Aztec Empire: a brief history of South America’s past

Historians have not yet managed to define the origins of the Aztec people. The most accepted theory is that the Aztecs came from North America.

Finding populations already settled in the most fertile territories, they settled in relatively arid areas.

What happened next is a story of struggle for territory with local populations made up of wars and initiation rites and an insatiable thirst for power.

Discover what made the Aztecs so powerful, how they lived, and how their civilization ended while leaving a legacy for posterity, yet to be explored. Do you know other ancient civilizations?

Pre-Aztec Mesoamerica

In the 13th century, some populations from North America settled in small groups in what we now know as Mexico. Wars followed to establish dominance over the territory, but none of the small tribes managed to prevail over the other.

The Mexica, a people who spoke the Nahuati language arrived quite late.

When they arrived, most of the fertile lands had already been occupied, so they convinced the king of Culhuacan to allow them to settle on territories that were more difficult to cultivate. In exchange, they offered themselves as mercenaries for the king.

This agreement stood for a period of time. While the men kept their promise to the king, the rest of the population was busy breaking and moving rocks to build their city.

At the king’s request, the Mexica fought a bloody battle against a neighboring people. While they were busy, they did not notice that the king was meanwhile monitoring their progress both in building the city and working in the fields.

After the battle was won, the king sent his daughter to rule over Mexica, an act that the people experienced as betrayal. In response, the Aztecs killed the young woman, apparently driven by their god Xipe Totec.

There are conflicting versions of this story. Some say that it was the king who sent his daughter, while others say that it was the Mexica who requested her presence specifically to shed her blood.

Whatever happened, the daughter’s sacrifice infuriated the king who ordered his troops to expel the Mexica from the territory.

The escape was interrupted at the sight of an eagle resting on a cactus, intent on devouring a snake. This vision was interpreted as a divine sign that that land would be the new home of the Mexica.

It didn’t matter if the land in question was an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. From a military point of view that position would have been difficult to attack and easy to defend.

Here, the Mexica began building their largest city, Tecnochtitlan.

The foundations of Aztec society

Until that time, those who would be known as the Aztecs had lived as a nomadic people, able to adapt quickly to new situations. From that point on, they began to establish the foundations of a sedentary society.

First, they learned, as shadow warriors of a kingdom, how to organize a monarchy, as good observers as they were. During the cohabitation period, marriages with Culhuacan women taught them how to build and maintain homes and land.

Once established and settled, the Aztecs chose their own king, once again drawing on the traditions they had learned from the people of Culhuacan.

The constant struggle for power and control of wealth with neighboring kingdoms fueled the bloodlust and skill of the Aztecs.

After many battles, the neighboring kingdoms of Texcoco and Tlacopan joined Tenochtitlan to form a triple alliance establishing a military power that dominated the Valley of Mexico.

Once alliances were established, the Aztec civilization began to prosper.

Education in Aztec society

The complex organization of Aztec society required profound knowledge, not only mathematical to calculate taxes, but also legal to implement laws and administer. In order to fulfill these tasks, every boy and girl received formal education.

The school was divided into two sections: one was intended for the children of the nobles and the other for the rest of society. This separation was not immutable. For example, if a common child demonstrated particular aptitude in a certain area, he was sent to the “noble” school.

Young children were educated at home: girls by their mothers and boys by their fathers. This also determined the gender role they would have in society: children were involved in hunting, fishing and fighting; the girls weaving, processing corn, cooking and taking care of the house.

After learning this gender-based traditional knowledge, the Aztecs were sent to school at the age of 15. Here they learned mathematics, writing, history and national songs.

During the first years of education the children, whether common or noble, were all in the same class. Subsequently, they were divided based on social class and gender.

The social structure of the Aztecs

In the heyday of the Aztec civilization, around the 16th century, the Mexica capital was a megalopolis home to 200,000 inhabitants. Like modern-day Mexico City, Tenochtitlan was the largest pre-Columbian city!

In the early days of Aztec society, social position was not passed down through inheritance: it had to be achieved by demonstrating courage on the battlefield or through an extraordinary contribution to society.

In some ways, those who were already noble were at an advantage, having all the means to be able to “conquer” their position, which for the people was much more complicated.

For a young man from a modest family, the only way to prove his worth was to become a fierce and proud soldier.

Even access to military rank wasn’t that simple: you had to prove that you had captured 5 or more people.

Any would-be soldier who failed to capture a prisoner within three days of engagement would be relegated to the peasant class, much to his humiliation. For this reason, military initiatives often ended with the capture of enemies, also a way to guarantee access to the nobility.

There were also specific conditions for falling into slavery.

Anyone who had committed a crime could be enslaved. However, if he had property these were returned to him at the end of the sentence and the former slave could in turn have slaves.

Slavery was also the punishment for socially incorrect behavior such as gambling, and considered incorrigible.

Slaves could regain their freedom after the master’s death if they repaid their debt, married or had children with the master, or bought their freedom.

If none of these conditions were met, the condition of slavery would pass to the next generation.

Slavery could be induced by poverty: poor children or adults could be sold into slavery or consent to slavery for a period of their lives.

If a slave escaped and managed to reach the royal palace without being captured, he was guaranteed freedom.

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Women in Aztec society

The position of women in Aztec society was very similar to that of men.

Noblewomen could work as secretaries, accountants or administrators.

The doors of administration were closed to common women, but they could work as merchants, seamstresses and fruit and vegetable sellers. The role of women was fundamental in the medical field. Women could diagnose illnesses and dispense medicine.

It was also possible for women to become priestesses: even before birth, a mother negotiated the terms under which her daughter would take service in the temple starting from the age of five.

The Aztec gods

As in other ancient civilizations such as the Mesopotamian cultures, the gods were invoked at particular times.

For example, the gods of rain and agriculture were invoked in times of drought and harvest, but when there was a battle on the horizon, the gods of war were the favorites.

Unlike other pre-Columbian civilizations, the Aztecs had three distinct orders of gods: the celestial ones, those of war and sacrifice and a third group concerning the fertility of the people and the land.

In total, the Aztecs revered over 200 gods. The most important were:

• Huitzilopochtli, the father of the Aztecs. It was he who indicated the place where the symbolic city of this people would be born.
• Tlaloc, god of rain: borrowed from the Maya, is one of the most ancient gods.
• Tezcatlipoca, god of the night: generally associated with darkness, evil and death.
• Quetzalcoatl: brother of the night god, represents learning, light and creation. This feathered serpent was of Mayan origin.

The meaning of human sacrifice

As terrifying as it may seem to us, for the Aztecs human sacrifice was nothing more than a way to please the gods and attract their favor.

Although the Aztecs were particularly active with sacrifices, this practice in South America was started by the Incas.

Another factor that explains human sacrifice is tactical. The Aztecs were relatively few and by spreading the word about the sacrifices, nearby populations would have been intimidated enough not to attack.

The sacrificial victims were taken from the defeated who, in turn, made raids on nearby villages so as not to have to pay the human tribute with their own people.

Even children were not spared from this practice. How were children treated in Ancient Greece?

The fall of the Aztec Empire

The Aztec empire lasted just 100 years, from 1428 to 1521 and probably would have lasted for centuries, if Hernan Cortes had not been there.

They had developed an advanced culture, with splendid places of worship and homes for the nobility. The land was expertly worked, even where it was arid, producing enough food to feed the entire population.

Floating gardens, chinampa, are an agricultural technique designed to practice agriculture in water, creating floating tanks supported on poles driven into the bottom of the lake and covered with mud and sediment from the lake.

The Aztec calendar was adopted in all Mesoamerican areas; Aztec poetry and codes were the expression of a thriving culture.

Upon the arrival of the Spaniards, who landed from Cuba, there was no escape for the Aztec people led by Montezuma: war and diseases (apparently a coronavirus) brought by the conquerors of Cortes, and the alliance with some rivals of the Aztecs were fatal.

Mexico has not forgotten its Aztec or Mexica heritage, to be more precise, and the symbol of the eagle on the cactus eating the snake is imprinted on the national flag.