The Aztecs Before Contact with the Spanish
The Aztecs were Mesoamerican, nomadic people who lived in the city that is now called Mexico City and the neighbouring regions. The Aztecs founded a large empire that lasted for around 200 years. Their society was one of the most innovative of the 14th century. Although, it did contain some practices like human sacrifices that would be severely frowned upon the 20th century. They had a triple alliance with two other cities in the area; this alliance was set to rule over the Valley of Mexico. The city Tenochtitlan was ruled with military powers, which lead them to conquest new territory. Each city in the alliance had his or her own government under the rule of Montezuma, who was the ruler of Tenochtitlan at the time. The governments were forced to pay altered amounts praise to the triple alliance, which most of the praise went to Tenochtitlan. Keep in mind that the Aztecs didn’t necessarily rule the neighbouring cities; since they were conquering cities they sometimes had authority in ‘pockets’ over the region. The Aztecs became known as one of the most dominant forces in central Mexico. It wasn’t until the Spanish arrived in the 1500’s that the Aztecs lost their power. The Aztec empire may have continued growing if the Spanish didn’t arrive in 1519. The Spaniards lied to the Aztecs, they stole from them and eventually killed them. The native language of the Aztecs was Nahuatl. They developed intricate social, political, religious and commercial organisations that bought many of the regions ‘city-states’ under control by the 15th century. There were two main social classes, the pilli and the macehualli, there were also slaves, but they were treated fairly well.
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