...The Aztecs were and ancient civilizations that were successful and created who ruled an empire in mesoamerica from 1350-1590. Rrom the capital city of tenochtitlan, presently the site of modern day Mexico City, the Aztecs had many achievements. Two aspects of their culture the they are known for are human sacrifice and agriculture. However, historians should emphasize on human sacrifice. It was human sacrifice that led the Aztecs expanding their empire. There is a connection between territorial expansion and human sacrifice. Document A states that as the Aztec empire grew, they purposely left territories alone for the use of "flower wars" to capture sacrifitial victims. This meant that the Aztec were getting their sacrifitial victims from their own city....
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...September 25,2012 In 1492 meanwhile Spaniards reconquested the last Muslim kingdom that fell into Catholicism, Columbus’ voyages embarked with conquerors heading for fame, fortune and most of all to expand the Roman Catholic faith. One of these conquerors was Cortes who was under the authority of Diego Valazquez governor of Cuba, like most conquerors Cortes broke away from Valazquez and headed to conquer Mexico, which he heard is a country full of riches. Cortes’ use of leadership played a fundamental role the result of the conquest of Mexico. From the very beginning he to induced fear into the Mexicas with the usage of technology, he made them believe they were tueles by acting god like, he befriended many enemy states and most of all his military technique when they entered Tencohtitlan lead to their conquest of Mexico. Moctezuma’s leadership on the other hand lead to the conquest of Mexico, he would give gifts and praise the Spaniards not inflicting fear. He lost all power over the Mexicas once he was captured which lead to their conquest. Leadership, military and political strategies led to the conquest of Mexico. The Spaniards finally arrived at the Port of San Juan de Ulua, they were greeted by two ambassadors sent by Moctezuma. These ambassadors were accompanied with painters to take pictures back to their prince. Cortes saw this as a chance to make an impression of their technology and strength. “Cortes Ordered our gunner to load the lombards with great charge...
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...How and when did the Aztec and Inca empires fall? . The Aztec and Inca names do not necessarily refer to people who inhabited the Americas but they reference the empires themselves. The empires were made up of many groups. The Aztec Empire encompassed the ethnic groups of the Acolhua, the Tepanecs and the Mexicas. The Aztec Empire was ruled by the Mexicas. The Mexicas were warriors. They built their capitol in a city called Tenochtitlan. It was located where central Mexico is today (Chasteen 28). Hernan Cortes was a Spanish leader who had a lot of experience with the indigenous people by the time he came upon the Aztec empire. The Mexica had no clued what the Spanish wanted or their intentions. After the Mexica accepted the Spanish into their land, Cortes took their leader Moctezuma hostage. Next Cortes made allies with long time Mexica enemies (a common tactic by the Europeans) and waged war on the Mexica. The Mexica also suffered from a rapidly spreading sickness which worked to Cortes advantage to decimate the Aztec Empire. The Inca Empire was located in the areas of what today makes up Columbia, Peru and Chile. It was south of the Aztec Empire and its capitol was called Cuzco. It was made up of a federation of four governments. The Chinchay Suyu , Anti Suyu, Kunti Suyu, and Qulla Suyu (Wikipedia). A distant relative of Cortes by the name of Franscisco Pizarro used similar techniques to defeat the Inca Empire. Pizarro took the Incan leader hostage and eventually killed...
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...in forming what is presently known as Mexico. During the century XVI the indigenous princess was born into an aristocratic family until she was sold “como un esclava a los aztecas.” Quickly the beauty and intelligence of La Malinche set herself apart from the other slaves. Thus when the Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, arrived Malinche was presented as a useful present. Her previous knowledge of the Nahuah and Mayan languages and her rapid proficiency in Spanish made her Cortes’s ideal translator and consultant. La Malinche continuously proved her loyalty throughout the Spanish conquest. Not only did Malinche warn Cortes of possible ambushes (emboscadas) but she also convinced gente to form an alliance against Montezuma, the Aztec emperor. Over time, Malinche formed a relationship with Cortes and eventually gave birth to his son. The son of Malinche and Cortes marks beginning of the mestizo race, which dominates the population of Mexico in this day in age. Malinche “fue testigo del fin de una civilizacion y el augue de otra nueva y se convirtió en la madre simbólica del Nuevo group étnico” que shapes Mexico today. The role of La Malinche in the construction of present day Mexico is both revered and condemned. Historically, the consensus was that the traitorous alliance between Malinche and the Spanish conquerors was unforgivable. Recently, however, many have attempted to rewrite the unjust reputation of la “Eva Mexicana.” The song “La Maldición De La Malinche”...
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...Martin Feichtenschlager FORL 2150 08.06.2003 Question #1: Understanding of Amerindian/Native Americans October 11th (12th), 1492, the coast was rather quite, except for a moderate wind. The breeze was pushing the waves evermore further on the beach, slowly but surely reaching the foot of a dark-skinned native who was keeping watch along the shore. It was after midnight, as the Indians started crying out that they had seen large objects floating towards them. Soon smaller vessels with people, people not yet seen before, their skin so pale and their hair streaming with gold and some brown, was moving towards the shore. Aboard was a man, quite of stature, blond hair (wearing a hat) and a distinct nose, jumped out of the boat with two soldiers and walked towards the indigenous people. This was the first recorded meeting of the Europeans (Christopher Columbus) and the Indians of South America, the first of their kind called the Arawaks. This marked the opening of a New World and new opportunities for the Europeans, but not the Indians, for them it was mainly a disaster as was mentioned in the book Born in Blood and Fire, written by John Charles Chasteen, “Neither the Europeans’ “Old World” nor the “New World,” as they called the Americas would ever be the same afterward.” (Chasteen, pg. 29) They had somehow managed to live peacefully and resourcefully before the white man came. Life in Central and South America was socially and religiously quite simple compared to...
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...husband and son; her mother either sold or gave her to Mayan traders. Her death was faked by showing the townspeople the body of a dead child who had belonged to a slave. There is no way to possibly know how she was treated while being a slave. I believe she may have been useful to the Mayan traders because of her ability to learn languages. Being quite beautiful and intelligent she was given as tribute to Cortez in 1519 upon the defeat of the Cacique of Tabasco Mayans; she was among 20 young women. Malintzin then became a gift from Cortez to Alonzo Hernando Puertocarrero, a well born member of his expedition. When Puertocarrero went back to Spain, Cortez took her for himself. Besides her native tongue of Nahuatl, the common language of the Aztecs, she also learned several dialects of the Mayan languages from the time she had spent with them. Another member of Cortez expedition was a priest who could speak...
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...When Hernando Cortéz left Cuba in February of 1519 with 550 soldiers on 11 ships, he could have no idea that one of the oldest soldiers in his company would become the last living survivor of his great conquest. Bernal Díaz not only participated in all of the great events of the conquest, but as an old, old man living almost without funds in Honduras, he happened to read an idealized and romanticized history of the conquest written by a priest and determined—at the age of 79—to set the record straight. Though Bernal Díaz died at the age of 84, he was able to complete his eminently readable sixvolume account of the conquest of Mexico. Though the priest's version of the conquest tells that Cortéz secretly burned the boats of the expedition so that his men would be unable to retreat and would have to advance, Díaz corrects him. Cortéz, says Díaz, was appalled to learn that the boats had been attacked by sea worms and that they were no longer seaworthy. Moreover, the fittings of the ships were made of metal that could be salvaged and used to make both guns and ammunition necessary for the conquest. According to Díaz, Cortéz called his men together and informed them of the problems, then they voted to burn the ships. Díaz also sets the record straight with regard to Doña Marina, the brilliant girl from a Yucatan tribe who spoke several of the Mexican dialects and thus became invaluable to Cortéz as interpreter, negotiator, and guide. He acknowledges that Doña Marina...
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...130 Individual Research Paper The Aztecs and the role of Human Sacrifice The Aztec was a culture that dominated the Valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the Nahua-speaking peoples in the Valley of Mexico were Aztecs, while the culture that dominated the area was Tenochca. At the time of the European conquest, they called themselves either "Tenochca" or "Toltec," which was the name assumed by the bearers of the Classic Mesoamerican culture, stated in Manuel Aguilar-Moreno’s book, Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. Sadly, many of the Aztec didn't survive after the arrival of the Europeans. But during the earlier years, the Aztec became one of the most advanced civilizations because of their religion, war, and agriculture. The Aztecs gained an infamous reputation for their bloodthirsty human sacrifices with explicit tales of the beating heart being ripped from the still-conscious victims, decapitation, skinning and dismemberment. All of these things did happen but it is important to remember that for the Aztecs the act of sacrifice was a strictly ritualized process that gave the highest possible honor to the gods and was regarded as a necessity to ensure mankind’s continued prosperity. The Aztecs were not the first civilization in Mesoamerica to practice human sacrifice; human sacrifice was practiced to some extent by many peoples in Mesoamerica and around the world for many centuries. But it was the Aztec empire that really took the ritual to...
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...“To start of, I’m going to tell you about the daily life, Mr. Cortes. The daily life in the Aztec Empire, if you were rich, would be like, you staying in the best home you could ever imagine, everyday. The rich don’t really do much work for themselves, they have slaves to do their work for them. And the poor, they don’t have slaves. They do their own work, all by themselves, all the time. It’s like doing your homework 24 seven. The rich also live in homes built of sun-dried brick and sometime stone, it just depends. And, stone can be very pretty sometimes. They also have whitewash, to make them sparkle. There is separate areas for steam baths, to wash themselves. Staying clean is very important to them. And lastly their clothes are colorfully embroidered and decorated with features. They even have fans to carry, fans are a sign of status. But the poor on the other hand, aren’t as lucky. They are mostly farmers, and farmers, well they work a lot. They live in huts with thatched roofs, which is a roof covered in straw or another material like it. And on the inside, there isn’t much of anything. But there is woven baskets and mats to cover the floor and to hold...
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...The Aztecs where very interesting people. They came to Central Mexico around 1200 A.D. They believed that the gods would send signs to tell them where the new settlement would be. The sign would be an eagle with a serpent in its mouth sitting on a large cactus. Around 1332, the eagle was spotted in what is now known as Central Mexico. The Aztecs used different building Techniques from other cultures to build their buildings and temples. Some of the temples where built to represent the two most important gods, the sun god and the rain god. The City was built in the middle of a lake called Texcoco. The rest of the town was on five islands connected to the island by land or raised roads. Instead of building roads or streets they had creeks and...
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...Negative statements Positive statements When the era of Aztecs first began, life for them was very miserable, as all the best land had already been claimed and they were forced to work as slaves for other, much bigger tribes. Q1) In the Aztec society there was a hierarchy. This included the emperor, which had all the power. In theory the emperor was chosen by the gods, but was actually chosen by a group of high ranking officials. Next came the warriors, state officials and the priests. The warriors were high ranking because fighting in a war was a very celebrated activity. The state officials controlled their chosen state and they were elected by the ruling emperor. The priests were considered very important, they would perform the ritual to rip out their sacrifices hearts and recorded all of the religious events. Below them were the merchants and craftsmen; the...
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...Dias de los mertos take place on two days November the first and second. The origins took place in a South America by the Aztecs 2,500-3,000 years ago. They use a flower called cempasúchitl that is yellow (like the sun people say) to honor the dead. Dia de los muretos was originated in Mexico about 3,000 years ago by the native people who were living there before the Spanish people came. It belief was pass down to other cutlers such as the Toltecs, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec and Aztecs. People prepare for dia de los mertos in a week advance when they make statues to celebrate their dead love ones, objects like masked and costumes, and sweets for example sugar skull. Dia de los mertos are celebrated on November 1st and 2nd . On the first day which is called all saints day is when they remember the children who passed away by putting toys and colorful object on their graves. On the second they remember the adults who passed...
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...When one thinks of the conquests where indigenous people are the losers, most assume that they were silenced by their oppressors with their culture lost in the wind. On the contrary, in Miguel Leon-Portilla’s Broken Spears, the Aztecs’ account of the events and their culture is well documented through manuscripts, codices, and written records of eyewitness accounts. The conquest is usually depicted as the Spaniards’ fight for land and resources, but Broken Spears shows that it was the Aztecs fight for the survival of their culture and way of life. Broken Spears uses written records of verbal accounts as its source on the conquest of Mexico. In the foreword, Klor de Alva addresses the quality of these sources by saying, “Eyewitness accounts of the events and sentiments...
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...Hernán Cortez and Montezuma were two powerful leaders from the time of conquest in the Americas starting around the 1400s. Hernán Cortez was a landowner in Cuba. He came to the coast of Mexico planning to conquer the Aztecs. As he traveled to the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, he conquered people who were in his way. His army grew as he captured people such as the Native Americans. Montezuma was the leader of the Aztecs and had conquered several city states in order to grow his empire. Under his leadership, the aztecs built the powerful city of Tenochtitlan. These two leaders were alike in the ways that they conquered villages and people but are different when it comes to personal life. Reading about these two leaders gave me the impression that they would do anything to get what they want. To me, it seemed like they did not care if their actions were right or wrong, as long as they were the ones coming out on top. Not only were Cortes and Montezuma alike because they were both leaders, they were also similar in the way that they led their people. Hernan Cortes captured anyone who was in his way when he was trying to get to Tenochtitlan. For example, he captured and befriended some Native Americans. Montezuma...
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... Hernan Cortes did not have the best interest of Mexico when he left Spain. When he left Spain in search of the New World, he only thought about his ambitions of greatness, and his search for more wealth, more gold, more power and more land. Despite this, however, his conquest of Mexico brought about many important benefits to it. One of the first major contributions of Hernan Cortes is Mexican civilization is his introduction of sugar. He then transferred cultivation of the cane to La Hacienda de Tlaltenango and installed the first known press in Mexico. There was also an exchange of technology between the Spaniards and the Native Americans. The Spaniards introduced to the Native Americans the use of plow which greatly helped in their farming. They also brought to Mexico techniques in the use of various traps, ax heads, knives, ice chisels, and muskets which helped in their hunting. Because of the different techniques, the Native Americans learned from the Spaniards, they were able to get more furs and subsequently improve their trading opportunities with the rest of the world. In addition, they were also able to improve cloth production which made them skilled weavers. Cortes can also be credited for introducing to Mexico the use of metals and irons. In fact, what made it very easy for Cortes and his men to conquer the Native Americans is its use of metals for its weapons and shields. Canons were also instrumental as the native was so...
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