Aztecs

Capital city of the Aztec Empire: Tenochtitlan

What is Tenochitlan built on: Lake Texcoco.

What and how  Tenochtitlan was easily defended: It had no accessible roads to it making it harder to launch long scale attacks

What SPECIFICALLY made Tenochitlan easily defendable: The city was surrounded by water, with limited causeways connecting it to the mainland.

How the Aztecs supported agriculture: Artificial islands (chinampas) for crop growth

What are Chinampas: man-made floating gardens that provided fertile soil for growing food, allowed for a year-round agricultural system.

How the Aztecs expanded their empire: Military conquest and alliances

What did the aztec rely on to expand territory: their strong warrior society 

Aztecs formed alliances with other city-states but: often lost control over conquered territories.

Why the Aztecs relied on local elites to govern: They often lost direct control over conquered regions

Instead of direct rule, what did the Aztecs depend on: they depended on local rulers to maintain order.

• These rulers collected tribute payments in the form of food, gold, silver, military supplies, and even people (for sacrifices).

Aztec tribute system: A system where conquered regions had to pay tributes

• Tributes could be food, luxury goods, precious metals, military supplies, and people (often used for sacrifices).

• This allowed the empire to thrive economically and militarily.

Why the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice: To nourish the sun and postpone the destruction of the world

• The Aztecs believed the world operated in cycles of creation and destruction.

• To delay the next destruction, they needed to offer human sacrifices to the sun god, ensuring it had the energy to rise each day.

Important Aztec gods: Sun god, war god, earth god, rain god, moon god

• Each deity played a role in maintaining cosmic balance.

• The sun god (Huitzilopochtli) was the most important, requiring blood sacrifices to keep the world alive.