Daily Life of the Aztecs On the Eve of the Spanish Conquest

The book Daily Life of the Aztecs: On the Eve of the Spanish Conquest written by Jacques Soustelle gives a great insight into the Aztec people and their immersive culture. This book is set in Tenochtitlan and covers the span of the Aztec civilization to their invasion by the Spanish Conquistadors. This book brilliantly discusses the Aztec civilization like never before. I hope to show the importance of Aztec religion and education to their society as a whole.

1) The Aztecs, like most societies, had a type of class structure. There were two main classes. The first was the class of the nobles or the pilli. The second class were the commoners or the macehaulli. There were also many subsets to these groups that held different responsibilities in societal life. Nobility was thought to be mostly hereditary. The nobles were educated from a young age to be leaders in Aztec society. However, the commoners had a variety of occupational choices. They were the farmers, merchants, and could even be athletes. Art, social events, and religion were all a huge part of Aztec culture. The Aztecs had a game known as Ullamaliztli and the athletes that played in these games were a kind of celebrity in Aztec culture. One interesting thing about their culture was the mandatory education. Once the women and the men were properly educated it would be time to marry. Marriages in Aztec culture were arranged and were also very closely intertwined with religion. There are many fascinating things about the Aztec culture, but perhaps the most important to them was their religion.

2) Aztec religion is a very complex belief system. Like most polytheistic belief systems the Aztec one has gods that are more important than others. It is a type of hierarchy of go...

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... very brightly colored and angular. Their architecture was very similar to their art. They viewed architecture in a very high esteem and were very proud of it. They often built very large temples of worship and very rarely tore down old structures. Overall the Aztecs had a vast array of fascinating art, technology, and architecture.

Ultimately I believe that the clash between Cortez and the Aztecs was indeed inevitable. The Spanish like all humans suffered from a need to explore and dominate. It is human nature to wonder what lies in wait throughout the world. The Spanish were seeking to discover new lands. When they came across the overwhelmingly interesting civilization that is the Aztecs, their lust for power as well as the news of Cortez’s men being slain at Totonacs it left them no choice to but to conquer these people and claim their belongings as their own.