Aztec

Culture area: Mesoamerica

Language group: Uto-Aztecan

Primary location: Central Mexico

The Aztecs, or Mexica as they called themselves, became the most important tribe in Central Mexico and created a powerful empire that would last until the arrival of the Spanish in the early sixteenth century. The Aztec state disappeared, but the people and their culture left an important legacy; modern Mexicans refer to the founding of Tenochtitlán by the Aztecs in 1325—not the arrival of the Spanish—as the beginning of their nation. Moreover, more than a million people still speak Nahuatl, the Aztec language (a part of the Uto-Aztecan family).

Early History

Aztec origins are unclear. The people entered the Valley of Mexico in the thirteenth century from what is now northern Mexico, or perhaps the southwestern United States, from a land they called Aztalán, or Aztlán. They would later create an elaborate legend to describe how their principal god, Huitzilopochtli (the left-handed hummingbird), led them to a site where an eagle stood on a cactus with a serpent in its beak. This scene, pictured on the present-day flag of Mexico, marked the location of Tenochtitlán, capital city of the Aztecs and, today, Mexico City.

Archaeologists tell a simpler story, suggesting that the Aztecs were a relatively unimportant Chichimec tribe from the north that entered the Valley of Mexico looking for more fertile land. Many important cities already existed around the great lake in the valley, and the Aztecs became tributaries of a more powerful tribe, serving them as mercenaries. The city of Tenochtitlán was originally a muddy mound in the middle of the lake, where the tribe could find protection after antagonizing important Indian leaders. They flourished in their new home, and their city expanded.

Society

The Aztecs were divided into clans, or Capulli, each related by blood and engaging in a specific economic activity. The capulli were led by a council of elders, called the Tlatocan, who made the important decisions for the community. Though still under the domination of other tribes, the Aztecs chose Acamapichtli (who ruled from 1375 to 1395) as their leader. A new warrior class was created from these ruling families, known as the Pipiltin. When Acamapichtli died, his son became chief, beginning the Clan of the Eagle, a royal lineage that would last 125 years, until the defeat of the Aztecs by the Spanish.

Aztec nobles were priests, warriors, and judges. They were trained in a school called the Calmécac, where they learned discipline and special skills. Beneath the nobles in Aztec society were the merchants. Because they traded with distant lands, they were able to serve as spies for the expanding empire. Called Pochteca, these merchants amassed wealth but were denied the dress or status of nobility. Members of lesser groups could be put to death for wearing dress reserved for the nobility. Sandals, jewels, and feathered headdresses were the prerogative of the upper class.

Craftsmen formed a separate group in Aztec society. They worked with jade, gold, and feathers to make ceremonial costumes and jewelry. Commoners, the largest group, worked the fields, performed construction duties, and served the nobility. Their day began at dawn; rising from sleeping mats in small huts and wearing simple loincloths, they went out to work without any breakfast. At ten in the morning the first meal was taken, consisting of a simple bowl of porridge. The main meal was eaten at midday, during the hottest hours of the day. This meal consisted of maize cakes, beans, pimento, and tamales. Meat from turkeys or small game, routine fare for the upper classes, was rare among the commoners. Everyone would squat on a mat and eat quickly, drinking only water. This meal would often be the last of the day.

Nobles, by contrast, lived in larger homes and ate better meals. Their midday meal included meat and fruit as well as more common dishes made from corn. Nobles drank cocoa, at that time a bitter drink taken without sugar. Occasionally there were feasts that lasted most of the night at which pulque, a fermented alcoholic beverage, was consumed. The drug peyote was used, but only for religious ceremonies.

Religious Beliefs

The Aztecs believed that life was a struggle, and their religion was based on the need to appease the gods. They thought that the sun’s journey across the sky would continue only if the gods were offered human sacrifice. The belief in human sacrifice was not unique to the Aztecs, but it became bound up with their expanding empire and came to dominate their society to a greater extent than in other tribes. In fact, much of Aztec culture, including their gods, was derived from earlier peoples of the Valley of Mexico. One aspect of this common culture was a calendar that combined the lunar and the solar years in fifty-two-year cycles. On the eve of the last year of the cycle, all the fires in the land were extinguished, symbolizing the people’s fear that the world was about to end. Crowds gathered silently on the hillsides as priests climbed to the top of a mountain to await the hoped-for dawn. When the sun rose, and time did not end, a human sacrifice was conducted and a new fire kindled. The flame was used to relight fires throughout the land, and the people rejoiced. The Aztecs believed that only human sacrifice could save their society from destruction. They also believed that there had been four previous cycles of time, and that they were living in the fifth and final period.

Rise to Power

In the early 1400s the Aztecs, along with the people from the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopán, rebelled against the overlordship of Azapotzalco, the most powerful city in the Valley of Mexico. Once successful, the three cities formed a Triple Alliance to dominate the area around the great lake. The alliance was short-lived, however, and the Aztecs subdued the other tribes to emerge by 1440 as the greatest power in Central Mexico. At this time a shift occurred among the Aztecs that necessitated further expansion. In response to a number of natural disasters, Aztec priests claimed that additional sacrifices were needed to please the gods. Thus, the Aztecs began to combine wars of conquest with capture of warriors to be used as human sacrifices. Some estimates indicate that tens of thousands of sacrifices were conducted in major ceremonies such as those marking the dedication of temples. Even after the Aztecs had conquered most of the tribes in Central Mexico they conducted ceremonial “Flower Wars,” whose purpose was to take prisoners for sacrifice. For more than half a century the Aztecs ruled this expanding empire, facing much discontent among their subject peoples who were seldom integrated into Aztec society.

Conquest and Legacy

When Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519 he heard about the wealthy city of Tenochtitlán and the great lord Montezuma. Cortés, with a small group of Spanish soldiers and a growing number of Indian allies hoping to be freed from Aztec rule, entered Tenochtitlán, which he described as one of the largest and most beautiful cities he had ever seen. Undaunted by the power of the Aztecs, and fully aware that Montezuma thought him to be the god Quetzalcóatl returning from the East, Cortés took the Aztec leader prisoner and attempted to control his empire. An Aztec assault forced him out of Tenochtitlán, but Cortés returned with more Indian allies and destroyed the city in 1521. The last of the Aztec leaders, Cuauhtémoc, was taken prisoner by the Spanish.

Cortés chose the site of Tenochtitlán for his new capital, Mexico City. Although many Aztecs died in the assault or later perished from disease, their language and many of their customs remained to influence the development of Mexican society. The remaining Aztecs intermarried with the Spanish; while there may be no modern Mexicans who identify as Aztec, many have Aztec antecedents, and most feel a connection to and pride in Aztec culture.

Bibliography

Carrasco, Davíd. The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, 2012.

Carrasco, Davíd, and Scott Sessions. Daily Life of the Aztecs. 2nd ed., Greenwood Press, 2011.

Caso, Alfonso. The Aztecs: People of the Sun. Translated by Lowell Dunham. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958.

Leon-Portilla, Miguel, ed. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Translated by Lysander Kemp. Expanded ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.

Marrin, Albert. Aztecs and Spaniards: Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico. New York: Atheneum, 1986.

Smith, Michael E. The Aztecs. 3rd ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

Soustelle, Jacques. Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. Translated by Patrick O’Brian. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1961.

Townsend, Richard F. The Aztecs. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.