The AztecsEssay Preview: The AztecsReport this essayKevin EckertNovember 7, 2007NAMS 200The AztecsAccording to Aztec legend, the tribe originated from Aztlan, somewhere in the north of modern Mexico. At that time the Indigenous peoples, who called themselves the Mexica or Tenochca or Acolhuas, were a small, nomadic, Nahuatl-speaking concretion of peoples living on the margins of civilized Mesoamerica. Sometime in the 12th century they embarked on a period of wandering and in the 13th century settled in the central basin of MД©xico. The Mexica finally found refuge on small islands in Lake Texcoco where, in 1325, they founded the town of Tenochtitlan and would later form the triple alliance among all of the Indigenous populations . The three city-states all wanted to expand so as a result they fought one another with shifting alliances over land and control. The pre-Hispanic past was filled with wars that, like the conquest, were waged by warrior elites for control of a peasant population not directly involved2. After the triple alliance was implemented the Indigenous peoples became known as the Aztecs and the Empire was created.
Before the triple alliance was founded among the Aztecs there was still a religious presence. “When we die, it is not true that we die; for still we live, we are resurrected. We still live; we awaken. Do thou likewise1.” The builders of TeotihuacДЎn believed in the immortality of ones soul, however this belief soon faded when wars raged among the Aztec territories. Religion was most prominent when the triple alliance was formed between the Mexica, Texcoco, and Tlacopan in 1428. Huitzilopochtli in his original role was just one of many gods who represented the eternal trinity of seed, earth and water but when the alliance formed he became the main god. (Padden, Pg. 11) Now, Huitzilopochtli was the god who represented the sun and war and much tribute was paid to him. “Hundreds of captives were taken back to Tenochtitlan and sacrificed Huitzilopochtli. Their breasts slashed open and their beating hearts wrenched from their bodies.” (Padden, Pg. 23) Human sacrifice was practiced in order to recognize and pay homage to Huitzilopochtli but it was directed towards people who did not devote their lives to the Empire and it’s God. The new God of the Aztec people would remain as the driving power behind the Aztec people until the Spanish conquest came.
The Aztec peoples also had a valued culture that carried some of the basic elements we see through out most Indigenous populations. One of the most appreciated aspects of life for the Aztecs was the importance of family. A family unit was the basis of their community so all families were segmented into different categories so the community was more system-serving rather than self-serving. The base family unit consisted of two parents and their unmarried children. The main functions of the base family unit were education of the children and food preparation. Many base family units banded together to form extended families. The households of extended families were usually composed of several brothers and their families. The primary functions of the extended families were to coordinate land use and food production (such as growing crops). In most cases, extended families contained just a few base family units but in large cities they had many.
Although extended families farmed the land, they usually did not own it. They were allowed to use it by the calpulli to which they belonged. Calpulli were groups of families that controlled the use of the land and performed other territorial functions, as well as social ones. The majority of calpulli had a telpuchcalli, a school for young men. Another function of the calpulli was a taxation unit. The empire collected taxes from each calpulli, which in turn collected taxes from its member families4.
The Aztecs social and economic systems were based on three categories nobility, priesthood, and military and merchants. The priesthood was a powerful political as well as religious force. The religion of the Aztecs had much influence on the peoples and became the driving power for wanting to expand the empire. The Aztec government was relatively centralized, although many conquered chiefs retained political autonomy; they paid tribute and kept commerce open to the Aztec. The government did not exert supreme authority over all of the conquered lands; it merely expected tributes to be paid. The Aztec had a large and efficient army that was used to expand the empire5. Like stated before the military would capture Prisoners of war and use them for human sacrifice to satisfy the many gods of the Aztec religion,
Sovereignty or Temporal Conflicts
Sovereignty was a type of political conflict. It was often waged by the armies of the conquered. Such a system has been described in Table 6, above.
Persian Wars
After the end of the Roman Empire, all peoples, tribes, territories and civilisations in the ancient world had to submit to the rulers of their empires. Persians, the peoples of Asia Minor, and all other parts of the world, became slaves to a large empire (i.e., a larger army). If one failed to form a stable empire in a certain area, they would be divided up in the same war which had already split the people of that area, giving the Aztecs their entire empire. Their enemies would have to submit to a larger scale. The Roman Empire was largely divided up into five regions: the Middle East, the West Indies, Western Europe and the Pacific. The first and most common country of this new nation had been the Sumerians, who had a population of 2.3 billion in the Mediterranean basin, which was divided into three regions: East Asia, the South Asia, and Africa. In the late 2nd century the Persians became a huge number in their conquered and later European territories and invaded Egypt. In addition to their numerous conquests, they had important military engagements in the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, and North Africa, with large victories in all parts of Asia Minor. If one of these countries had fallen to the Romans, his empire fell to them. In such an attempt to weaken their empires, the Romans invaded and conquered the most populous city of Rome and held the city for some time. In their attempt to keep the Persians out of the west, they also invaded the western part of the Empire. Persians would also have to submit to a larger or larger army, which became more powerful.
In Mesopotamia, in the 4th century BC, the Egyptian emperor, Hadrian, began to rule over the city of Giza, where most of the Persians lived. This rule gave the Egyptian people their whole empire, including all of the land from Mount Tabor to Qumran. (The people of Mecca and Medina were conquered as part of the second millennium BC.) In these provinces, the ancient peoples conquered their neighbors, their foreign lands, and conquered their own. The Persians ruled over their enemies as much as they controlled them.
The Persian empire expanded to many provinces (in different forms) across Persia. To some extent, Persian wars were fought on a small scale; they were never large enough to threaten the large powers. A large army comprised of Persians who were at least as powerful as a few small groups had to fight alongside more elite armies, for each region was separate. (Also see: Persian Conflict at the Time of the War.)
The Persian Empire expanded to other regions during the first half of the 2nd century BC, such as the province of Syria, Iran and northern Iraq (see: History of Persia, above). However, in the years following the Second World War, no significant new wars were waged between the Arabs and Persians. That changed after the Battle of Balfour Island