The Aztecs before contact with the spanish
Local Environment
The Aztec empire stretched as far as central and southern modern Mexico. This was all land that the Aztecs had conquered and gradually won over. They conquered the land between the Gulf of Mexico and the northern Pacific Ocean. The main city centre of the entire empire was Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan is an island located in the western side of lake Texcoco, in the Mexico Valley with a semi arid climate. Tenochtitlan was surrounded by volcanoes, which reached up to 3,000 meters (Schmal,J.,n.d.). This area seemed like a good place for farming because the soil was rich and there was no lack of water as the city was on an island. Food production and preparation The major crops were maize (corn) and beans. The corn was ground into corn flour and made into tortillas to wrap around other foods (Hernan, H., 1520). Chillies, tomatoes, limes, cashews, potatoes, squash and chocolate were also eaten. Chocolate was very valuable to the Aztecs and was used similar to currency. The word chocolate comes from the Aztec word chocolatl. Chocolatl was a thick chocolate drink that was bitter and spicy, unlike modern day chocolate and Hernan Cortes was the first to incorporate sugar and vanilla to the cocoa bean (Chocolate-history.co.uk, n.d.). Some of the meats were turkey, fish, deer and rabbits, dogs and duck (Cortes, H., 1520). The Aztecs used algae from the surface of the lake to make breads and cheeses, as it was high in protein. Chinampas The Aztecs combined sticks and mud to create small plots of land on the water called a chinampas. The Aztecs would stake sticks into the lakebed like a fence and fill from underneath with sticks and mud creating an small artificial island used for plantations. The chinampas were used because the Aztecs did not have much land, as their city was not on a large area, although there were gardens and crops on the mainland too. The chinampas would be separated from each other to provide canals in which canoes transported the produce. The space between the chinampas also made it easier for the farmers to irrigate their crops as the water would be directly beside the chinampa. The chinampas were about 30 by 2.5 meters (Aztec-History.com, 2006-2013). Religion The Aztecs believed that they owed human and animal blood to their gods (Aztec-History.com, 2006-2013). They believed that if the gods were not given their blood from the sacrifices that the world would end, therefore the Aztecs often sacrificed their own people. Sometimes the main objectives in the Aztec’s war would be to capture the enemy’s men and keep them for sacrifices. It is said that the Aztecs sacrificed thousands a year and up to tens of thousands a year (Aztec-History.com, 2006-2013). The five gods in the Aztec religion are Tezcatlipoca, Nanauatl, Ehecatl, Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs believed that Tezcatlipoca created the world, Nanauatl sacrificed himself for the sun, Ehecatl was the wind that moved the sun, Quetzalcoatl created humans and Huitzilopochtli was the one who fights to protect the sun from darkness (Aztec-History.com, 2006-2013). The Aztecs believed that Huitzilopochtli was the god that needed the blood to protect the sun from darkness and if they stopped the sun would go dark and the world would end. Therefore when the Aztecs made their human sacrifice they would cut open the human’s chest and retrieve the still beating heart and hold it up to the sun as an offering. Sometimes the killing of the person was not necessary and the people cut themselves to let the blood seep from the wound. The temples in which the sacrifices were held were about 60m high (Aztec-History.com, 2006-2014). The inside of the temple was painted with blood, which left an unbearable stench (Frederiksen, T., 1997). The priests were the ones who sacrificed the others and often had hair matted with dried blood and wore bones and skulls on themselves (Frederiksen, T., 1997). They were painted black and had cut and blood filled ears from blood offerings from themselves. It is said that the priests were cannibals and tortured, burned and cut open the human sacrifices. Education and writing The two kinds of schools were one school for the upper class children and another for the lower, more common class. People that studied the Aztec schools are still not sure whether girls were allowed to attend. The upper class were taught calendars, how to become priests, musical instruments, religion, how to carve wood and use silver. The lower class children were taught dances and songs to worship their gods. The lower class children had to work in between their school delivering firewood and water to priests, sometimes late at night. Upper class children had stricter rules and harsher punishments than those of the lower class. The Aztec system of writing consisted of drawn symbols or glyphs that represent an animal, thing or sound similar to the Egyptians. A codex is like a book in which are glyphs and can be written on animal skins and other materials. The codex was folded and could reach up to 10 meters long when unfolded (Ducksters, 2014). Some of the Aztec glyphs represent wind, house, crocodile, snake, lizard, death, deer, water, flint, eagle, dog and many others. |