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How Did Aztec Culture Develop

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The Aztec community was pretty advanced for it’s time. The aztec were fast learners and developed a highly productive system of agriculture. Not only were they advanced in agriculture but developed a highly elaborate leadership and society that consisted of four classes. These classes were also a big part of how the economy flourished throughout society. In many ways the aztec community is much like ours and was advanced for it’s time.
A huge part of how the aztec society was so advanced was because of their understanding of economy and how they could profit from it. The economy consisted of a type of barter system, therefore it was a pre-capitalist society. Their concept of money was with the trade in cacao beans. Small purchases were purchased …show more content…

Just as other aspects of the society, Aztec culture was highly developed, and has become famous in studies of history. One of the methods used in farming was called chinampas, chinampa is a method of farming that used small, rectangular areas to grow crops on the shadow lake beds in mexican valley. Essentially stacked out in the lake bed, made with layers of mud, sediment, and decaying vegetation until it was above the level of sea water. On the edges trees were planted in the corners to help secure the chinampa. For easy transportation they used canoes to travel in the water to care for the crops. The Aztec farmers used terracing to provide more usable land. Terracing was used to create deeper soil that could be used by building walls of stone made in the hillsides, even if the land wasn’t flat. The most important crops were maize(corn), squash, and beans since they were easy to maintain and were a good source of protein. Aztec farmers also grew avocadoes, tomatoes, and guavas, and others, as food sources, materials grew to use for clothing and latex balls were cotton plants and rubber trees. A challenge that all farmers faced was to contain the nutrients in the soil where the crops are planted. Different crops deplete the soil of certain nutrients, sometimes this problem was solved with planting the combination of maize, squash, and beans since they kept the nutrients in the soil. Agriculture was a crucial part of survival to the Aztec people, therefore it was important to all people in society and techniques were passed throughout generations(aztec society

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The colonials of New Spain brought animals such as horses, cattle, goats, sheep, chicken and pigs. Here Pilcher describes the importance of corn and wheat. He uses very descriptive to show Mexico’s elites love towards dishes based on wheat. He also discusses Mexico’s oldest documents of cookbooks, however, the Europeans heavily influenced them. Mole poblano turned out strangely similar to European cooking and wouldn’t have been considered from the

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In document B it states , “ approximately twenty-thousand acres of chinampas were constructed around [Tenochtitlan] and the yield from them was high : four corn crops per year were possible .” This evidence connects to my reason because it shows how chinampas were not just a big achievement on Aztec history , but it also helped

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The spread of maize cultivation from present-day Mexico northward into the present-day American Southwest and beyond supported economic development, settlement, advanced irrigation, and social diversification among societies. Cultivation of corn along with squash and beans allowed for the typically mobile Native American tribes to become more

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We can still see today that corn is majorly part of our diet, in america we have a lot of products that are mainly produced with corn as an ingredient. This led for them to find different ways to crop this but in a very similar way as well. One of the known culture and tribes were the Anasazi people. They were also referred as the Ancient people.

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However, with the acquisition of more land comes the increase of population, and as this population learns the improved farming methods of the Aztecs, the cycle of expansion continues. In addition, agriculture was used on such a huge scale, representing how important it was in the lives of the Aztecs. In Document C, a Diego Rivera mural that depicts how the Aztecs farmed, one can see that the chinampas stretch out for miles. Why would there be so many if they weren't so important to Aztec culture? This shows that the ancient civilizations depended on them an greatly, because after all, they were how the Aztecs got their food.

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The Aztecs created a system that made farming more efficient. In the Chinampas document it says, “Chinampa is a method of farming that uses small, rectangular areas to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Mexican valley. Chinampas were essentially artificial islands created for the crops.” Using chinampas, the Aztecs were able to grow more crops because they had more land. Chinampas made the soil richer since there was easy access to water and also made it easier for the farmers because they could use channels to get to the islands.

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The aztecs were masters of irrigation and in the capital city of Tenochtitlan they could grow four corn crops a year. The aztecs erected many temples and

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Worked with rough and steep terrain and made farming developments such as terraces to work with the land they inhabited. There were two types of land, sandy plateaus and wetlands made a harsh environment for crops. Aztec Empire

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We still this day trade goods just like them. The Aztecs was influential because by the early 16th century, the Aztecs had come to rule over up to 500 small states and some 5 to 6 million people, either by conquest or commerce. The Aztecs use some forms of art like music, poetry, and sculpture to honor and praise their gods. According to the text "the Aztec society was strictly hierarchical, ruled

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The need of food in a growing population turned them to agriculture rather quickly, corn (maize) becoming the most important one among squash and beans. It is no surprise that these three main crops continue to be our staple in our diet. The Aztecs and Mayas were much more specialized in infrastructure and agriculture than the Toltecas. The Toltecas’ strengths were in religious rights, growth of markets and trading. It is believed that the Toltecas were wiped out by nomadic tribes, but their culture influence remained with the Mayan culture making it more flexible.

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Like the way of the Mayans, they also had some adaptations related to agriculture, like chinampas which were called “floating islands” . It was “a method of farming that used small, rectangular areas to grow crops on shallow lake-beds” which under the circumstances expanded the Aztecs land and gave more space to grow crops. (“Aztec Agriculture- Rich and Varied”, aztec-history.com, paragraph 4) The Aztecs primary strength in adapting was in engineering, and one example of an adaptation in the engineering field used by the Aztecs are causeways, which is “an raised road that allows people to easily travel” to and from places. Causeways connected the Aztecs to other people so they could trade, and communicate with other people.

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Every Olmec site had its own channeled water system, providing plants with water for agricultural purposes (Mann 18-19). Although details are not clear and based on numerous hypotheses, several discoveries and findings have attested that the Olmec have had a significant influence on the political and social development of subsequent civilizations in Mesoamerica. By way of example, the Mayan are known to have inherited various elements of the Olmec´s enriched culture and worldview (McNeill and McNeill 110). Furthermore, similarities between the raised gardening fields in the Andean high plains, called “Altiplanos” and the Olmec´s “distinctive technique for intensifying agricultural output” (McNeill and McNeill 110)have been discovered, which may demonstrate the influence and spread of the Olmec´s intensive wetland agricultural practices. Fundamental grain plants domesticated and cultivated by the Olmec, were maize crops.

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The agriculture was also a very important as the Inca society was practically based on this factor. The agriculture was part of the economy and wealth of the empire of the Incas as they took advantage of the soil that they had, in order produce resources that they needed in order to survive. Although it was a hard task to have agricultural areas high in the mountains due to the weather and terrain, they overcame those adversities by manufacturing ‘differently’ their crops. The adaptation of this people to overcome those barriers weren’t a problem, as the agricultural technology that they had could do the work in any type of terrain. These were the irrigation system or also called the “Andenes”, which were

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