Aztec Guide

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Aztec Guide

By Bo Peng Zhou 8A


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Aztec EconomyIf you think your parents are harsh, imagine being a kid in the Aztec

Empire. You can be sold as a slave for 500 to 700 cocoa beans. Cocoa

beans are one of the currencies they have in the Aztec economy. Cocoa

beans were used for small purchases, but quachtli were used for larger

purchases. Some say that 20 quachtli could support someone for one

year in Tenochtitlan. Quachtli are basically large, white cotton cloaks.

Here are some prices for items sold in the market. A small rabbit for 30

cacao beans, a turkey egg for 3 cacao beans, a turkey hen for 100 cacao

beans, a fresh avocado for 3 cacao beans, a large tomato for one cacao

bean and 20 small tomatoes for one cacao bean. There were many

markets in Tenochtitlan but the main one was called Tlatelco. Many

people went there because it was really big and you could anything you

wanted in this market. Almost sixty thousand people came everyday to

the markets to buy food, slaves, clothing, jewellery, feathers and more.

Since Tenochtitlan was a small village, many farmed on chinampas.

Chinampas were made by putting soil in the shallow areas of the lake and

planting reeds in them. Simple and easy, yet efficient. Because of the use

of chinampas, the city of Tenochtitlan grew larger. If you compared

todays economy with the Aztecs, the economy back then was prettysimple, but for that time and place, it supported the large Aztec empire.

People making chinampas. A market in Tenochtitlan.


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Aztec SocietyToday, we have schools for all kind of people, but in the Aztec society,

they had many schools. They had a school for boys, a school for girls, and

then they have schools for nobles. Children were taught at home until

they were 15 years old, then they went to school to learn. There were

two types of school. One kind was called telpochcalli, which was for

normal children. It taught history, religion, fighting skills, agriculture and

crafts. Some of the skilled students from this school were chosen to be in

the army, but most of them returned to their homes. The other school

was called calmecac, which was for nobles. In telpochcalli, they were

turning the children into warriors, but in calmecac, they were turning

them into leaders, priests, teachers, healers and codex painters. They

learn about rituals, ancient history, writing, calendars, geometry, poetry

and, like in the telpochcalli, fighting skills. Girls were taught how to make

things and how to raise a child. They werent taught how to read or write.

The Aztecs hierarchy was similar to the Europeans hierarchy. The Aztec

had an emperor, nobility and priests, and then the rest are commoners.

In Europe, they had a king, barons and bishops, knights and then they had

the commoners. The difference is that in Europe, you stay in the rank you

were born in. But in the Aztec society, you can move up ranks, and ofcourse, you can move down ranks. Also, in Europe the knights have their

own rank, in the Aztec; the warriors are first placed in the commoners

rank. After a battle, if the warrior brings many sacrificial victims, they

would move up a rank, from commoner to nobility. Also, in the Aztecs, if

you were a merchant, and you were really wealthy, you were noblemen.

In Europe, even if you were a really wealthy merchant, you were still amerchant, not a Baron. The emperor of the Aztec was treated as a god.

The Aztecs respected him show much that the people obey the emperor

without questions. Also, they gave the emperor anything for him to live in

luxury. However, the responsibility of the emperor was enormous. He

was a chief priest, commander-in-chief and of course, head of state.


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Because he is a commander-in-chief, the emperor had to be a skilled

warrior who was very intelligent and can come up with military strategies

to win fierce battles. When his job was head of state, before the emperor

would make an important decision, he would call his council of priests

and nobles to ask for their advice. In the end, the decision will be made

by the emperor alone. The merchants in Tenochtitlan were the richest

nobles. Merchants would go on trading expeditions, and they would bring

back goods. Farmers grew crops, hunted and fished. Basically, the Aztecs

had a really organized, successful and patriotic society.

Time line of the Aztec emperors.

The headdress that only the

emperor wears. It was made

from feathers taken off the

quetzal bird.


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Aztec BeliefsThe Aztecs were very religious. They had countless gods, assigning them

to each village they conquered. And the villages had to give offerings

depending on the god. If your village was assigned the god

Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, you have to offer sacrificial victims.

Huitzilopochtli was important to them because they thought that if they

sacrificed people, and give him their blood, he would have the strength to

overcome darkness. Thats one reason why the Aztecs sacrificed people. I

will talk about the second reason later on. The Aztecs belied that the gods

controlled the world. Also, they believed that, like the society they had,

the gods had a hierarchy too. The most powerful god was Tezcatlipoca,

the god of night. Quetzalcoatl, the god of wind, was given flowers,

incense and birds as offerings. It is said that he left Mexico after he

fought Tezcatlipoca. The Aztecs believed that once he returns, he would

bring destruction to the Aztec empire. Tlaloc was the god of rain. He was

important to the Aztecs because, if the rain was too little, it would cause

droughts and crops couldnt grow, but if it rained too much, it would

cause floods, which would kill the crops. The Aztecs believed that there

were 4 suns, each destroyed by a disaster. And, they believed that they

were in the 5

th

suns era. The Aztecs made two calendars, a solar andsacred calendar. The sacred calendar had 260 days, and the solar

calendar had 365 days, the exact number of days we have on modern

calendars. In the middle of the calendar, it was the god of the fifth sun,

Tonatiuh. His tongue was sticking out, so the Aztecs believed that he

wanted blood. They believed that if the gods were not given blood, the

gods would grow sick and they would die. And if the fifth sun died, theAztecs believed that the world would end. Many people in modern

society are afraid of the year 2012 because thats the year that the

calendar stopped at. Personally, I wouldnt think the world would end.


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This is the Aztecssun calendar.

Tonatiuh is at the

center of the

calendar.

A priest would slice open

the victims chest, pull out

his heart, then push him

down the stairway. Then, he

would put the heart in an

ern and put it in the

chamber behind him.


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Artisan: A person who was a skilled craft worker.

Chinampas: Floating islands built in the water around Tenochtitlan to

grow crops.

Calpolli: Units of organization in Aztec society.

Codices: Aztec books made of skin or paper that only had images in

them.

Compulsory: Something that is required by law.

Glyph: Pictures of symbols used in writing.

Ocelot: A nocturnal wildcat that has a greyish or yellow coat with black

spots.

Omen: A sign of something that is going to happen.

Primary source: Something that is created in a specific time. If you

needed a primary source of the Middle Ages, you need something that is

created in the Middle Ages, whether its paintings, statues and etc.

Quetzal: A colourful bird that lives in tropical rainforests of Central and

South America.

Secondary source: An account of an event written by someone who wasnot present at the time.


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References and a Small Map of the Aztec Empire

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago CitationStyles. Web. 5 Mar. 2011. .

"Aztec Economy."Aztec History. Web. 5 Mar. 2011..

"Welcome to the Aztec Civilization Website."Aztec Systems toAztec Empire. Web. 5 Mar. 2011.

.

"Aztec Society."Aztec History. Web. 7 Mar. 2011..

"Aztec Society."Aztec History. Web. 8 Mar. 2011..

"Aztec Religion."Aztec History. Web. 9 Mar. 2011..

"AZTECS: History and Myth." Carnaval.com Entry Page. Web. 12Mar. 2011. .

This is an old map of some

parts of the Aztec empire.

Aztec Guide

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