Compare And Contrast The Aztec Empire And Systems

Aztec Empire and Systems

“The Aztecs were perhaps the most successful regime of terror the world has ever seen; they carried out mass murder... staged as an exultant feat of human butchery; they recorded the slaughter..in an orgy of death imagery,” said Dr. Nigel Spivey. (Spivey, 2006) Indeed, the Aztecs were known to be the greatest Mesoamerican civilization. They began to flourish in 1345 CE but was later invaded by the Spanish in 1521. (Cartwright, Aztec Civilization, 2014) What enabled them to grow and maintain power? Systems. The Aztec adapted and had systems such as warfare, technology, and religion. First, warfare enabled them to create the Triple Allies, expand territories, and have never ending amounts of tributes for the sun god,

Moreover, it helped maintain their power throughout their large empire and extend their trading routes. To begin with, their warfare system helped them defeat the Tepanecs in 1428 CE . When they started building Tenochtitlan in 1325 CE, they had to serve as mercenaries to the Tepanecs for a hundred years. Eventually, the Aztecs rebelled and fought them with the Triple Alliance they’ve made with two other cities. Secondly, expanding the empire. The empire had a population of 200,000~300,000 people, surprisingly, the empire is even bigger than Venice, Paris, or even London. Since the Aztecs were fierce warriors, winning wars and having a good reputation helped them get more land and expand their empire. If they didn’t have a strong army and isn’t thought as strong soldiers by others, people won’t agree to join them and won’t lose against them at wars. Third, having a huge trade network led them to having a great economy. When the Aztecs took over cities, it also meants that they get to control more of the trading system. Therefore, they were able to have a great economy and used the money to maintain their power. Even though their warfare did help the Aztec grow and sustain power, it also caused the collapse of the Aztec empire in 1519 CE. When a new group of people joined the Aztecs, people didn’t actually join and do everything like the true Aztecs did. They kept their own culture, religion, language, leader,

Next, they filled the area in between the timbers with mud, reeds, and boulders. Later on they expanded the land surface until it covered five square miles. This land of water technique that the Aztecs had was called the chinampas, or floating gardens. (History Alive, 2005) Those gardens were so fertile, it could produce up to seven crops each year. Not only did the Aztecs build those amazing chinampas, they also had many amazing accomplishments in technology. The island had an altitude of 2000 meters, divided into four areas, each area was protected by the gods. In between the four areas, there were canals and drawbridges that connected everyone. People could travel on foot as well as using canoes. They also had a dike with sluice gates to control the level of the lake to prevent flooding, and an aqueduct to transfer fresh water from the mountains to the empire. (Wiener, 2015) Aqueducts consisted a twin pipe distribution system made with compacted soil and wood so people could get drinkable water from Chapultepec. This water technology had a high availability and low maintenance ; water was carried in one pipe and when it got dirty, it will divert automatically to the other clean pipe so the dirty one could be cleaned or repaired. (n.d.,