Aztecs essays

Aztec's essays The Aztec nation is one of the largest and most advanced Indian nations to have ever existed on earth. Nearly every part of the Aztec life was advance to such a state that at that time in the world the Aztec people were living better lives than many of the European nations. (Ancient Aztec Civilization, 2001) The Aztec nation is unique in its history, economy, environment, and way of life then any other nation at that time. The Aztec civilization contained about 15 million people who lived in roughly 500 towns and cities across what we know today as modern day Mexico. Its major capital city, Tenochtitlan, was built in the Valley of Mexico, on islands in Lake Texcoco, the same site where Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, is today (Wood). Tenochtitlan is also home to the mighty pyramid-temple of Huitzilopochtli, the main god of the Aztec religion. Nearly half of the towns in this area were better organized than any European city of the time. A major component in the life of an Aztec citizen, man or woman, was religion. The religion of the Aztecs was incredibly complicated partly due to the fact that they inherited much of it through captured people (Welker, 2003). It is interesting that the Aztecs attempted to incorporate the gods of conquered people into their religion this was accomplished by considering the conquered peoples gods simply as manifestations of the gods they already worshipped (Bray). Often in the lower Aztec classes people would create whole gods out of what was considered only a manifestation of a single attribute of one god. Their religion was dominated by three gods: Huitzilopochtli (God of War and Sun), Tezcatlipoca (God), and Quetzalcoatl (God of Civilization, Priesthood, and Learning). Below these three gods were four creating gods who were isolated from the human world. Below these were a huge amount of other gods, the most important being Tlaloc (Rain God), Chalchihuitlicue, (God of Gr...