AZTECS

WHERE WHAT WHY

• Center of Mexico, high elevation, temperate climate
• Around 1300, the Aztecs settled on an island in the center of the Valley of Mexico.
• An alliance of local peoples.

AGRICULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE

• The aztecs learned how to grow corn.
• For survival they grew crops in "floating gardens" in the marshy wetlands.
• The Aztecs used the movements of the sun and the moon to position their temples.

CONQUERORS

• The Aztecs engaged in frequent wars to conquer the other peoples of the region.
• The conflicts continued until the arrival of the first Europeans in the Americas.

SOCIAL ORDER

• Top- All powerful Emperor
• 2nd- Nobles(held military, government, or priesthood positions.
• Commoners- farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, or warriors in the armies.
• Bottom- slaves

RELIGION

• Aztecs worshipped many gods.
• The most important is the sun god.
• Beleived that human blood kept the sun god moving on his journey across the sky.
• They would sacrifice captured warriors, or Aztecs from the tribe that volunteered for this honor.
• Sacrifices kept the universe in motion.

PRESENT DAY

• Mexico City is Tenochtitlan
• The sacrifice of thousands of their people to the gods may have contributed to the Spanish over running the Aztecs.
• The Catholic religion of the Spaniards saw all the sacrifices of the Aztecs as evil. They used this to justify the