Aztecs

1. Aztecs Meghan, Patricia, and Chad

2. Basic Knowledge The Aztec empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan, which extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. It originated in 1427 as a triple alliance between the city-states Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan who allied to defeat the Tepanec state of Azcapotzalco, that had previously dominated the Basin of Mexico.

3. Location The Aztecs were settled in Mexico and part of Guatemala. Their capital city was Tenochtitlan, which was in a swampy area in Lake Texcoco, but the turned it into a magnificent city. Tenochtitlan is now Mexico City.

4. Foundation Of The Empire • 6th Century First Nahuatl speaking peoples begin to settle in Mexico • 1110 The Mexica travel from their northern homeland of Aztlan. These early dates, and the existence and location of Aztlan are hotly debated. • 1110-1248 The Mexica roam the area which is now Mexico, trying to find a location in which to settle • 1248Mexicasettle near Lake Texcoco, in Chapultepec, though they are soon expelled by the Tepanecs • 1299Mexicasettle in Tizapan, by permission of the Culhuacan ruler Cocoxtli. • 1325Tenochtitlánis settled by the Mexica

5. Building an Empire • 1350 Building of causeways with canals • 1370 Death of Tenoch, religious ruler of the Mexica • 1376-1395 The first king* of Tenochtitlán, Acamapichitli, rules • 1390 Original construction of Templo Mayor beings in Tenochtitlán • 1395-1417 The second king of Tenochtitlán, Huitzilihuitzli, rules. An alliance with the Tepaneca is created. • 1417-1427 The third king, Chimalpopoca, has his relatively short reign. He is assasinated by the Tepaneca.

6. Building an Empire • 1427-1430 War with the Tepaneca. Up to this point the Tepaneca had been dominant in central Mexico, ruling from Azcapotzalco and taking tribute from the Mexica. • 1430 Azcapotzalco conquered • 1431 Establishment of the Triple Alliance between the Mexica, the Acolhua in the city Texcoco and the Tepaneca of Tlacopan. These cities became the foundation of the empire. • 1427-1440 Tenochtitlán's fourth king, Itzcoatl, reigns • 1452 Tenochtitlán severely damaged by flooding • 1452-1454 Famine in Tenochtitlán

7. Height of the Empire • 1440-1469 Reign of the fifth king, Moctezuma I, who is also referred to as Montezuma I • 1469-1481 Tenochtitlán'ssixth king, Azayactl, reigns • 1481-1486 Reign of Tizoc, the seventh king of Tenochtitlán • 1486-1502 Rule of Ahuitzotl, eighth king of the city • 1487 Dedication of Great Temple (Templo Mayor) at Tenochtitlán. This was the 6th version of the temple. • 1492 (Christopher Columbus's landing at Santa Domingo) • 1502-1520 Reign of Moctezuma II, or Montezuma II, most famous of the Aztec kings and ninth king of Tenochtitlán • 1510 Severe floods in Tenochtitlán

8. The Fall of the Empire • 1517 The appearance of a comet, believed to signify impending doom • 1519 4 March Landing of Hernan Cortes on the Yucatan penninsula • 1519 8 Nov Cortes arrives in Tenochtitlán • 1520 Cortes allies with Tlaxcala, enemies of the Aztec, assault on the empire begins. On the 1st of July, the Spanish forces were driven back. The Spanish and their native allies suffered heavy losses. (This is known as la NocheTriste - The Sad Night) • 1520 Rule of Cuitahuac, tenth king of Tenochtitlán • 1520 Cuitahuac dies from the first smallpox epidemic to hit the empire. Rule of Cuauhetemoc, eleventh and last king of the city. • 1521 13 Aug Fall of Tenochtitlán. Cuauhetemoc surrenders to Cortes, destruction of the city • 1522 Rebuilding of the city by the Spanish as Mexico City, capital of New Spain • 1525 Cuauhetemoc is hung by the Spaniards

9. Leaders 1. Acamapichtli 2. Huitzilihuitl 3. Chimalpopoca 4. Itzcoatl 5. Moctezumailhuicamina 6. Axayacatl 7. Tizoc 8. Ahuitzotl 9. MoctezumaXocoyotzin 10. Cuithahuac 11. Cuautemoc

10. Government After the family, the basic unit of ancient Aztec government was the calpulli. Families didn't individually own land, the land was owned by a group of families, the calpulli. This structure of local government existed long before the Aztec empire. The leadership in the calpulli would be responsible for the basic needs of the group. They would set up the telpochalli, a school for common citizens. They were also responsible to make sure taxes were collected from the group.

11. Economy • 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 centered 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 from commoners to nobles supported both the lavish lifestyles of the high nobility and the finances of city-states. Many luxury goods were produced for consumption by nobles. The producers of feather work, sculptures, jewelry, and other luxury items were full-time commoner specialists who worked for noble patrons.

12. Transportation • The main contribution of the Aztec rule was a system of communications between the conquered cities. In Mesoamerica, without draft animals for transport (nor, as a result, wheeled vehicles), the roads were designed for travel on foot. Usually these roads were maintained through tribute, and travelers had places to rest and eat and even latrines to use at regular intervals, roughly every 10 to 15 kilometres. Couriers were constantly travelling along those ways, keeping the Aztecs informed of events, and helping to monitor the integrity of the roads.

13. Achievements They had an accurate calendar, hospitals, advanced medicine and surgery. They also had temples and pyramids, advanced agriculture and a huge empire that had millions of people. They also invented an ancient ball game similar to basketball and ,astronomy, math, and writing.

14. Lifestyle • The Aztec daily life was quite simple. • The husband was primarily responsible for supporting the family and the wife’s role was to provide the family with clothing and food. • The female Aztec life, on the other hand, mainly consisted of weaving and cooking. Most Aztec households included the husband and wife and their unmarried children. • The Aztec daily life was filled with work.

15. ~Food~ • Maize, a type of corn, was the Aztec's main food source. The Aztecs also ate tomatoes, avocados, atole (a type of porridge), tortillas made from maize, and tamales, a kind of envelope made from steamed maize stuffed with vegetables or meat. • Aztecs also ate chocolate. In their culture chocolate was reserved for warriors and nobility. A drink of cacao mixed with ground maize was believed to provide stamina and was used in sacred rituals. Chocolate was a drink for the elite. • The Aztecs ate twice a day and the main meal was eaten during the hottest part of the day. Some of the edible things available in an Aztec market were fruit, vegetables, spices, flowers, edible dogs, and birds. • The Aztecs had an alcoholic drink called octli. An octli gatherer would take the sap out of the maguey plant and put it in a large jug. Then they would let the sap rot and then they would drink it. Octli was reserved strictly for nobles, royalty, and warriors. Any nobleman who abused (got drunk from) the divine drink of the Aztecs would be put to death. A good vendor of maguey sap boiled it until it was like honey, while a bad vendor would water it down.

16. Language • The Aztec language was called N'ahuatl. The Aztecs developed a system of pictures which they used as sort of an alphabet. They had hundreds of different symbols to use in their vocabulary. Nouns were easy to draw - they drew a cat as a cat and drew a fish as a fish and so on. They joined them together to form sentences, and used them to write down stories and keep records. Words that joined the nouns into sentences were extremely difficult to draw. The art of writing was very specialized and also difficult to learn. Scribes needed to know a lot of extra information that wasn't written down because the pictograms only gave a clue to the full meaning. Aztec picture writing was mainly done by priest or scribes. They were the only ones who could read the pictures. The Aztecs wrote about their history and religious ceremonies. They also wrote poetry. First the scribes sketched the outline with charcoal. The pictures were then brightly colored with vegetables, minerals, insects and shells.

17. Education • Until the age of fourteen, the mandatory universal education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpōlli. Part of this education involved learning a collection of sayings, called huēhuetlàtolli ("sayings of the old"), that embodied the Aztecs' ideals. There were two types of schools: the telpochcalli, for practical and military studies, and the calmecac, for advanced learning in writing, astronomy, statesmanship, theology, and other areas.

18. Religion • Aztec religion is the Mesoamerican religion practiced by the Aztec empire. Like other Mesoamerican religions, it had elements of human sacrifice in connection with a large number of religious festivals which were held according to patterns of the Aztec calendar. It had a large and ever increasing pantheon; the Aztecs would often adopt deities of other geographic regions or peoples into their own religious practice. Important in Aztec religion were the sun, moon and the planet Venus—all of which held different symbolic and religious meanings and were connected to deities and geographical places. Religion was part of all levels of Aztec society. On the state level, religion was controlled by the Tlatoani and the high priests governing the main temples in the ceremonial precinct of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

19. Art • Few of the local languages actually had a word for "art". The Aztecs called special things like this toltecat. This word was from a group of people known as the Toltecs, whose city was destroyed in 1168. No doubt the massive statues of the gods in the abandoned city impressed the Aztecs. In fact, the ruling family of the Aztecs claimed to be descended from the Toltecs. A lot of the art that has been preserved was religion related. The gods were often depicted, and they themselves often resembled animals of various kinds. The drawings of the gods were often sharp and angular, brightly coloured. Art would often show gods, or priests dressed as gods in a ritual, or Aztec warriors in their finery.

20. Interesting Facts The Aztecs were short, sturdy people with almond-shaped eyes, dark, coarse hair and brown skin. Aztec’s spoke Nahuatl, a language that is still spoken today. The great religious ceremonies and festivals were regulated by a calendar of 365 days composed of 18 months of 20 days and an additional 5-day period. Each month was dedicated to a major god. Aztec people designed and built aqueducts, dikes and huge stone pyramids topped by temples. Tools and weapons were not made of metal but were made of stone and wood. Most weapons were made of obsidian. Gold, silver, copper and other precious stones like emerald, jade, turquoise and even shells were mainly for ornaments. Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird-on-the-Left) is their war god and sun god. Thaloc was their rain god.

21. Reference • Aztec Timeline, Aztec-History.com, 01/02/2012 http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-timeline.html • Aztec government, Aztec-History.com, 01/02/2012http://www.aztec-history.com/ancient-aztec-government.html • Aztec Lifestyle, Aztec-History.com, 01/02/2012http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-society-family.html • Aztec Language, Aztec-History.com, 01/02/2012 http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-language.html • Aztec Agriculture, Aztec-History.com, 01/02/2012 http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-agriculture.html

22. Reference • Aztec Location, Aztec-History.com, 01/02/2012 http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-map.html