Aztec
ORIGIN
The Aztecs, or Mexica as they called themselves, became the most important tribe in Central Mexico and created a powerful empire that would last until the arrival of the Spanish in the early sixteenth century.
The Aztec state disappeared, but the people and their culture left an important legacy; modern Mexicans refer to the founding of Tenochtitlán by the Aztecs in 1325—not the arrival of the Spanish—as the beginning of their nation.
Aztec origins are unclear. The people entered the Valley of Mexico in the thirteenth century from what is now northern Mexico, or perhaps the southwestern United States, from a land they called Aztalán, or Aztlán.
They would later create an elaborate legend to describe how their principal god, Huitzilopochtli (the left-handed hummingbird), led them to a site where an eagle stood on a cactus with a serpent in its beak. This scene, pictured on the present-day flag of Mexico, marked the location of Tenochtitlán, capital city of the Aztecs and, today, Mexico City.
Archaeologists tell a simpler story, suggesting that the Aztecs were a relatively unimportant Chichimec tribe from the north that entered the Valley of Mexico looking for more fertile land.
Society
The Aztecs were divided into clans, or Capulli , each related by blood and engaging in a specific economic activity. The capulli were led by a council of elders, called the Tlatocan , who made the important decisions for the community. Though still under the domination of other tribes, the Aztecs chose Acamapichtli (who ruled from 1375 to 1395) as their leader.
A new warrior class was created from these ruling families, known as the Pipiltin . When Acamapichtli died, his son became chief, beginning the Clan of the Eagle, a royal lineage that would last 125 years, until the defeat of the Aztecs by the Spanish.
Aztec nobles were priests, warriors, and judges. They were trained in a school called the Calmécac , where they learned discipline and special skills.
Beneath the nobles in Aztec society were the merchants. Because they traded with distant lands, they were able to serve as spies for the expanding empire.
Members of lesser groups could be put to death for wearing dress reserved for the nobility. Sandals, jewels, and feathered headdresses were the prerogative of the upper class.
Craftsmen formed a separate group in Aztec society. They worked with jade, gold, and feathers to make ceremonial costumes and jewelry. Commoners, the largest group, worked the fields, performed construction duties, and served the nobility.
Meat from turkeys or small game, routine fare for the upper classes, was rare among the commoners. Everyone would squat on a mat and eat quickly, drinking only water. This meal would often be the last of the day.
Nobles, by contrast, lived in larger homes and ate better meals. Their midday meal included meat and fruit as well as more common dishes made from corn.
Nobles drank cocoa, at that time a bitter drink taken without sugar. Occasionally there were feasts that lasted most of the night at which pulque, a fermented alcoholic beverage, was consumed. The drug peyote was used, but only for religious ceremonies.
Religious Beliefs
The Aztecs believed that life was a struggle, and their religion was based on the need to appease the gods. They thought that the sun’s journey across the sky would continue only if the gods were offered human sacrifice.
The belief in human sacrifice was not unique to the Aztecs, but it became bound up with their expanding empire and came to dominate their society to a greater extent than in other tribes.
Much of Aztec culture, including their gods, was derived from earlier peoples of the Valley of Mexico. One aspect of this common culture was a calendar that combined the lunar and the solar years in fifty-two-year cycles.
On the eve of the last year of the cycle, all the fires in the land were extinguished, symbolizing the people’s fear that the world was about to end.
Crowds gathered silently on the hillsides as priests climbed to the top of a mountain to await the hoped-for dawn. When the sun rose, and time did not end, a human sacrifice was conducted and a new fire kindled. The Aztecs believed that only human sacrifice could save their society from destruction.
Rise to Power
In the early 1400s the Aztecs, along with the people from the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopán, rebelled against the overlordship of Azapotzalco, the most powerful city in the Valley of Mexico.
In response to a number of natural disasters, Aztec priests claimed that additional sacrifices were needed to please the gods. Thus, the Aztecs began to combine wars of conquest with capture of warriors to be used as human sacrifices. Some estimates indicate that tens of thousands of sacrifices were conducted in major ceremonies such as those marking the dedication of temples.
Even after the Aztecs had conquered most of the tribes in Central Mexico they conducted ceremonial “Flower Wars,” whose purpose was to take prisoners for sacrifice.
Conquest and Legacy
When Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519 with a small group of Spanish soldiers and a growing number of Indian allies hoping to be freed from Aztec rule, he entered Tenochtitlán, which he described as one of the largest and most beautiful cities he had ever seen.
Cortés took the Aztec leader prisoner and attempted to control his empire. An Aztec assault forced him out of Tenochtitlán, but Cortés returned with more Indian allies and destroyed the city in 1521. The last of the Aztec leaders, Cuauhtémoc, was taken prisoner by the Spanish.
Cortés chose the site of Tenochtitlán for his new capital, Mexico City. Although many Aztecs died in the assault or later perished from disease, their language and many of their customs remained to influence the development of Mexican society.