The Amazing Aztecs

Who were the Aztecs? The Aztecs were rich and powerful people from the valley of Mexico. They were farmers, warriors, traders, engineers, artists and sculptures. They originally lived in the desert lands of northern Mexico. Huitzilopochtli, one of the gods of the Aztecs commanded the people to travel south and to look for an eagle perched on a cactus. This is where they should settle and build a great city.

Settling Down In 1325 the Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico. It was a wide plain with rich soil, lots of water and a mild climate. Main thousands of people already lived there in large cities. The only unoccupied land was a swampy island in Lake Texoco. They saw the eagle and called their home Tenochtitlan. They transformed the island into a great city.

The Physical Landscape Mountains were more than a physical landscape. The Aztecs saw a mountain as a sacred site that brought people physically closer to the Gods. Temples that Aztecs build were pyramids in the shape of mountains. The mountains surrounded Tenochtitlan gave the Aztecs a sense of security – they protected the city from attack by invaders. Steep mountains caused flash floods from rainstorms in low areas.

Tenochtitlan

The Physical Landscape In 1500, Aztec engineers built an earthen dam across the lake to the east of the city. This helped control the water levels. The mountains kept out the clouds which often brought rain. The Aztecs built aqueducts to ensure they had water – even in times of drought.

Earthen Dam

Then they built causeways and bridges to connect the city to the mainland.

Aztec Aqueducts

The water of the lake was too salty to drink. The solution was to bring in freshwater from the springs that flowed on the mainland. An aqueduct was built from the mainland. It was five kilometres long and 1.5 metres wide

An Island Home Lake Texcoco surrounded Tenochtitlan and provided safety from enemies. The Aztecs built three causeways linking the island to the mainland. Bridges that connected the causeways could be destroyed to protect the city from invaders. The Aztecs grew from a few thousand into several hundred thousand people. They became amazing plant cultivators who grew more than enough food to support the growing population and the Aztec army.

Chinampa The Aztecs made the swampy, shallow lake into chinampas (floating islands). They drove stakes into the lakebed in a rectangular shape. The builders then laid reed mats with stakes and piled soil on top. They repeated the process until they had made a thick sandwich of mud and mats rising above the water’s surface.

Chinampa In order to prevent the roots from being water- logged, the chinampa plot was above the lake level. A narrow canal for the passage of canoes would be left in between these two chinampa plots. To further stabilise these plots of land, willows were planted around the perimeter. As for fertilisers, the Aztecs used human excrement collected in canoes from the city of Tenochtitlan.

Chinampa Once the chinampa was in place, farmers planted vegetables, flowers and medicinal herbs. Each chinampa had to be small and productive because they had no beasts of burden or plows. All labour was done by hand using simple tools. Farmers used canoes to travel to their crops.

The chinampa they built enlarged the original island on which Tenochtitlan was situated. There was a series of five lakes. There was no river for water to flow out of the lakes. The lakes had become salty due to water evaporation. Changing the Geography

The Aztecs believed that their gods controlled every thing in their world. Some of their gods were more important than others. They looked to their gods for signs on how to live. The Aztecs kept large libraries of codices (books) in which they recorded information about their society. Codices only contained images not an alphabet. The Spanish destroyed almost all of the Aztec codices. The Sacred Landscape

Aztec Codex

The Aztec calendar showed the close connection between the gods and human beings. The Aztecs had two calendars: a sacred calendar and a solar calendar. The sacred calendar was 260 days long. It took the sacred calendar 52 years to catch up with the solar calendar. The great stone calendar was dedicated to Huitzilopochtili and it shows how the world began and how it will end. The Aztec Calendar

The Aztecs believed that there had been four eras before the present one and each had been destroyed. According to legends, the first era was destroyed by jaguars, the second by hurricanes, the third by fiery rain and the fourth by a flood. Legend states that the fifth era will be destroyed by earthquakes. The Aztec Calendar

Human Sacrifice The Aztecs believed that their gods had to be fed with human hearts and blood. This was nourishment. Killing another person as a sacrifice was the strongest expression of their devotion to the gods. Without the victim’s blood the god would grow sick and die. If the gods were not fed, the Aztecs believed that the world would end.

Human Sacrifice War was important to the Aztecs because they could capture new victims for sacrifice. The “New Fire” ceremony took place every 52 years. The people waited on the roof tops to see the sacred flame lighting. A courier carried the flame from house to house to relight the flame.

The Centre of the World The Aztecs believed the Earth was a round, flat disc divided into four sections. In the middle, where the sections meet (like pieces of pie) was Tenochtitlan. They believed that the gods had assigned them a special location in the universe. The city was divided into four sections – the four directions. In the middle was a large square where temples and the Great Temple at the very centre. Tenochtitlan was a model of the world.

The Centre of the World The Aztecs believed that gods lived in the sky and other places. Aztec priests sometimes built temples on mountaintops where the physical and spiritual worlds met. As city-dwelling people, the Aztecs created sacred places inside their cities. Most were built in a pyramid shape to represent a sacred mountain.

Expanding Through Trade The Aztecs formed trading and defensive partners with the people around them The Aztecs were both: traders and warriors. The city was high in the mountains. The Aztecs could not produce tropical fruits (avocados, papayas, and cacao) which grew in the rainforests on the coasts. Tropical birds (with brightly coloured feathers) did not grow well in the city. The cities did not deposits of gold or silver. They traded with others to get the goods they needed or wanted.

Expanding Through Trade They had to trade with other cultures. Aztec merchants took hundreds of slaves to carry the goods they bought on trading expeditions. They were often gone for months to trade for goods in remote areas of the empire. The merchants acted as spies for the army. They drew maps to show which cities were strong and which were easy to conquer. The maps and reports help Aztec leaders to expand the empire.

Expanding Through War The Aztecs believed that their society was more important than the individuals within it. Every Aztec was prepared to sacrifice his/her own life for the good of the group. New born babies were given bows and arrows and children were brought up to fight. The law required every young man to serve in the army.

Expanding Through War The worst Aztec insult was to call someone a coward. When boys were 18, they took place in their first battle. Once they had captured their first prisoner, they became a warrior. The main weapon for the Aztec soldier was a war club made from a heavy wood (like mahogany) and edged with blades of obsidian.

What is Tribute? No, it is not the Hunger Games! Once the Aztecs conquered another group, they began to collect tribute, or valuable gifts and taxes from the conquered group. They kept careful records of the tribute they collected. They collected cotton blankets, feathered headdresses, shields, strings of jade beads, and cocoa beans. Cocoa beans were important because they made a special drink from them including hot chilli peppers and cornmeal. Cocoa beans were used for currency. They believed the drink gave them wisdom and power.

Aztec Gods Chalchiuhtlicue – goddess of the lakes and streams Chantico – goddess of the hearth Chicomecoatl – goddess of maize Coatlicue – goddess for the pain of life Huehuetectim - god of fire Huitzilopochtli – god of war, sun and the nation Mictlantecuhtl – god of the dead Quetzalcoatl - god of knowledge, creation, priesthood, and wind Tezcatlipoca – god of magic, war and death Tezcatlipoca – god of speech and language Tlaloc – god of rain Tloque Nahuaque - Lord of everywhere, the one supreme force, bothmale and female Xipe Totec – god of spring and new life, god of suffering Xochipilli - prince of flowers, god of dawn, dance and love