The Rise of the Aztec Empire

• The Aztecs were a small group of people who migrated into the Valley of Mexico from the north, establishing Tenochtitlán as their capital around 1400 B.C.

Aztec Empire

Many competing small empireswar ends in 1428

Triple Alliance (Texcoco, Tlacopan, and Tenochtitlan)

3 states to form the Aztec Empire

Aztec Empire 1428-1520

Tenochtitlan (tee-noch-tit-lan)

ISLAND IN LAKE TEXCOCO = capitalwith causeways to mainland

TENOCHTITLAN 200,000- 250,000 in city (4x pop. of London in 1500)

DRAWBRIDGES FOR protection

Aqueducts forfreshwater

Clean

Temples, plazas

Aztec Daily Life

• The Aztec Empire in the Valley of Mexico was home to 800,000 to 1.25 million people in the early 1500’s

• Aztec city-states were incorporated into the empire as semiautonomous administrative units

• Markets, plazas, temples, residences, and full-time craft specialists were a part of each city-state

• Have texts, codices of life, tribute, war– Ritual almanacs that priests used

Modern Mexico City and the Zocalo – central plaza

TEMPLE MAYOR

Major temple

1978 found in Mexico City

Private inner space – drains, altars

SKULL RACK

Quetzal godFeathered Serpent

Quetzal bird and snake

100’s of named gods and goddesses spirits or forces

many were transformations

Rain godTlaloc War god

Huitzilopoctli(wee-zil-o-poch-tli

Tonalli = animating spirit is located in the blood

blood concentrates in the heart when scared

Without sacrifice allMOTION Stops

Sun would not riseWorld would come to an end

sacrifice kept world in balance

War god – needed to be fed every day

Human sacrifice

Dresden CodexSpanish observations

war captives, slaves, youths, maidens

Why? intimidation, power, world was unstable, (protein??)

Aztec Militarism

The End of the Aztec Empire

Aztec expansion grew to incorporate much of central and southern Mexico

Aztec policy was one of expansion, not consolidation (military and commercial)

nearly impossible to administer Spanish conquest - Cortez 1520

has help from “dispossessed” conquered peoples

Overthrows Montezuma