Aztecs7rough essays

Aztecs7rough essays The history of the Aztecs begins with the Mayan civilization of Mesoamerica. The greatest power the Americas had ever seen, the Maya were advanced in agriculture, as they had learned from the Incas, and built huge cities, with pyramids that told the movement of the planets and the earths course around the sun. The Maya spawned a small, yet advanced sub culture known as the Toltecs; however, their prosperity was to be short lived. Some time before 1300 AD the Aztecs came down from the mountain plains of central America and brought burning death to the peaceful, burgeoning, Toltecs. They slaughtered the Toltecs with arrows and knives, destroying all that was their culture. Then the Aztecs rooted themselves in the place of the Toltecs, taking their lands and their cities for their own. The name Aztec was to be feared, and was indeed feared by the neighboring tribes, they were a savage warrior people, obsessed with death and decay, only the slaughter of their enemies brought the Aztecs satisfaction. The warrior men ruled their society, with the women having little say. About 1325 AD, the Aztecs built the magnificent city of Tenochtitlan, which was nothing less than a wonder. The city sat on small islands in the middle of a lake, all interconnected by causeways and gangplanks, with canals running throughout. They built great barges of woven grass, which they piled dirt on for farming; huge drawbridges of wood connected the city to the mainland, these were raised in time of danger, and danger was always close to the Aztecs. Like the Maya, they raided the houses of their subjects and took them captive, their very own people, and then sacrificed them in great pits of flame to their evil gods of death. The people had no recourse, and lived under the tyrannical rule of the emperor, who was elected by the nobles of the city. They oppressed their neighbors, taxing heavily on all goods, and taking sign ...