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The Aztecs, or Mexica as they called themselves, were the elite of a militaristic empire centered at Central Mexico when the Spanish conquistadores landed in America at the beginning of the 16th century. See the fact file below for more information about the Aztec civilization.

Aztec" refers exclusively to the people of Tenochtitlan. This city was located on an island in Lake Texcoco . The first ruler was Acamapichtli (1376-1396). He guided early construction of the city. The last and 11th ruler, Cuauhtemoc (1520-1525), who was governing when the Spanish destroyed Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire ended.

Several types of money were in regular use; small purchases were made with cacao beans and larger purchases were made with cotton cloth called quachtli.

Parents taught children responsibility, citizenship, and life-skills - harsh punishments were handed out if child disobeyed - children of noble class attended calmecac (school) and the workers' children attended telpochcalli and were taught occupational skills, warfare, history, good citizenship, religion but girls were trained for marriage.

Maize (yellow corn) was main food source along with avocados, tomatoes, tamales, tortillas, vegetables, meat, corn, chili peppers, squash, and chocolate.

Children played tlachtli - a ball game for teams much like a combination of basketball and soccer and patolli - a gambling game played with dried beans and pebbles.

Harsh laws maintained order where the emperor would act as judge and the citizens would act as the jury.

N'ahuatl is a system of hundreds of pictures that created an alphabet and scribes and priests were the only ones who could write.

War was a big part of the culture and all boys were trained to fight.

Aztecs used two different calendars, one measured time, while the other was used to fix religious festivals.

Religion was very important part of Aztec life and music was a huge part of religious ceremonies (and story-telling) - the instruments theyused were shells, rattles, whistles, horns, bells and drums.

List of Aztec Gods
(having many gods and goddesses is called polytheastic)
Chalchiuhtlicue - goddess of the lakes and streams

Chantico - goddess of the hearth

Chicomecoatl - goddess of maize

Coatlicue - goddess for the pain of life

Huehuetectim - god of fire

Huitzilopochtli - god of war, sun and the nation

Mictlantecuhtl - god of the dead

Quetzalcoatl - god of knowledge, creation, priesthood, and wind

Tezcatlipoca - god of magic, war and death

Tezcatlipoca - god of speech and language

Tlaloc - god of rain

Tloque Nahuaque - god of everywhere, the one supreme force, both male and female

Xipe Totec - god of spring and new life, god of suffering

Xochipilli - prince of flowers, god of dawn, dance and love

Ancient Aztec Worksheets

This bundle includes 11 ready-to-use Ancient Aztec worksheets that are perfect for students to learn about this historical civilization and empire which were the elite of a militaristic empire located in Central Mexico when the Spanish conquistadores landed in America at the beginning of the 16th century.

Throughout the extensive worksheet pack there are multiple lesson resources and quizzes for students to practice their knowledge which can be used within the classroom or homeschooling environment.

Included Ancient Aztec worksheets:

After completing these worksheets students will be able to:

Have a clear understanding about the history of the ancient Aztec empire and civilization.

Complete a number of quiz and fill in the blank activities to test their knowledge of the subject.

Locate where the Aztec civilization was on a map and answer questions about the location.

Write about the Aztec way of life and their contributions to the world.

Identify the concept being described in a series of statements about the Aztec empire.

Write about Aztec legacies and why thee implications of those are in past and present times.

Justify statements about the Aztec civilization by completing the ideas with their own thoughts.

Compare and contrast the way people lived in ancient Aztec to the way people live in modern day.

Link/cite this page

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Link will appear as Ancient Aztec Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, October 25, 2016
Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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Ancient Aztec Facts, Worksheets & Historic Information For Kids

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Not ready to purchase a subscription? Click to download the free sample version Download sample The Aztecs, or Mexica as they called themselves, were the elite of a militaristic empire centered at Central Mexico when the Spanish conquistadores landed in America at the beginning of the 16th century.

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Overview

Back to History
The three most dominant and advanced civilizations that developed in the Americas prior to the arrival of the Europeans were the Aztecs, the Maya, and the Inca.

Map of Aztec, Mayan, and Incan Civilizations
by Ducksters
Aztecs
The Aztec Empire was located in central Mexico. It ruled much of the region from the 1400s until the Spanish arrived in 1519. Much of the Aztec society centered around their religion and gods. They built large pyramids as temples to their gods and went to war to capture people they could sacrifice to their gods.

The capital city of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlan. This city was founded in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco. At the height of its power, the city likely had a population of 200,000 people. At the center of the city was a large temple complex with pyramids and a palace for the king. The rest of the city was planned out in a grid-like fashion and divided up into districts. It had causeways built to get to the mainland and aqueducts to bring fresh water into the city.

The Aztec called their ruler the Tlatoani. The Empire reached its height under the rule of Tlatoani Montezuma I. Around 1517 the priests of the Aztecs began to see omens of doom. They felt that something bad was going to happen. They were right. In 1519 Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes arrived in Mexico. By 1521 the Spanish had conquered the Aztecs. They tore down much of the city of Tenochtitlan and built their own city on the site called Mexico City.

Maya

The Maya civilization began as early as 2000 BC and continued to have a strong presence in Mesoamerica for over 3000 years until the Spanish arrived in 1519 AD. The Maya were organized into powerful city-states. Over the course of Maya history, different city-states came into power such as El Mirador, Tikal, Uxmal, Caracol, and Chichen Itza.

The Maya were located in Central America in a region that is today made up of southern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, and northern El Salvador. They built hundreds of cities filled with large stone structures. The Maya are perhaps best known today for their many pyramids. They built pyramids to their gods that towered hundreds of feet tall above the jungle.

The Maya were the only American civilization to develop an advanced written language. They also excelled in mathematics, art, architecture, and astronomy. The golden age of the Maya civilization occurred during what is called the Classic Period from 250 AD to 900 AD.

Inca

The Inca Empire was centered in Peru and ruled over much of the west coast of South America from the 1400s to the time of the Spanish arrival in 1532. This wide ranging empire did not have the wheel, iron tools, or a writing system, but its complex government and system of roads created a society where everyone had a job, a home, and something to eat.

The emperor of the Inca was known as the Sapa Inca. The first Sapa Inca was Manco Capac. He founded the Kingdom of Cuzco around 1200 AD. The city of Cuzco would remain the capital of the empire as it expanded in the coming years. The Inca expanded into a great empire under the reign of Pachacuti. Pachacuti created the Inca Empire which the Inca called the Tawantinsuyu. At its height, the Inca Empire had an estimated population of over 10 million people.

The Inca were conquered by the Spanish and conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1533. The empire was already severely weakened by civil war and diseases such as smallpox when Pizarro arrived.

Activities
Crossword Puzzle
Word Search

Recommended books and references:

Aztec, Inca, and Maya an Eyewitness Book by Elizabeth Baquedano. 2005.

The Aztec Empire by Sunita Apte. 2010.

Great Civilizations: The Aztec Empire by Sheila Wyborny. 2004.

Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Maya by Leonard Everett Fisher. 1999.

The Inca by World Book. 2009.

The Inca Empire by Sandra Newman. 2010.

Works Cited
Back to History

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Kids learn about the ancient civilizations of the Americas including the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca Empires.

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For Kids

The Aztec wandered around Mexico for about 200 years before they settled down in the Valley of Mexico. Other tribes were living in the area. Rather than start a war for a place to live, the Aztecs settled down peacefully (at first) in the swampy land around Lake Texcoco.

They were clever people. They adapted to their environment. They built canoes to fish and hunt. They filled the marshes with a combination of reeds and stones and dirt to create more farmland. They built dams and dikes to free even more land. Their engineers successfully built a bustling city, with wide plazas and many shops, on a swamp.

After they had settled in, the Aztec Indians began conquering neighboring tribes. Soon, the entire Valley of Mexico was under their control. Other tribes had to pay tribute to them in the form of food, clothing, goods, and captives to feed the hungry Aztec gods. The Aztec believed in human sacrifice. That was one of the many reasons the other tribes hated and feared the Aztec. But the Aztec seemed unstoppable.

It was not until the 1500s, when the Spanish arrived, that the Aztec were conquered. The Spanish brought guns, dogs, horses, and disease. It was disease that conquered the Aztec. The Aztec Empire collapsed. The Spanish took over the entire region.

Today, in Mexico, there are about one million descendants of the ancient Aztec, living and working. Human sacrifice is no longer part of their festivals (thank goodness!), but beautiful Aztec art and clever Aztec games are still enjoyed today.
Geography, Human-Environment Interaction Myth: Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus Story: Journey of a Princess Correct Behavior Aztec Gods & Religion Aztec Afterlife Government Floating Gardens The Flying Birds (an event) Tenochtitlan, capital city Specialized Professions Aztec Myths, Legends, and Stories for Kids Cortez & Spanish Arrival Achievements & Inventions Free Online Aztec Games Take the Quiz, Interactive (with answers)
Investigate Real Life Artifacts

For Teachers
The Aztecs for Teachers Free Presentations about the Aztecs
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The Awesome Aztecs for Kids and Teachers - Aztecs for Kids

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The Aztec wandered around Mexico for about 200 years before they settled down in the Valley of Mexico. Other tribes were living in the area. Rather than start a war for a place to live, the Aztecs settled down peacefully (at first) in the swampy land around Lake Texcoco.

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The scream of a thousand corpses: Horrifying sounds of the Aztec death whistle

The Aztec death whistle, sometimes described as "the scream of thousand corpses" is a frightening sound indeed. The skull-shaped whistles, discovered only 20 years ago by archaeologists, were dismissed as toys or burial trinkets. THAT IS, until someone decided to blow into one and... oh my god that horrifying sound came out.

Archaeologists and historians still aren't exactly sure what the Aztec whistles were specifically used for. Some suggest the terrifying sound the whistles make were used as a weapon of psychological warfare to scare the shit out of their enemies. Imagine hundreds of these whistles going off at the same time. Horrifying, right? Others suggest these whistles were used as a sendoff to the dead during burial ceremonies or perhaps for human sacrifices.

The video below, lets you hear what a single Aztec death whistle sounds like and then imagines what hundreds of these things going off at once might have sounded like.

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The scream of a thousand corpses: Horrifying sounds of the Aztec death whistle

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Aztec death whistle, sometimes described as "the scream of thousand corpses" is a frightening sound indeed. The skull-shaped whistles, discovered only 20 years ago by archaeologists, were dismissed as toys or burial trinkets. THAT IS, until someone decided to blow into one and... oh my god that horrifying sound came out.

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this is how the azte\cs would dance

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The dance ritual of the Aztecs in front of their holy land. Although the Spanish destroyed their main pyramid and turned it into a church. http://hana.bi/author/akira/

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The video shows 10 cool stuff and wierd stuff !