Overall, the Aztec empire did not last for very long. A lot of their own ideas ended up bringing them down. For example, the amount of sacrifices they made was crazy. They sacrificed up to 20,000 people in less than 100 years. Killing that many people just wasn't good for the society. Another contributor was disease. Small pox was very contagious and spread through the empire, killing many people. Finally, a man named Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs. He had formed an alliance with a group of natives. They helped him during his siege of the Aztec's capital city.

the Aztecs ruled over 125,000 square miles of Mexico at the peak of their power. their capital city was in the middle of a lake which was thought to be almost impossible at that time. The Aztecs had 40 city's and or states. The heartland of the Aztecs, the valley of Mexico, was an internally drained basin which was surrounded by volcanic mountains reaching up to 3000 meters.

the Aztecs were a Waring society, they were able to dominate their enemy's and they shared their religion with other society's. They also traded for agriculture even though they were a Waring society.for every state there was a ruler of tlatoani that led the states council of nobles but these little cites began to expand in wealth and agriculture,each state had a council.the ussual unit of the aztecs economy was the calpulli. the families claimed descent from a common ancestor. each had it own order and arguments. Also in the aztec empire coco beans were used as money.

After the family, there came the groups of families that owned land together. These groups were the basic units of the Aztec government and they were called calpulli. The leaders of the calpulli were the ones responsible for the essential needs of the others in the group. These leaders also formed a city council, which would have a lot of power in the government. The ruler of Tenochtitlan was the emperor, known as the Huey Tlatcanl, and was worshiped like a god.

In Aztec civilizations, your level of class was determined by birthright. Those classes were slaves, commoners, merchants, warriors, nobles and the emperor. People became slaves for punishment of crime or failing to pay tribute to the emperor. Somebody could pay a debt by selling themselves or their children into slavery. Unlike the way whites treated blacks in the past, the Aztec slaves were relatively well treated. Commoners were farmers, fisherman, and women. The middle class consisted of merchants, warriors, and craftsmen. At the very top, nobles, priests and the emperor were treated like gods.

In Aztec civilizations, all children went to school, no matter your social status. But, there were different schools for commoner and noble children. They all had the choice of going to the telpochcalli, a school to train them to become warriors. The boys began training at age 15. Noble children went to different schools than the commoner children. The schools were called calmecacs. Calmecacs trained students to become priests and government officials. Women had administrative roles within the Aztec empire. They also could work as midwives and priestesses.

The Aztecs did not create popcorn but they made it famous through out the world. Also they made chocolate and it was bitter because it did not have sugar. The Aztecs also used beans as a form of currency, 100 beans would buy a slaves freedom. One thing that the aztecs had that is still around today is education for all social classes and genders. Girls were taught how to do housework and men were taught how to fight.

The Aztecs used a good amount of weapons. One of them was called the sling. The sling was a vicious weapon that you flung stones with. They are thought to have been able to throw stones up to 650 feet and could injure a soldier in full metal armor. They also used bows and arrows. The Aztecs were skilled with all their weapons. And, they had a calendar. The year was broken up into 18 months, each month with 20 days. During each month they would have a feast to honor one or more god.

The aztecs spoke the language of Nahuatl and it was one of the reasons for their triple alliance. You had to be able to speak Nahuatl to get along with the aztecs. They had three types of writing ideograms which were symbols, phonograms which are like the alphabet and pictograms which are like pictures. The aztecs learned Nahuatl and writing as par of their education, both boys and girls.

The Aztecs art was religious and they had many different types of art. There were stone workers who made statues, scribes, potters, people who made pictographs and makers of headdresses. They also had musicians and dancers that were different from each other. They were taught how to play music and dance at a young age to honor a god.

The Aztecs believed that the creation of humans was on accident. The god Quetzalcoatl was chosen by the gods to create the humans. Quetzalcoatl went down to the underworld to retrieve their bones. But as he ran, he fell, and his blood mixed with the bones. The blood allowed the humans to come to life. Before this, the world had been created four times already, but they had failed due to arguing among themselves. The Aztecs greatly respected the gods and built enormous temples to honor them.

The Aztecs would practice human sacrifice to feed the sun god, Huitzilopochtli. They would cut victims in the heart with an obsidian knife then grab the victims heart and hold it in the air. Human sacrifice was part of the aztec religion and was one of the reasons for the falling of their empire. The Aztecs kept practicing human sacrifice because they believed if they didn't feed the sun god the world would end.

Aztec houses had more luxury than usual. many of them had pools. Their temples were grand and what made them even greater is that they were built on a lake. The temple mayor was built for the god huitzilopochiti
and was 197 ft tall. built with stone and stucco and with polychrome paint.
the pyramid of the sun was 215 ft tall, the pyramid of the moon was 138 ft tall.