th Essay Sample on Aztecs

The Aztecs were Indian people who lived in Central and Southern Mexico. They lived from the 14th to the 16th century. They made a huge empire based on conquest, paying tribute, and religious sacrifice of humans and animals. This is a map of the Aztec Empire by Larry B. The Aztecs made terraces, which were steps descending down a hall to control the flow of water.

This kept their crops from flooding. Like the Olmec civilization, the Aztecs also used a slash and burn method of farming. Chinampas, artificial islands made by weacing giant reed mats and covering them with muded and plants, were used to extend crops into the swamp. Although they seemed to float, the chinampas were anchored to the ground by plant roots. All this helped the Aztecs grow and abundance of corn, chili peppers, squash, tomatoes, beans, and other kinds of food.

The Aztecs were late arrivals to the Lake Texcoco area. They were surrounded by very strong neighbors, so they were forced to live on the swampy, western side of the lake. As the Aztecs grew in number they made excellent military and civil organizations. By 1325, they founded the city of Tenochtitlan. The city was located on present day Mexico City.

It was very hard to build Tenochtitlan because the Aztecs only had a small piece of land in the surrounding marshes. The Aztecs made the swampy, shallow lake into chinampas. In this case the islands were made by piling up mud from the lake bottom. They used them as their city foundations. Then they built causeways and bridges to connect the city to the mainland.

To easily move people and goods, canals were dug and lined with stone. All this made it easy to defent the city from attack. Because of Tenochtitlan’s location and high organization, the city grew rapidly. By 1519 there were about 60,000 people in the city every day. Goods were exported and traded in many other parts of the Aztec Empire.

5th Essay Sample on Aztecs

The Aztecs were a wondering tribe who came to the Valley of Mexico in the twelfth century.A legend tells the story that they once lived on an island called Aztlan.One day, in a cave they found a statue of their god Huitzilopochtli.The statue told them to find a new place to live and promised that they would be the ruler of a great empire.Their god promised he would give them a sign, to show them where to build their city.An eagle sitting on a cactus was their sign. The Aztecs used clothing and jewelry to show their importance and rank.There were very strict rules about what people could wear.By the age of four, all Aztec boys wore a loincloth.A loincloth is a strip of cloth tied around the waist and between the legs.Poor Aztecs were only allowed to wear white loincloths with a plain cloak tied around their shoulders.Wealthy warriors wore patterned loincloths with fringes or embroidery on them.They would dye their cloaks bright colors and some even had jewels, gold thread, or feathers woven into them.Very, very important men wore several cloaks at the same time. All Aztec boys go to school when they are about eight years old.There were two different kinds of schools, the clan schools and the nobles’ schools.At the clan schools, most of the teachers were skilled warriors, and weapon training was the most important part of school life.The boys practiced with wooden weapons and went into real battles to help the older warriors get better.The schools also taught history and crafts.All of the teachings were learned by heart, and the students were not taught how to read or write.Some things the boys had to do were: they had to keep the school clean, carry out repairs, cut fire wood, and keep the temple fires burning.Also, to make them tougher they were made to sleep in cold rooms with hardly any covering.

6th Essay Sample on Aztecs

Once the Aztecs founded Tenochitlan in 1325 in Anahuac on a lake, they also started to absorb a culture. The Aztecs lacked a historical tradition of their own so they began to consider themselves descendants of the Toltecs and adopted their history. Along with the history of the Toltecs came the belief that Quetzalcoatl was the creator of man. Quetzalcoatl’s name meant “giver of life”. He taught the Aztecs the necessary arts and trades for the land.

Another god named Huitzilopochtli whose name meant “god of war” and “protector of the tribe” constantly demanded human sacrifices in his honor. The Aztecs conquered the Toltecs in the final “War of the Flower” and made them slaves and human sacrifices to the Gods. The Aztecs would continually make sacrifices to the Gods because they believed that there were five sons four of which had already been destroyed, and in order to keep the last one living they needed to make human sacrifices to repay the Gods who had created them. The Aztecs were known to be great artists and sculptors. In fact their sculptures have influenced artists in modern day history.

The sculptors made masks to suit the dead on their way to “paradise” in order to hide them from the demons and devil of the underworld. According to a myth of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl had once made the gods of the underworld envious. So the demons, altering their image, came to Quetzalcoatl and showed him his reflection in a mirror. He noticed he possessed a human face. Now horrified by this image he left Tenochitlan thinking he had a human destiny and may not in fact be immortal.

Quetzalcoatl promised to one day return. On the same date that Quetzalcoatl was said to return a famous conqueror landed on the coast of Yucatan with 16 horses and 508 and soldiers.

7th Essay Sample on Aztecs

Around 1168 AD, a Nahua tribe called the Aztecs left their mysterious homeland known as Aztlán and migrated south to Central Valley. Atfirst the Aztecs were practically enslaved by the other Nahua tribe, but they continued to struggle for power. By the 1300’s the Aztecs had founded two different settlements on Islands in lakes. These places are known as Tlaltetalco and Tenochtitl;n. By the 15th century Tenochtitl;n was the center of the Aztec world.

By the 16th century Tenochtitl;n dominated all the other cities in Central Valley. The middle of the Aztec Empire was near the Lerma River. This plateau is made up of five different sections; the volcanic axis lies across the southern part of the plateau. This area still has active volcanoes; they receive a lot of rain and have fertile soil. The bajio is located just north of the volcanic axis; it has an average elevation of 7,000 feet.

This is where the Aztec capital Tenochtitl;n was located. Accounting for more than half of the plateau is the Mesa Del notre. The Mesa Del notre has an average elevation of 9,000 feet.Along the western ridge of the plateau is the Sierra Madre Occidental. The Sierra Madre Occidental is a long mountain chain that protected the Aztecs from outside invaders. Along the eastern side of the plateau is the Sierra Madre Oriental.

The Aztec capital receives anywhere between 30 – 50 cm. Temperatures range from 10 – 15 degrees centigrade in winter, to 20 – 25 degrees centigrade in summer. Aztec society was divided into three classes, the slaves, the common people, and the nobility. The Slave class was mostly made up of criminals and POW’s. Slaves could obtain freedom in two ways.

Thefirst was to buy it. The second way was to try to escape from their masters. If they reached the royal palace without being caught, they were immediately given their freedom.