Aztec Empire Research Paper

I want to tell you the story about the Aztec Empire; about their origins, their rise to power, and the downfall of them. They were a very resourceful tribe, they used what they had available and as they began gaining power they had more resources available for them to use. They were also very smart.

The Aztecs were a small tribe to start with and they were trying to find a place to settle; so they wandered Mexico until 1116 CE. But then one day the god of sun and war, Huitzilopochtli, told the Aztec people to move south. So they set out looking for this permanent home and this god told them that they would see a sign. And after 100 plus years their sign was found by their priest. It was an eagle sitting on a cactus eating a snake. Their

They started to make war and defeat the other tribes in the area. Even though the Aztecs were similar to the ancient river civilizations by invading neighboring areas, they accomplished this much faster, and grew their numbers quicker. They were able to do such things because they used their politics, military, tax collection, and their rulers to make this happen. The Aztec rulers were very smart. Like the early nomadic people of the world, the Aztecs would marry in to larger tribes’ ruling families and become allies. To help the Aztecs grow such numbers and the successful defeat of other tribes; the Aztecs would not kill their enemy but would enslave them to work for them. They used them for battles, to pay tribute to the gods, and they would take the land from the defeated tribes. This helped to expand the Aztec

They erected great temples and pyramids to their gods. These pyramids were 20 stories tall and had a great stairway leading to the top, and at the top, that is where the ceremonial sacrifices took place. These craftsmen also erected a grand home for the emperor, his home was decorated finely. But not all Aztecs had such homes, these homes were made from clay and water, they only had one room for all the activities in the home i.e. cooking, eating and sleeping. They also had a separate building for steam baths. The Aztecs believed that the heat was good for family health. Well, since we are talking about such craftsmen, they created calendars and these calendars were very similar to the one we use today. They also created floating gardens called chinampas, they were made with rich, fertile soil and were able to grow excellent gardens and produced much needed food. With the much needed food growing in these gardens, fewer people needed to farm and they started spending time creating artwork. With all this growth, they Aztecs had a market to do bartering in. But, the Aztecs did not have any money so they traded cocoa beans which were rare; only the very rich could afford these beans. They were hard to find and were very valuable. They were able to travel to other areas and trade in distant markets. And in such markets they traded for gold, silver, turquoise, jade, and even black volcanic rock