The History and Culture of the Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. They dominated the valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Aztecs were an advanced and successful civilization that built beautiful, sophisticated cities, temples, and pyramids. They also created a culture full of creativity with mythological and religious traditions. Aztecs lead a structured and evocative life that let their society to become a very superior civilization. The Aztec’s communication skills were very well developed for their time; through religious beliefs, government involvement, and family life they lived a full and productive life. Until in 1519 when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, and defeated the Aztecs.

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people that lived in the area of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th century. It is said that Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan. Aztlan was the Aztec's homeland, nobody knows exactly where it was, but it is believed that Aztlan lies somewhere to the north of Mexico. Some experts claim that Aztlan is a mythical place. According to Aztec legends Huitzilopochtli, their god of war and of the sun, told them to leave Aztlan and to wander until they saw an eagle on a cactus budding out of a rock and eating a snake. The Aztecs traveled many years to find the legend that Huitzilopochtli had told. They left Aztlan in the 12th century. They built their settlements in the Valley of Mexico by Lake Texcoco. There were other Indian tribes living in the area when the Aztecs arrived. The Aztecs called their settlement Tenochtitlan. By the time they settled after two centuries of voyage they called themselves by a different name, the Mexica, but the term Aztec has been used as a ...

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...quered territories were not in direct contact with the Aztec empire. The Aztec empire functioned well because it succeeded in centering the power in the capital. Tenochtitlan was their capital. When the Aztecs conquered a city they did not meddle in the city’s local affairs as long as the city paid its tribute to the Aztec empire.

Furthermore, their society consisted of four social classes. Their four social classes were made up of pilli (nobles), machehualles (commoners), and tlacotin (slaves). These classes showed an order of power with the pilli being the most powerful and tlacotin being the least powerful. In the empire most of the high positions were inherited but one could obtain a high position by serving the emperor. The social classes among the Aztecs grew the social classes became sophisticated and complex as soon as they began to construct their empire.