PART 2: AZTECS

THEME: THE PURPOSE OF WARFARE IN SOCIETY

Lesson 27

ID & SIG:
Aztecs, Aztec warriors, Cortes, Huitzilopochtli, Mexica,

Tenochtitlan, sacrificial bloodletting, tribute

The Mexica
The Mexica are what the people we know as the Aztecs

first called themselves They migrated to central Mexico from the northwest in the middle of the 13th Century They had a reputation for kidnapping women and seizing land cultivated by others

The Mexica
For centuries they

migrated around central Mexico In about 1345 they settled on an island in a marshy region of Lake Texcoco and founded their capital city of Tenochtitlan
The Spanish

conquistadors later built Mexico City on top of Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan
Living on the island had

military advantages The lake served as a natural defensive barrier Water protected Tenochtitlan on all sides Mexica warriors patrolled the three causeways that eventually linked the capital to the surrounding mainland

The Beginnings of Empire

By the early 15th

Century, the Mexica were powerful enough to overcome their immediate neighbors and demand tribute from their new subjects Under the rule of the Obsidian Serpent Itzcoatl (1428-1440) and Motecuzoma I (Montezuma) (14401469) they conquered Oaxaca in southwest Mexico

Itzcoatl, the Obsidian Serpent

The Triple Alliance

The Mexica populated Oaxaca with colonists and used it

as a bulwark for their emerging empire From Oaxaca, the Mexica turned to the Gulf Coast After that they conquered the cities between Tenochtitlan and the Gulf Coast In about the mid-15th Century, the Mexica joined forces with the neighboring cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan to form a triple alliance that guided the Aztec Empire The alliance imposed its rule on some 21 million people and most of Mesoamerica

Tribute
The main objective of the

triple alliance was to exact tribute from subject people The annual tribute owed by the state of Tochtepec on the Gulf coast included 9,600 cloaks 1,600 womens garments 200 loads of cacao 16,000 rubber balls
Tribute of precious stones in jade, serpentine, and turquoise paid by Tochtepec

The Aztec Army

The Aztecs had no

permanent, standing army and they did not maintain military garrisons throughout their empire They simply assembled forces as needed whenever they launched campaigns of expansion or punitive expeditions
Pendent in the shape of an Aztec warrior

Maintenance of the Empire

The Aztec had no elaborate bureaucracy or

administration They simply conquered their subjects and assessed tribute, leaving local governance and the collection of the tribute in the hands of the conquered people themselves The Aztecs reputation for military prowess was usually enough to keep subject people in line due to fear of reprisals
Contrast this technique with the other means of

maintaining order and population control

War in Aztec Society

War benefited all segments

of Aztec society but the religious component was an especially important beneficiary because war produced victims for ritual sacrifice The Mexica believed their gods had set the world in motion through acts of individual sacrifice
By letting their blood flow, the

gods had given the earth the moisture it needed to bear maize and other crops

War in Aztec Society

To propitiate the gods and

ensure the continuation of the world, the Mexica honored their deities through sacrificial bloodletting Mexica priests regularly performed acts of selfsacrifice such as piercing their earlobes or penises with cactus spines in honor of the primeval acts of their gods

Aztec sacrificial knife

War in Aztec Society

Mexica warriors took

Huitzilopochtli as their patron deity in the early 14th Century as they subjected neighboring peoples to their rule They felt that their military successes showed that Huitzilopochtli especially favored the Mexica and the priests of Huitzilopochtlis cult demanded sacrificial victims to keep the war god appeased
Huitzilopochtli

War in Aztec Society

Many of the people conquered

by the Aztec warriors ended up becoming human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli The Mexica honored Huitzilopochtli in a large temple in the center of Tenochtitlan When the Spanish conquistadors arrived they found racks holding the skulls of hundreds of thousands of sacrificial victims in temples dedicated to Huitzilopochtli throughout the Aztec empire

Tzompantli Altar decorated with 240 human skulls made of stone

War in Aztec Society

After an enemy was captured, he was incapacitated with

a wooden collar and taken back to Tenochtitlan for formal presentation.

War in Aztec Society

For the Aztecs, human sacrifice was not a gruesome

form of entertainment, but a ritual essential for the worlds survival

Aztec Warriors
All males were considered

potential warriors and individuals of common birth could distinguish themselves in battle and therefore raise their social standing For the most part, though, military elites came from the Mexica aristocracy Men of noble birth received intensive training in military affairs

Clay statue of an elite Aztec eagle warrior

Aztec Warriors
In the rigidly hierarchical

Aztec social structure, most public honors and awards went to the military elite Accomplished warriors received extensive land grants as well as tributes from commoners for their support The most successful warriors formed a council whose members selected the ruler, discussed public issues, and filled government positions

Illustration depicting six different levels of military achievement

Aztec Warriors
Elite warriors ate the

best foods Aztec society had to offer-- turkey, pheasant, duck, deer, boar, and rabbit-- and enjoyed luxuries such as vanilla and cacao Warriors were allowed to wear brightly colored cotton clothes while commoners had to wear coarse, burlap-like garments

Aztec emperor personally awarding warriors with ritual dress and gifts taken in tribute from foreign states

Aztec Warfare
The Aztecs mainly fought during the dry season between

December and April

Marching was easiest Post-harvest supplies were at their height Farm laborers were available for service

The Aztecs marched about 12 miles a day with each army

departing on separate days or traveling by parallel routes There was one human porter for every two soldiers and the Aztecs carried a total of eight days supply of food

Aztec Warfare
Usually battles were fought in the

open and began at dawn with a slingshot and arrow barrage at a range of about 60 yards Under this cover, soldiers armed with stone-bladed broadswords and spears advanced All soldiers carried shields and those who had earned it had cotton quilted armor

Aztec Warfare
As the two sides

closed, combat became hand to hand In most cases, the Aztecs primary objective was the enemies submission, not their destruction, so tribute and sacrificial victims could be obtained

The preferred Aztec weapon was the macuahuitl. The obsidian blades were razor sharp and intended to disable an enemy so he could be captured.

Aztecs Meet Their Match

In 1519, Hernan

Cortes led about 450 soldiers to Mexico and Tenochtitlan After an initial repulse, Cortes built a small fleet of ships, placed Tenochtitlan under siege, and in 1521 starved the city into surrender

Hernan Cortes

Montezuma II

Cortes Advantages
Population density, Large animal domestication, Agriculture, Resistance to diseases passed

from animals and plants to humans, Technological inventiveness, Acceptance of change and improvement, Literacy, and Centralized government
Jared Diamond,

Guns, Germs, and

Steel

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Final Exam Review