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Kids learn about the timeline of the history of the Aztec Empire. Major events and the order they occured.

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The Aztec Calendar | Interactive Worksheet by Marina Wallace | Wizer.me

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Wizer.me free interactive worksheet - The Aztec Calendar by teacher Marina Wallace

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The Incas did not have a written language. Nonetheless, they adopted a unique system of recording information from their predecessors. This ancient "operating system," called quipus, dates back to 2600 BCE. "They were like early computers, early counting machines," says author and four-time Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker Kim MacQuarrie. Quipus were a system of knotted strings that stored data and communicated information. Cultures across the ancient Andean world used this system for thousands of years.

Check out this insightful video about quipu by Peru for Less, featuring award-winning author and documentary filmmaker Kim Macquarrie:

What is a quipu?

A , also spelled or , is an intricate system of knotted strings of various colors that store and convey information. Quipu literally translates to "knot" in Quechua. Many ancient Andean cultures used this knot system, including the Inca. Sometimes referred to as "talking knots," they served as a writing system. This was crucial since there was no formal written language. Though just strings and knots, the arrangement was extremely precise and sophisticated, communicating everything from accounting to genealogy. Made from cotton or camelid fibers, quipus were portable making it easy to transfer information over distances and store over time.

History of quipus

The Inca used quipus throughout their reign in the Andes, but they certainly weren't the first culture to use them. "[Quipus] were actually found in the ruins here 4,000 years before the Incas showed up," says MacQuarrie. Their use dates as far back as 2600 BCE up until 1532 CE. They were very effective as a universal method of communication between groups across the region that spoke different languages. As MacQuarrie shares, "[The Incas] started from one valley and they extended 2,500-3,000 miles in length with different cultures, different languages, different topographies, different resources - the only way they could make it work was to use quipus."

Quipus proved extremely useful to the Incas as their rule expanded across the region. "What the Incas would do if they conquered an area was go in and the first thing they would do is send their accountants, their inventory people," MacQuarrie says. "They would go in and literally count all of the different resources: the streams, the fields, they'd measure the fields, the people, the sexes of the people, mining, fishing, whatever. They would keep records of it and they would take that information back to Cusco and they would make decisions on how to administer that area."

The Inca were the last of millennia of ancient Andean cultures to use the quipu system. During the Spanish conquest between 1532 and 1572, the Spanish introduced their own spoken and written language, which took over the quipus' function.

What are quipus used for?

Inca quipus were primarily counting tools to store numerical data. However, some studies suggest they served literary and artistic purposes as well. As mentioned above, quipus stored inventory data of various resources in a community or region by using a decimal system represented by distinct bunchings and types of knots. They were also able to record census information, accounting data, military and ritual organization, calendar details, tax information and much more.

In addition, some believe that this Inca writing system sometimes served a performative function, like music notes on sheet music. Historians Edward Hyams and George Ordish believed certain knots and placements would give the actor or storyteller cues about how to bring a certain piece of art to life. "Pretty fascinating system, much of which the information of how it was used is lost. But they are still working on how to decipher them and they keep making discoveries," MacQuarrie says.

How do you read a quipu?

The knot value

Numerically, quipus work like a decimal system. There are three different types of knots: the single knot, the long knot and the figure eight knot. Sometimes referred to as Inca knots, the knots' arrangement on the strong shows its numeric value. Single knots represent tens, hundreds, thousands and ten thousands. The long knots represent two through nine, denoted by the number of turns in the knot itself. The figure eight knot represents number one.

The placement

The highest values are at the top of the string, then lower values as you make your way down. A space separates each value set (ten-thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens and single digits) on the string:

The reading

To read, you simply count the quantities held on each string. For example, if a string has a grouping of three single knots followed by a long knot with four turns, the value of that string is 34 (first string on the example below). Another example, if a string has a grouping of two single knots followed by a grouping of five single knots then followed by a figure eight knot, the value of that string is 251 (second string on the example below). One more example is if a string has one single knot followed by a grouping of three single knots followed by a grouping of two single knots followed by a figure-eight knot the value of that string is 1,321.
Skip to 00:01:38 of the video for a visual example by Kim MacQuarrie.
What is a quipucamayoc?

"The people that could read [quipus] were called quipucamayocs, " says MacQuarrie. Known as the keepers of the quipu, they were sort of like ancient accountants who both created and deciphered the quipus. "They would send these people around the provinces and they would collect all of the information and take it back. And that's how it was all tabulated," MacQuarrie says. Quipucamayocs played an important role over a span of 4,000 years, keeping data for the Inca and the civilizations that lived before them.
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Gina loves the hidden turquoise rivers of the Andes, the magical pink dolphins of the Amazon, and the lush ocean-view parks of Lima. She finds Peru to be the most inspiring country in the world, and has been exploring and writing about this sacred place since 2014.

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Quipu: The Ancient Computer of the Inca Civilization

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Learn about the history and purpose of quipus, the system of knotted strings that recorded data in the ancient Andean world.

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The Aztecs, Incas and Mayans were among the first inhabitants of Americas. Like many ancient civilizations that existed in the world like the Egyptians, Sumerians, Greeks, Romans and others have their own list of deities that they worshipped. Like the Romans and the Greeks, the Aztecs worshipped so many gods and goddesses.
Here's a list of the most notable gods and goddesses that the Mayan, Aztec and Inca people in ancient America worshipped.
Aztec gods and goddesses...

Image Source
Ometecuhtli
Ometecuhtli, which means "dual lord", is the god creator of the Aztecs.
Xipe Totec

Image Source

Xipe Totec, "flayed lord", is the god of vegetation, torture and sacrifice.
Tlaloc
Tlaloc, which means "growth-maker", is the Aztecs' god of rain and fertility.
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca, "lord of the smoking mirror", is the god of night sky.
Quetzalcoatl
Qpetzalcoatl, which means "feathered serpent", is the god of twins and learning.
Huitzilopochtli
Huitzilopochtli, "hummingbird of the south", is their god of sun and war.
Coatlicue
Coatlicue, "lady of the serpent skirt", is the goddess of earth of the Aztecs.
Xochiquetzal
Xochiquetzal is the goddess of love, beauty, flowers, young mothers, female sexuality, pleasure, prostitutes, craft and weaving.
Acolmiztli
Acolmiztli is a god of the underworld.
Yactecuhtli
Yactecuhtli is the god of merchants and travelers of the Aztecs.

Inca gods and goddesses...

Image Source Inti
Inti is the supreme god of the Incas. He is also regarded as god of the sun and the patron deity of the Inca Empire.
Viracocha

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Viracocha is Incas' great creator god. He is seen as the creator of all things like the universe, moon, sun and stars.
Illapu
Illapu is the Incas' god of weather.
Cuichu
Cuichu is the god of rainbow of the Incas.
Paca Mama
Paca Mama is the earth mother.
Mama Kilya
Mama Kilya is their goddess of the moon.
Mama Qoca
Mama Qoca is the sea mother.

Mayan gods and goddesses...

Image Source
Itzamna

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Itzamna is the ruler of heaven and of the other gods and thought to be residing in the sky.
Kinich Ahau
Kinich Ahau is the god of sun and considered an aspect of Itzamna.
Kukulcan
Kukulcan is the god of learning and crafts. He is also called the "feathered serpent".
Ah Puch
Ah Puch is the god of death and destruction. He brought disease and war.
Cizin
Cizin is the god of death and oftentimes link with earthquakes.
K
K is the Mayans' god of lightning.
Chac
Chac is the god of rain.
Hun-Hunahpu
Hun-Hunahpu is the Mayan's god of maize and vegetation.
Ixchel
Ixchel is the goddess of fertility, pregnancy and childbirth.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque
They are regarded as the Maya hero twins. Hunahpu and Xbalanque were the twin sons of Hun-hunahpu who tricked the lords of the underworld.

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Gods and Goddesses of the Aztecs, the Incas and the Mayans

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Here's a list of the most notable gods and goddesses that the Mayan, Aztec and Inca people in ancient America worshipped. Image Source Ometecuhtli Ometecuhtli, which means "dual lord", is the god creator of the Aztecs. Xipe Totec Image Source Xipe Totec, "flayed lord", is the god of vegetation, torture and sacrifice.

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The wealth and sophistication of the legendary Inca people lured many anthropologists and archaeologists to the Andean nations in a quest to understand the Inca's advanced ways and what led to their ultimate demise.

Opulent wealth

To imagine oneself living in the world of the Inca, one would have to travel back 500 years into a magnificent society made up of more than 10 million subjects. Cuzco, which emerged as the richest city in the New World, was the center of Inca life, the home of its leaders. "The riches that were gathered in the city of Cuzco alone, as capital and court of the Empire, were incredible," says an early account of Inca culture written 300 years ago by Jesuit priest Father Bernabe Cobo, "for therein were many palaces of dead kings with all the treasure that each amassed in life; and he who began to reign did not touch the estate and wealth of his predecessor but .... built a new palace and acquired for himself silver and gold and all the rest."

Money existed in the form of work-each subject of the empire paid "taxes" by laboring on the myriad roads, crop terraces, irrigation canals, temples, or fortresses. In return, rulers paid their laborers in clothing and food. Silver and gold were abundant, but only used for aesthetics. Inca kings and nobles amassed stupendous riches which accompanied them, in death, in their tombs. But it was their great wealth that ultimately undid the Inca, for the Spaniards, upon reaching the New World, learned of the abundance of gold in Inca society and soon set out to conquer it-at all costs. The plundering of Inca riches continues today with the pillaging of sacred sites and blasting of burial tombs by grave robbers in search of precious Inca gold.

While some remnants of the Inca's riches remain intact, many were destroyed as looters melted them down for their raw metal.

© Eduardo Mariano Rivero/iStockphoto

Growth of an Empire

The first known Incas, a noble family who ruled Cuzco and a small surrounding high Andean agricultural state, date back to A.D. 1200. The growth of the empire beyond Cuzco began in 1438 when emperor Pachacuti, which means "he who transforms the earth," strode forth from Cuzco to conquer the world around him and bring the surrounding cultures into the Inca fold.

Consolidation of a large empire was to become a continuing struggle for the ruling Inca as their influence reached across many advanced cultures of the Andes. Strictly speaking, the name "Inca" refers to the first royal family and the 40,000 descendants who ruled the empire. However, for centuries historians have used the term in reference to the nearly 100 nations conquered by the Inca. The Inca state's domain was unprecedented, its rule resulting in a universal language-a form of Quechua, a religion worshipping the sun, and a 14,000 mile-long road system criss-crossing high Andean mountain passes and linking the rulers with the ruled.

Referred to as an all-weather highway system, the over 14,000 miles of Inca roads were an astonishing and reliable precursor to the advent of the automobile. Communication and transport was efficient and speedy, linking the mountain peoples and lowland desert dwellers with Cuzco. Building materials and ceremonial processions traveled thousands of miles along the roads that still exist in remarkably good condition today. They were built to last and to withstand the extreme natural forces of wind, floods, ice, and drought.

This central nervous system of Inca transport and communication rivaled that of Rome. A high road crossed the higher regions of the Cordillera from north to south and another lower north-south road crossed the coastal plains. Shorter crossroads linked the two main highways together in several places. The terrain, according to Ciezo de Leon, an early chronicler of Inca culture, was formidable. By his account, the road system ran "through deep valleys and over mountains, through piles of snow, quagmires, living rock, along turbulent rivers; in some places it ran smooth and paved, carefully laid out; in others over sierras, cut through the rock, with walls skirting the rivers, and steps and rests through the snow; everywhere it was clean swept and kept free of rubbish, with lodgings, storehouses, temples to the sun, and posts along the way."

The beginning of the end

With the arrival from Spain in 1532 of Francisco Pizarro and his entourage of mercenaries or "conquistadors," the Inca empire was seriously threatened for the first time. Duped into meeting with the conquistadors in a "peaceful" gathering, an Inca emperor, Atahualpa, was kidnapped and held for ransom. After paying over $50 million in gold by today's standards, Atahualpa, who was promised to be set free, was strangled to death by the Spaniards who then marched straight for Cuzco and its riches.

Ciezo de Leon, a conquistador himself, wrote of the astonishing surprise the Spaniards experienced upon reaching Cuzco. As eyewitnesses to the extravagant and meticulously constructed city of Cuzco, the conquistadors were dumbfounded to find such a testimony of superior metallurgy and finely tuned architecture.

Inca walls show remarkable craftsmanship. The blocks have no mortar to hold them together yet stay tight because of their precise carving and configuration.

© Bartosz Hadyniak/iStockphoto

Temples, edifices, paved roads, and elaborate gardens all shimmered with gold. By Ciezo de Leon's own observation the extreme riches and expert stone work of the Inca were beyond belief: "In one of (the) houses, which was the richest, there was the figure of the sun, very large and made of gold, very ingeniously worked, and enriched with many precious stones....They had also a garden, the clods of which were made of pieces of fine gold; and it was artificially sown with golden maize, the stalks, as well as the leaves and cobs, being of that metal....Besides all this, they had more than twenty golden (llamas) with their lambs, and the shepherds with their slings and crooks to watch them, all made of the same metal. There was a great quantity of jars of gold and silver, set with emeralds; vases, pots, and all sorts of utensils, all of fine gold....it seems to me that I have said enough to show what a grand place it was; so I shall not treat further of the silver work of the chaquira (beads), of the plumes of gold and other things, which, if I wrote down, I should not be believed."

Machu Picchu and Living at Heights

What remains of the Inca legacy is limited, as the conquistadors plundered what they could of Inca treasures and in so doing, dismantled the many structures painstakingly built by Inca craftsmen to house the precious metals. Remarkably, a last bastion of the Inca empire remained unknown to the Spanish conquerors and was not found until explorer Hiram Bingham discovered it in 1911. He had found Machu Picchu, a citadel atop a mountainous jungle along the Urubamba River in Peru. Grand steps and terraces with fountains, lodgings, and shrines flank the jungle-clad pinnacle peaks surrounding the site. It was a place of worship to the sun god, the greatest deity in the Inca pantheon.

The survival of Machu Picchu over hundreds of years, on a mountaintop subject to erosion and mudslides, is a testament to Inca engineering.

© Bartosz Hadyniak/iStockphoto

Perhaps most unique about Inca civilization was its thriving existence at altitude. The Incas ruled the Andean Cordillera, second in height and harshness to the Himalayas. Daily life was spent at altitudes up to 15,000 feet and ritual life extended up to 22,057 feet to Llullaillaco in Chile, the highest Inca sacrificial site known today. Mountain roads and sacrificial platforms were built, which means a great amount of time was spent hauling loads of soil, rocks, and grass up to these inhospitable heights. Even with our advanced mountaineering clothing and equipment of today, it is hard for us to acclimatize and cope with the cold and dehydration experienced at the high altitudes frequented by the Inca. This ability of the sandal-clad Inca to thrive at extremely high elevations continues to perplex scientists today.

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The Conquest

How did Pizarro and his small army of mercenaries, totaling less than 400, conquer what was becoming the world's largest civilization? Much of the "conquest" was accomplished without battles or warfare as the initial contact Europeans made in the New World resulted in rampant disease. Old World infectious disease left its devastating mark on New World Indian cultures. In particular, smallpox spread quickly through Panama, eradicating entire populations. Once the disease crossed into the Andes its southward spread caused the single most devastating loss of life in the Americas. Lacking immunity, the New World peoples, including the Inca, were reduced by two-thirds.

With the aid of disease and the success of his initial deceit of Atahualpa, Pizarro acquired vast amounts of Inca gold which brought him great fortune in Spain. Reinforcements for his troops came quickly and his conquest of a people soon moved into consolidation of an empire and its wealth. Spanish culture, religion, and language rapidly replaced Inca life and only a few traces of Inca ways remain in the native culture as it exists today.

Indigenous people of Peru today retain some echoes of the Inca way of life, but most of the culture has vanished.

© Bartosz Hadyniak/iStockphoto

Editor's Notes

This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Ice Mummies.

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The wealth and sophistication of the legendary Inca people lured many anthropologists and archaeologists to the Andean nations in a quest to understand the Inca's advanced ways and what led to their ultimate demise. To imagine oneself living in the world of the Inca, one would have to travel back 500 years into a magnificent society made up of more than 10 million subjects.

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Engineering an Empire: Aztecs (Video 1) 

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Engineering an Empire: Aztecs (Video 1) 

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Engineering An Empire - The Aztecs - part 4

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Kids learn about the Timeline of the history of the Inca Empire including the rise of the Inca and the Spanish conquest.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernan Cortes. He conquered the Aztec Empire.

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Kids learn about the Daily Life of people during the Aztec Empire including food, clothing, housing, and education.

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Kids learn about the daily life of the people of the Inca Empire including clothing, food, housing, and education.

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On November 16, 1532, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer and conquistador, springs a trap on the Incan emperor, Atahualpa. With fewer than 200 men against several thousand, Pizarro lures Atahualpa to a feast in the emperor's honor and then opens fire on the unarmed Incans. Pizarro's men massacre the Incans and capture Atahualpa, forcing him to convert to Christianity before eventually killing him.

By 1532, the Inca Empire was embroiled in a civil war that had decimated the population and divided the people's loyalties. Atahualpa, the younger son of former Incan ruler Huayna Capac, had just deposed his half-brother Huascar and was in the midst of reuniting his kingdom when Pizarro arrived in 1531, with the endorsement of Spain's King Charles V. On his way to the Incan capital, Pizarro learned of the war and began recruiting soldiers still loyal to Huascar.

Pizarro met Atahualpa just outside Cajamarca, a small Incan town tucked into a valley of the Andes. Sending his brother Hernan as an envoy, Pizarro invited Atahualpa back to Cajamarca for a feast in honor of Atahualpa's ascendance to the throne. Though he had nearly 80,000 soldiers with him in the mountains, Atahualpa consented to attend the feast with only 5,000 unarmed men. He was met by Vicente de Valverde, a friar traveling with Pizarro. While Pizarro's men lay in wait, Valverde urged Atahualpa to convert and accept Charles V as sovereign. Atahualpa angrily refused, prompting Valverde to give the signal for Pizarro to open fire. Trapped in tight quarters, the panicking Incan soldiers made easy prey for the Spanish. Pizarro's men slaughtered the 5,000 Incans in just an hour. Pizarro himself suffered the only Spanish injury: a cut on his hand sustained as he saved Atahualpa from death.

Realizing Atahualpa was initially more valuable alive than dead, Pizarro kept the emperor in captivity while he made plans to take over his empire. In response, Atahualpa appealed to his captors' greed, offering them a room full of gold and silver in exchange for his liberation. Pizarro consented, but after receiving the ransom, Pizarro brought Atahualpa up on charges of stirring up rebellion. By that time, Atahualpa had played his part in pacifying the Incans while Pizarro secured his power, and Pizarro considered him disposable. Atahualpa was to be burned at the stake-the Spanish believed this to be a fitting death for a heathen-but at the last moment, Valverde offered the emperor clemency if he would convert. Atahualpa submitted, only to be executed by strangulation. The day was August 29, 1533.

Fighting between the Spanish and the Incas would continue well after Atahualpa's death as Spain consolidated its conquests. Pizarro's bold victory at Cajamarca, however, effectively marked the end of the Inca Empire and the beginning of the European colonization of South America.
READ MORE: Ancient America: Maya, Inca, Aztec and Olmec

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Fransisco Pizarro Traps Incan Emperor Atahualpa

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Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer and conquistador, springs a trap on the Incan emperor, Atahualpa. Pizarro forces him to convert to Christianity before eventually killing him.

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In the decade before the Spanish arrived in Mexico, Aztec Emperor Montezuma II and his people were filled with a sense of foreboding. A series of evil omens had foretold of calamities to come. A fiery comet crossed the sky. The temple of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, burst into flames. The Lake of Mexico boiled and rose, flooding into houses. A weeping woman passed by in the middle of the night, crying "My children, we must flee far away from this city!" Fishermen discovered a bird that wore a strange mirror in the crown of its head. Montezuma looked into the mirror and saw a distant plain, with people making war against each other and riding on the backs of animals resembling deer.

An agitated Montezuma demanded that his soothsayers explain the meaning of these dire signs and was told that they prophesied the destruction of his kingdom. In fact, Montezuma had reason to be fearful - the Spanish had settled in Hispaniola and Cuba and were making their way toward his empire.

The Spanish had made several expeditions to the nearby Yucatan in 1517 and had returned with wonderous tales of a high-cultured Mayan civilization and gold riches. The news of these discoveries made an electrifying impression on the Spanish colonists in Cuba. Among these was Hernán Cortés, Chief Magistrate of Santiago. The Spanish governor of Cuba, Diego de Velásquez, told Cortés that he would provide two or three ships if Cortés would find the rest of the money, and lead the army. Cortés agreed and on October 23, 1518, Velásquez appointed him "captain-general" of a new expedition to the Yucatan.

Every night there arose a sign like a tongue of fire.

A woman was heard weeping,"My children, we must flee far away from this city!"

Montezuma sees fighting men in the distance, riding the backs of deer.
Credit: "General History of the Things of New Spain" (Florentine Codex), Books I-IX and XII, translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. Santa Fe, New Mexico and Salt Lake City: The School of American Research and the University of Utah Press. Used courtesy of the University of Utah Press.

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P B S : C o n q u i s t a d o r s - C o r t é s

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The Conquistadors is a four-part series airing on PBS in Spring 2001. The Conquistadors website explores the adventures of Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, Fracisco de Orellana and Cabeza de Vaca in the New World as Michael Wood retraces their journeys in modern-day South America and the southern United States.

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(Image credit: National Museum of Anthropology )

Tenochtitlán was an Aztec city that flourished between A.D. 1325 and 1521. Built on an island on Lake Texcoco, it had a system of canals and causeways that supplied the hundreds of thousands of people who lived there.

It was largely destroyed by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés after a siege in 1521, and modern-day Mexico City now lies over much of its remains. In a 1520 letter written to King Charles I of Spain, Cortés described the city that he would soon attack:

"The city is as big as Seville or Cordoba. The main streets are very wide and very straight; some of these are on the land, but the rest and all the smaller ones are half on land, half canals where they paddle their canoes." (From "An Age of Voyages: 1350-1600," by Mary Wiesner-Hanks, Oxford University Press, 2005)

He noted the city's richness, saying that it had a great marketplace where "sixty thousand people come each day to buy and sell..." Its merchandise included "ornaments of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, stones, shells, bones and feathers ..."

In June 2017, officials with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced they had discovered an ancient ceremonial ball court and an Aztec temple dedicated to the wind god Ehécatl, both of which were likely in use from A.D. 1481 until 1519 in Tenochtitlan, in modern-day Mexico City. Nearby the ball court, archaeologists discovered the neck bones of 30 infants and children. The findings were part of the Urban Archaeology Program, in which archaeologists are uncovering the remains of the razed. Aztec capital.

Origins of Tenochtitlán

According to legend, the Aztec people left their home city of Aztlan nearly 1,000 years ago. Scholars do not know where Aztlan was, but according to ancient accounts one of these Aztec groups, known as the Mexica, founded Tenochtitlán in 1325.

The legend continues that Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, the sun and human sacrifice, is said to have directed the Mexica to settle on the island. He "ordered his priests to look for the prickly pear cactus and build a temple in his honor. They followed the order and found the place on an island in the middle of the lake ..." writes University of Madrid anthropologist Jose Luis de Rojas in his book "Tenochtitlán: Capital of the Aztec Empire" (University of Florida Press, 2012).

De Rojas notes that the "early years were difficult." People lived in huts, and the temple for Huitzilopochtli "was made of perishable material." Also in the beginning, Tenochtitlán was under the sway of another city named Azcapotzalco, to which they had to pay tribute.

Political instability at Azcapotzalco, combined with an alliance with the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan, allowed the Tenochtitlán ruler Itzcoatl (reign 1428-1440) to break free from Azcapotzalco's control and assert the city's independence.

Over the next 80 years, the territory controlled by Tenochtitlán and its allies grew, and the city became the center of a new empire. The tribute that flowed in made the inhabitants (at least the elite) wealthy. "The Mexica extracted tribute from the subjugated groups and distributed the conquered lands among the victors, and wealth began to flow to Tenochtitlán," writes de Rojas, noting that this resulted in rapid immigration into the city.

The city itself would come to boast an aqueduct that brought in potable water and a great temple dedicated to both Huitzilopochtli (the god who led the Mexica to the island) and Tlaloc, a god of rain and fertility.

Aztec social organization

The people of Tenochtitlán were divided into numerous clan groups called calpulli (which means "big house"), and these in turn consisted of smaller neighborhoods. "Usually, the calpulli was made up of a group of macehaultin (commoner) families led by pipiltin (nobles)" writes California State University professor Manuel Aguilar-Moreno in his book "Handbook to Life in the Aztec World" (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Fray Diego Durán, a Spaniard who lived in Mexico a few decades after Cortés' conquest, wrote that King Motecuhzoma (or Montezuma) I, who reigned from 1440 to 1469, created an education system where every neighborhood had to have a school or temple to educate youth.

In those places "they will learn religion and correct comportment. They are to do penance, lead hard lives, live with strict morality, practice for warfare, do physical work, fast, endure disciplinary measures, draw blood from different parts of the body, and keep watch at night..." (Translation by Doris Heyden)

Another feature of Tenochtitlán's society was that it had a strict class system, one that affected the clothes people wore and even the size of the houses they were allowed to build. "Only the great noblemen and valiant warriors are given license to build a house with a second story; for disobeying this law a person receives the death penalty..." Fray Durán wrote.

Among the people considered to be in the lower classes were the porters the city relied on. The lack of wheeled vehicles and pack animals meant that the city's goods had to be brought in by canoe or human lifting. Surviving depictions show porters carrying loads on their backs with a strap secured to their forehead.

Trade and currency

As Tenochtitlán's empire grew so did its trade. Aguilar-Moreno writes that a pivotal moment in the city's economic history was its capture of the nearby city of Tlatelolco in 1474. He notes that Tlatelolco was a "trade city" and that the "union of these two cities made the site of Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco the economic and political center of the Valley of Mexico." [ Related: Aztec Conquerors Reshaped Genetic Landscape of Mexico]

Instead of minted currency people bartered for goods using "cacao beans for small transactions, cotton blankets for mid-range ones, and quills filled with gold dust for large business operations," writes researcher Carroll Riley in her book "Rio del Norte: People of the Upper Rio Grande From Earliest Time to the Pueblo Revolt" (University of Utah Press, 1995).

She notes that metallurgy played a major role in Tenochtitlán's economy and society. "Metallurgy was now well established for copper, silver, and gold; there was even enough metal to allow copper to be used for agriculture and industrial tools as well as for armaments and jewellery."

Aztec writing

The writing used by the people of Tenochtitlán, and by other Aztec groups, was what researchers call "pictorial." This means that "it is composed predominately of figural images that bear some likeness to, or visual association with, the ideas, things, or actions they represent," writes Elizabeth Boone in her book "Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs" (University of Texas Press, 2000). She notes, however, that this system of writing "also contains abstractions and other marks that were arbitrarily assigned certain meanings, meanings unrelated to their likeness." [ Related: Amazing Aztecs Were Math Whizzes Too]

The Aztecs used this writing system to create "codices" made from the bark of fig trees. "Hundreds of manuscripts existed at the time of the Aztecs. All but eleven disappeared with the arrival of the Europeans. The majority were destroyed in a bonfire ordered by [Fray] Juan de Zumárraga in 1535," writes Houston Museum of Natural Science curator Dirk Van Tuerenhout in his book "The Aztecs: New Perspectives" (ABC-CLIO, 2005). He notes that the Spanish priests objected to the Aztec religious content in the codices.

(Image credit: National Museum of Anthropology )

Templo Mayor

At the heart of the city was a sacred area surrounded by a wall. "Within the enclosure were more than seventy buildings, and these were surrounded by a wall decorated with images of serpents, called a coatepantli," writes de Rojas.

Archaeologists are still trying to determine exactly what this sacred area looked like, and how it changed over time, but scholars know for sure that the greatest structure was a place that the Spaniards called the "Templo Mayor" (main temple). As mentioned earlier, it was dedicated to the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc.

"Standing about ninety feet [27 meters] high, the majestic structure consisted of two stepped pyramids rising side by side on a huge platform. It dominated both the Sacred Precinct and the entire city," writes Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Heidi King in an online article.

Two long, broad, staircases led to the top of monument where two temples stood. "The temple structures on top of each pyramid were dedicated to and housed the images of the two important deities," writes King.

It was a place where great, and gruesome, rituals were performed. "We know of human sacrifice at the top of the Templo Mayor, but it also was the scene of athletes and dancers moving gracefully in and around platforms and braziers," writes University of Utah professor Antonio Serrato-Combe in his book "The Aztec Templo Mayor: A Visualization" (The University of Utah Press, 2001).

The human sacrifice element should not be underestimated, though. Serrato-Combe points out that there were two Tzompantli (skull racks) located near the Templo Mayor, a bigger one to the west and a smaller one to the north.

A Spanish account of a sacrifice reads that "the high priest who wielded the sacrificial knife struck the blows that smashed through the chest. He then thrust his hand into the cavity which he had opened to rip out the still beating heart. This he held high as an offering to the sun..." (Account by Fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinia, from the book "The Aztec Templo Mayor: A Visualization")

The fall of Tenochtitlán

Michael Smith, a professor at the State University of New York at Albany, notes that when Cortés landed in Mexico in 1519 he was, initially, greeted with gifts of gold from Tenochtitlán's ruler Motecuhzoma (or Montezuma) II. The king may have been hoping that the gifts would appease the Spanish and make them go away, but it had the opposite effect.

"The gold, of course, made the Spaniards more anxious than ever to see the city. Gold was what they sought," Smith writes in his book "The Aztecs" (Blackwell Publishing, 2003).

Cortés pushed on to Tenochtitlán, where Motecuhzoma II again gave the conquistador a warm welcome. Cortes then repaid the ruler by taking him prisoner and trying to rule the city in his name. This arrangement quickly soured with dissident groups naming Cuitlahuac, the king's brother, to take over from the soon-to-be-killed Motecuhzoma.

Cortés fled the city on June 30, 1520, but within several months started marching back with a great army to conquer it. Smith notes that this force was made up of 700 Spaniards and 70,000 native troops who had allied themselves with the Spanish.

"Much of the Spanish success was owed to the political astuteness of Hernando Cortés, who quickly divined the disaffection towards the Mexica that prevailed in the eastern empire."

This army laid siege to Tenochtitlán, destroying the aqueduct and trying to cut off food supplies to the hundreds of thousands of people in the city. Making matters worse is that the inhabitants of the city had recently been decimated by a smallpox plague to which they had no immunity.

"The illness was so dreadful that no one could walk or move. The sick were so utterly helpless that they could only lie on the beds like corpses..." wrote Friar Bernardino de Sahagún (from "The Aztecs" book).

The sheer size of Cortés force, their firepower and the plague ravaging Tenochtitlán made victory inevitable for the Spaniards. The city was theirs in August 1521. Smith notes that the Tlaxcallan soldiers that were in Cortés force "went on to massacre many of the remaining inhabitants of Tenochtitlán."

Smith notes that an elegy for the city was later written, it reads:
Broken spears lie in the roads; we have torn our hair in grief. The houses are roofless now, and their walls are red with blood. We have pounded our hands in despair against the adobe walls, for our inheritance, our city, is lost and dead. The shields of our warriors were its defense, but they could not save it.
(Translated from the Nahuatl language by Miguel León-Portilla)

The ancient city had fallen, and a new Spanish colonial city would be built atop its ruins.
- Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor Editor's Note: This reference article was first published on May 23, 2013. It was updated with new discoveries on June 15, 2017.

Owen Jarus writes about archaeology and all things about humans' past for Live Science. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University. He enjoys reading about new research and is always looking for a new historical tale.

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(Image credit: National Museum of Anthropology ) Tenochtitlán was an Aztec city that flourished between A.D. 1325 and 1521. Built on an island on Lake Texcoco, it had a system of canals and causeways that supplied the hundreds of thousands of people who lived there.

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