Aztecs

Mexica

The people later called the Aztecs; migrated into the Valley of Mexico after Teotihuacán fell

Aztlán

Legendary island homeland in a lake; source of the name "Aztec"

When did the Aztecs leave their homeland?

Early 12th century; the migration took over 100 years to reach the Valley of Mexico

When did the Aztecs become the dominant city-state in the lake region?

By the early 15th century

Aztec empire at its height (textbook)

Stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific and south to the Guatemalan border; several million people

Why did the Aztecs first seek alliances?

They were less sophisticated than many neighbors and needed stronger city-states as allies

Aztec military reputation

Excellent warriors; compared to Sparta (Greece) and Qin (Zhou China) as a dominant militarized state

Tenochtitlán

Aztec capital on an island in Lake Texcoco; linked by causeways and aqueducts; site of modern Mexico City

Tlatelolco

Name used in the Map 6.3 caption alongside Tenochtitlán for the Aztec island capital

Five lakes of the Valley of Mexico

Zumpango, Xaltocan, Texcoco, Xochimilco, and Chalco (only Texcoco remains today)

Causeways and aqueducts

Map 6.3 features: causeways connected Tenochtitlán to the shore, aqueducts brought fresh water

Huitzilopochtli

Aztec patron deity and sun god; promoted as the guiding god of the whole empire; appeased with sacrifice

Quetzalcoatl

Feathered serpent; half human, half deity; god of wind, dawn, learning, and the arts

Quetzalcoatl in Aztec tradition

Left the Valley of Mexico in the 10th century promising to return in triumph

Quetzalcoatl compared to…

Shiva in Hinduism (creation, virtue, learning, and culture)

Tlaloc

Rain god; shared the Great Pyramid at Tenochtitlán with Huitzilopochtli

Ometeotl

Supreme but remote deity representing the all-powerful forces of the heavens

How many deities did the Aztec pantheon contain?

More than a hundred, including nature spirits and patron deities

Codex Chimalpopoca

Source of the Quetzalcoatl legend; recited by Aztec priests, written in Spanish in 1570

Quetzalcoatl legend: his end

Ashamed after misbehaving drunk, he burned himself on the Yucatán coast; his heart rose as the quetzal bird and he became the Dawn Star (Venus)

Tlatlayan

"Place of the Burning," where Quetzalcoatl immolated himself

Tlahuizcalpanteuctli

"Lord of the Dawn House," Quetzalcoatl as the Dawn Star

Aztec government type

Authoritarian monarchy with both divine and secular authority

Aztec ruler's claim to power

Claimed descent from the gods; acted as intermediary between material and metaphysical worlds

Aztec succession

No rigid law; senior officials from the royal family chose a successor from eligible family members

Aztec ruler's advisers

A small council of lords, a prime minister (chief executive), and a bureaucracy

Power beyond the capital

Limited; subject rulers kept considerable autonomy in return for tribute

Tribute

Goods or captives paid by subject territories to the central government

Provincial tax collectors

Most important provincial officials; collected tribute and threatened military action against non-payers, so were unpopular

Díaz on tax collectors

Subject towns complained they were robbed, women were abused, and people were forced into labor and lost their lands

Who held bureaucracy positions?

Only the hereditary nobility, who traced lineage to the founding family of the Aztec clan

Noble boys' education

Temple schools: manual labor, military training, and memorization of Aztec society and religion

Careers open to nobles

Military, government bureaucracy, or priesthood

Rewards for senior officials

Large estates, and the exclusive right to hire communal labor

Aztec social groups

Nobles, commoners, indentured workers, and slaves

Calpulli

Kinship group of up to about 1,000 members led by an elected chief; the basic unit of commoner life

Calpulli chief

Elected; ran day-to-day affairs and served as intermediary with the central government

Calpulli responsibilities

Providing taxes (usually goods) and conscript labor; maintaining its own temple and school; managing community land

Calpulli land

Held in common and could not be sold, but could be passed down within the family

Calpulli in cities

Each occupied its own neighborhood with members often sharing a trade (metalworking, stonecutting, weaving, carpentry, commerce)

Share of Aztecs in trade

A large proportion; about half of the Valley of Mexico's people lived in an urban environment

Chinampas

Raised, reclaimed farm plots in lake marshes; farmers cultivated them for centuries and brought goods to market by canal

Chinampa houses

Built on raised dirt platforms above the fields to prevent flooding

Indentured workers

Landless laborers contracted to work on nobles' estates

Aztec slaves

Served in wealthy households; slavery was not inherited, and children of slaves were free

Selling oneself into slavery

Commoners in debt might do so, then later buy back their freedom

Commoner mobility

Could not become nobles, but exemplary army or priestly service could bring senior positions (like medieval Europe)

Why a noblewoman might marry a commoner

Their children inherited her higher status and she would be treated well by her husband's proud family

Aztec housing

Small flat-roofed dwellings of one or two rooms with direct access to streets and canals

Aztec boys' roles

Trained for war and expected to serve in the army

Aztec girls' and women's roles

Worked in the home, wove textiles, and raised children; could also enter the priesthood

Aztec women's legal rights

Could own and inherit property and enter contracts; more rights than women in some societies but not equal to men

Desired female traits in Aztec society

Chastity and obedience

Aztec marriage

Usually monogamous; partners chosen within the lineage group but not the immediate family; parents chose spouses for political or social gain

Polygyny

Having more than one wife at a time; practiced sometimes by noble families

Díaz on the great market

Tenochtitlán's market had separate areas for each type of goods, like fairs in his hometown of Medina del Campo

Goods in Díaz's market

Gold, silver, gems, feathers, cloaks, slaves, cloth, chocolate, sisal rope and sandals, animal skins, herbs, beans, game, cooked food, pottery, honey, timber

Market goods unique to the Americas

Chocolate, prized feathers, and certain animals and crops; most other goods (cloth, pottery, metals, timber, food) would appear in Eurasian markets

Why did Díaz mention human excrement in the market?

It was sold in canoe loads to make salt and cure skins

Aztec worldview: two worlds

The material world (a flat disk surrounded by water) and the divine world (heaven and hell, home of the gods)

Aztec afterlife

Passage through a transitional stage, like Christian purgatory, before a final destination where the soul is freed from the body

Aztec religious training

All citizens attended temple schools in adolescence and took part in rituals throughout life; the devout could study for the priesthood

Aztec fatalism

The creation myth described an unceasing struggle of good and evil; the world was destined to end

Five Suns

Four earlier worlds (suns) were created and destroyed; the Aztecs lived in the fifth sun, which would also end

Aztec poem on mortality

Even precious things like jade, gold, and quetzal plumes are shattered, so humans endure only an instant on earth

Why the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice

To appease the sun god Huitzilopochtli and delay the destruction of their world

How sacrifice was performed

Victims were prepared by ritual, taken to the shrine, and had their hearts removed and offered to the gods

Why captives made ideal victims

They represented valor, the trait the Aztecs prized most; being chosen was an honor

Durán's account

Describes the king and priests killing prisoners on the sun-image stone, heart offered to the sun, until every captive had been slain

Caution about sacrifice sources

Some scholars doubt the accuracy of Spanish reports, but it is widely accepted that human sacrifice was common in many Amerindian societies

Secularization in late Aztec times

The ball game lost some religious significance and gambling became widespread

Ball game tribute example

One province reportedly sent 16,000 rubber balls a year to Tenochtitlán

Aztec sacred precinct

Center of Tenochtitlán, dominated by the great pyramid of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc with shrines and a sacrificial altar on top

Díaz on the great pyramid

Its base equaled the plots of six large European town houses; painted and sculpted in bright colors

Aztec painting

Little survives, but Díaz compared the best work to Michelangelo's

Aztec metalworking

Worked gold and silver using the lost wax technique; no knowledge of bronze or iron tools

Aztec stone sculpture

Mainly gods and relief carvings of religious ceremonies

Stone of the Fifth Sun

26-ton basalt disk showing the Aztec cosmos; the sun god clutching human hearts at center; found at the central pyramid

Aztec writing

Hieroglyphic symbols for objects or concepts without phonetic value; not a true writing system; recorded dates and served as notes for orations

Aztec scribes

Trained class who painted on paper made from fig tree inner bark

Why do few Aztec records survive?

The Spanish destroyed many while trying to eradicate Aztec religion and culture

Aztec calendar

Complex calendar that evolved since Olmec times; many hieroglyphic notes simply recorded dates

How the Aztecs expanded farmland

Filled marshes with reeds, stones, and dirt; built dams and dikes

Collecting art

The Aztecs gathered art from across their empire, brought it to Tenochtitlán, and often buried it ceremonially

Tikal

Mayan (not Aztec) site; its eighth-century temple housed a ruler's tomb with jade jewelry and carved bone

When did farming begin in most of North America?

Third millennium BCE at the earliest; much later in most areas

Pre-farming North American life

Hunting, fishing, and foraging; as large animals declined, people turned to smaller game, fish, and wild plants, fruits, and nuts

North America vs Mesoamerica

North American peoples had contacts with the south and some resemblances, but geography and climate made their societies differ in vital respects

Vikings in the Americas

Raiders and settlers from Scandinavia who crossed the Atlantic in longboats around 1000 CE

Thorvald Ericson

Led the first known Europeans to land in the Americas; killed in a clash with the Innu (first European to die on American soil)

Innu

Native people who fought the Vikings; descended from pioneers who arrived about 19,000 years earlier (per the video)

Viking vs Innu weapons

Vikings used iron broadaxes; the Innu used stone-tipped arrows

Native Americans before Columbus (video)

About 90 million people, isolated from the rest of the world

Tenochtitlán's size (video)

Described as larger than London, Paris, or Rome, centered on a 100-foot stone temple

Aztec laws and education (video)

Strict laws against theft, drunkenness, and adultery; compulsory education centuries before the United States

Aztec corn (video)

Engineered about 6,000 years ago; yields more calories per acre than any other crop

Scale of sacrifice (video)

Up to 20,000 people in major ceremonies

Constantinople before 1453

Capital of the eastern Christian world; home of the Hagia Sophia

Siege of Constantinople (1453)

70,000 Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II; 69 cannons battered 100-foot walls for 53 days

Why Mehmed attacked

To control the vital spice trade routes