The aztecs lived in the island called Tenochtitlan, which is now the current mexico city. At first they didn't know where to live when they were in the mainland. But they got a sign from their gods to go live at the island when an eagle holding a snake in its talons landed on a cactus there. When they moved there there wasn't really any good land to grow crops, so they made chinampas. Chinampas were like garden beds on lakes that grew crops. The land around them was mostly mountains, it had dry, cool climate.
The aztecs were a very successful population of people. They were friends with their neighbors and they also made alliances with nearby city states. But soon after they were getting very cruel. In the 1500s the aztecs started to command tribute, forced payment and more people to use for sacrifices. Also when they went to go fought in war the people they returned with were normally either sacrifices for rituals or they were slaves.
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His name was Montezuma II. He was a powerful and harsh ruler, and he lived in the years of 1466-1520. He kept demanding more tribute and people for sacrifices. The neighbors of the Aztecs then started to fear them. His harsh rule also lead to rebellions for the aztecs as well. He tried to fix things by commanding less tribute, but the people got restless with him and the aztec empire fell.
When the Aztecs moved to tenochtitlan they didn't have that much land for farming. It was all mostly swamps. For this reason they made chinampas. A chinampa is like a garden bed that grows food like corn, squash pepper and more. Chinampas were very helpful to the aztecs.They helped grow their population and it was the main source for food supply. Even though Chinampas were the main source for food, the Aztecs still hunted and fished in the water