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The Aztecs: All You Need to Know (7:07 - end)

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The Aztecs: All You Need to Know (7:07 - end)

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1. Consider the absorption of tribes into the Aztec Empire. How does that impact their culture and political/social dynamics? How does that breed conflict? (7:07 - end)
2. Why is Motecuhzoma significant, what did he do? Compare him with other famous leaders previously studied. (7:07 - end)

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1. Disprove the false stereotypes pushed onto the Aztecs by Spain.
2. Seek to understand the Aztecs compared to the empires of the Old World and see how their development differs.
3. Understand symbolism in Aztec art and how they were influenced by the Aztec political, economic, and social structure.

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1. Consider the map shown in Figure 1. What does this reveal about the Aztec empire and their provinces?
2. How did the Aztec Empire promote connections between Mesoamerica?

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This is a preview. Log in through your library.

Aztec culture provides a gateway to Mesoamerican studies because it represents the connecting point between the pre-Hispanic past and the globalized present. Current research on the Aztecs comes from several disciplines: anthropology, history, art history, religion, and literature. The nearly fifty articles on the Aztecs published by Ancient Mesoamerica since its inception in 1990 encompass the various branches of Aztec scholarship. In this article we discuss major themes in recent scholarship on the Aztecs: environment and subsistence, settlement and demography, economy, politics, and social relations, ideology and masterworks, and interregional relations. La cultura azteca proporciona un portal a los estudios de Mesoamérica, ya que representa la coyuntura entre el pasado prehispánico y el presente globalizado. La investigación actual sobre los aztecas provience de varias disciplinas: la antropología, la historia, la historia del arte, la religión y la literatura. Los cerca de cincuenta artículos sobre los aztecas publicados en la revita Ancient Mesoamerica, desde su creación en 1990, abarcan todas las distintas ramas de investigación sobre los aztecas. En este artículo se discuten los principales temas de los estudios recientes sobre los aztecas: el medio ambiente y la subsistencia, la colonización y la demografía, la economía, la política y las relaciones sociales, la ideología y las obras maestras, y las relaciones interregionales.

Journal Information

Ancient Mesoamerica is the international forum for the method, theory, substance and interpretation of Mesoamerican archaeology, art history and ethnohistory. The journal publishes papers chiefly concerned with the Pre-Columbian archaeology of the Mesoamerican region, but also features articles from other disciplines including ethnohistory, historical archaeology and ethnoarchaeology. Topics covered include the origins of agriculture, the economic base of city states and empires, political organisation from the Formative through the Early Colonial periods, the development and function of early writing, and the use of iconography to reconstruct ancient religious beliefs and practices.

Publisher Information

Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org) is the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, one of the world's leading research institutions and winner of 81 Nobel Prizes. Cambridge University Press is committed by its charter to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible across the globe. It publishes over 2,500 books a year for distribution in more than 200 countries. Cambridge Journals publishes over 250 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide range of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are the leading academic publications in their fields and together they form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today. For more information, visit http://journals.cambridge.org.

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Ancient Mesoamerica © 2009

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This is a preview. Log in through your library. Aztec culture provides a gateway to Mesoamerican studies because it represents the connecting point between the pre-Hispanic past and the globalized present. Current research on the Aztecs comes from several disciplines: anthropology, history, art history, religion, and literature.

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Understanding Aztec Human Sacrifice - ONLY THE FIRST TWO SECTIONS. STOP AT BIG "E". 

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Understanding Aztec Human Sacrifice - ONLY THE FIRST TWO SECTIONS. STOP AT BIG "E". 

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1. How do Cortés' and Bernal’s “sensationalized” stories reveal the nature of their role as Conquistadors?

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Internet Modern History Sourcebook: An Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

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Internet Modern History Sourcebook: An Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

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1. Consider Motecuhzoma’s introduction to Cortés. What does this reveal about how the Aztecs initially viewed the Spaniards and how did this aid Cortés in his conquest?
2. How does their interaction with each other reveal the diplomacy and political customs of the Aztec Empire?

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Modern History Sourcebook: This text is part of the
A Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico In 1519 Hernan Cortés sailed from Cuba, landed in Mexico and made his way to the Aztec capital. Miguel LeonPortilla, a Mexican anthropologist, gathered accounts by the Aztecs, some of which were written shortly after the conquest.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history. Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use of the Sourcebook. (c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
Speeches of Motecuhzoma and Cortés
When Motecuhzoma [Montezuma] had given necklaces to each one, Cortés asked him: "Are you Motecuhzoma? Are you the king? Is it true that you are the king Motecuhzoma?"
And the king said: "Yes, I am Motecuhzoma." Then he stood up to welcome Cortés; he came forward, bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: "Our lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth. You have come to your city, Mexico. You have come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy.
"The kings who have gone before, your representatives, guarded it and preserved it for your coming. The kings Itzcoatl, Motecuhzoma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzol ruled for you in the City of Mexico. The people were protected by their swords and sheltered by their shields.
"Do the kings know the destiny of those they left behind, their posterity? If only they are watching! If only they can see what I see!
"No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am not seeing you in my dreams.... I have seen you at last! I have met you face to face! I was in agony for five days, for ten days, with my eyes fixed on the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your throne again.
"This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. You have come back to us; you have come down from the sky. Rest now, and take possession of your royal houses. Welcome to your land, my lords! "
When Motecuhzoma had finished, La Malinche translated his address into Spanish so that the Captain could understand it. Cortés replied in his strange and savage tongue, speaking first to La Malinche: "Tell Motecuhzoma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words. Tell him that we love him well and that our hearts are contented."
Then he said to Motecuhzoma: "We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to fear."
La Malinche translated this speech and the Spaniards grasped Motecuhzoma's hands and patted his back to show their affection for him....

Massacre in the Main Temple
During this time, the people asked Motecuhzoma how they should celebrate their god's fiesta. He said: "Dress him in all his finery, in all his sacred ornaments."
During this same time, The Sun commanded that Motecuhzoma and Itzcohuatzin, the military chief of Tlatelolco, be made prisoners. The Spaniards hanged a chief from Acolhuacan named Nezahualquentzin. They also murdered the king of Nauhtla, Cohualpopocatzin, by wounding him with arrows and then burning him alive.
For this reason, our warriors were on guard at the Eagle Gate. The sentries from Tenochtitlan stood at one side of the gate, and the sentries from Tlatelolco at the other. But messengers came to tell them to dress the figure of Huitzilopochtli. They left their posts and went to dress him in his sacred finery: his ornaments and his paper clothing.
When this had been done, the celebrants began to sing their songs. That is how they celebrated the first day of the fiesta. On the second day they began to sing again, but without warning they were all put to death. The dancers and singers were completely unarmed. They brought only their embroidered cloaks, their turquoises, their lip plugs, their necklaces, their clusters of heron feathers, their trinkets made of deer hooves. Those who played the drums, the old men, had brought their gourds of snuff and their timbrels.
The Spaniards attacked the musicians first, slashing at their hands and faces until they had killed all of them. The singers-and even the spectators- were also killed. This slaughter in the Sacred Patio went on for three hours. Then the Spaniards burst into the rooms of the temple to kill the others: those who were carrying water, or bringing fodder for the horses, or grinding meal, or sweeping, or standing watch over this work.
The king Motecuhzoma, who was accompanied by Itzcohuatzin and by those who had brought food for the Spaniards, protested: "Our lords, that is enough! What are you doing? These people are not carrying shields or macanas. Our lords, they are completely unarmed!"
The Sun had treacherously murdered our people on the twentieth day after the captain left for the coast. We allowed the Captain to return to the city in peace. But on the following day we attacked him with all our might, and that was the beginning of the war
From Miguel LeonPortilla, ed., The Brohen Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), pp. 6466, 129131.

The Site Concept and Design: created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 20 January 2021 [ Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University. Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action. Paul Halsall CV]

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Modern History Sourcebook: This text is part of the A Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico In 1519 Hernan Cortés sailed from Cuba, landed in Mexico and made his way to the Aztec capital. Miguel Leon­Portilla, a Mexican anthropologist, gathered accounts by the Aztecs, some of which were written shortly after the conquest.

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Memoirs: The Aztecs by Bernal Diaz del Castillo

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Memoirs: The Aztecs by Bernal Diaz del Castillo

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1. Consider the specific objects being sold. What do they reveal about the natural resources and technology Aztecs had at this time? Why are these resources significant to Cortés and Spain?
2. Consider how the markets are controlled and regulated. What does this reveal about the relationship between economics and the government? Compare and contrast that with the economic systems of the Old World.