The Aztecs originally belonged to the Nahuatl (Nahuatl) Department of the lower level of development of a tribe, and later due to the absorption and integration of other Indian cultural traditions in this region and the rapid rise. Between the 11th and 12th centuries A.D., the Aztecs moved from the north into the Central Valley of Mexico, and in 1325 they built the city of Tenochtitlán on an island in the western part of Lake Texcoco. In 1426 the Aztecs formed the Aztec Confederacy with Texcoco and Tlacopan, headed by Aztec King Itzcóatl, which became increasingly powerful and established supremacy in the valley. The successor Moctezuma I and his successors continued to use foreign troops to expand the territory, and by the beginning of the 16th century, the territory had already reached the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast on the east and west, neighboring Chichimec in the north and Guatemala in the south, with a population of about 3 million people, which was the height of its development. 1519, Hernán Cortés (Hernán Cortés), a Spanish colonist, was appointed as the chief of the Aztecs, and he was given the title of "King of the Aztecs. In 1519, the Spanish colonizer Hernán Cortés took advantage of the internal conflicts among the Indians and attacked the Aztec nation. Moctezuma II was uncertain before the invaders and finally became a puppet of the Spanish colonizers, and in June 1520, when he was trying to persuade the people to surrender, he was wounded and died of wounds inflicted by the crowd. After Cortés survived the so-called "Night of Misery", he returned in 1521, and the Aztecs, led by their new king, Cuauhtémoc, fought to the death against the besieging Spanish colonizers, but were defeated by the deprivation of food and water, and by the ravages of smallpox. In August 1521, the Spaniards occupied Tenochtitlan, massacred and completely destroyed the city, and later built Mexico City on its ruins.
The Aztecs had a relatively developed agriculture, with corn, beans, squash, potatoes, cotton, and agave (Tequila) as the main crops, of which agave was a specialty. Livestock such as turkeys, ducks and dogs were raised. The Aztecs utilized lakes such as Texcoco to develop artificial irrigation systems, and it is said that there were 15,000 artificial channels in Xochimilco, south of Tenochtitlan, of which 900 still exist today. The handicraft industry was quite developed, and there were various kinds of crafts such as gold, silver, copper, precious stones, leather, textile, feathers, pottery and so on. Tenochtitlan, the capital, has an area of about 10 square kilometers and a population of 300,000 people. The streets and squares in the city are neatly set up, and there are more than 10 kilometers of waterproof dykes throughout the city, and there are two stone troughs to draw fresh water into the city from the land. Inside the city, there are shrines, royal palaces, administrative offices, nobles' residences, playgrounds, schools and other buildings. The market in the north of the city was the center of domestic trade, and it was recorded that it could accommodate 60,000 people to trade goods, which was bigger than the market in Spain.
The implementation of centralized rule, the highest leader of the king and the nobility above the people, and has a strong army, clearly shows that the Aztec society has been the transition to class society. Aztec kings were elected by tribal councils from specific families and were in fact paramount military chiefs with no hereditary rights and could be deposed by tribal councils. The Aztecs formed a unified political and cultural ****some with the tribes with which they were allied. Tribes conquered by the alliance were required to cede land and pay tribute to the alliance, but were allowed to keep their own tribal gods and customs and were governed by their own chiefs. The city of Tenochtitlan is divided into four major districts, which belong to four major cell clans. Below *** is divided into 20 clans, each of which has its own clan gods, priests and temples, and enjoys the right to conduct its own internal affairs. Each clan elected representatives to attend the council of chiefs. The land was divided into king's fields, priest's fields and military fields, which were cultivated collectively by the members of the commune for the needs of the king, nobles, priests and warriors. However, the social organization was still based on the clan commune called "Kalpuri", where the land was communally owned by the clans and distributed to the families for cultivation.
The Aztecs' social organization was based on clans and communal land ownership, but class divisions began to emerge, with nobles, priests, warriors, and merchants forming the ruling class of society. Nobles owned land and their own family name, and their children were entitled to special education. Commoners were educated in specialties such as agriculture, labor and war skills, and were the bulk of the military. At the bottom of the hierarchy were slaves, mainly from within the Aztecs, with a few prisoners of war from foreign tribes.
The Aztec civilization, in the course of its development, absorbed many of the achievements of the Toltec and Mayan cultures, but had originality of its own. Its writing was still pictographic, but already contained hieroglyphic elements. In terms of astronomical calendar, it used the solar calendar and the sacred year calendar, and it was known that a year lasted 365 days, with an extra day added in every leap year. In medicine, they knew how to use various kinds of herbs to cure diseases, and they had already used local anesthesia. Aztec pottery and paintings were extremely refined, and architecture and art also reached a fairly high level. The capital Tenochtitlan's public **** buildings are mostly made of white stone, very magnificent. Around the general houses, flowers and plants are planted on wooden rows fixed on the water surface, forming a water garden. The main temple in the center of the city base length of 100 meters, 90 meters wide, surrounded by battlements around the wall, the top of the tower was built to worship the main god Wizilopotamus and the god of rain Tlaloc temple, its altar surrounded by a snake's head stone carving, altar found under the 10-ton boulder, engraved with dismembered moon goddess pattern, in 1790 in the center of the plaza of Mexico City, found in the "Fifth Sun Stone "nearly 4 meters in diameter, weighing about 120 tons, carved with the Aztec religious legends since the creation of the four ages of the image, representing the Aztecs a high level of stone art. The Aztecs were excellent architects. The capital Tenochtitlan is an island city, there are three 10-meter-wide stone embankment and the lake outside the land connected to the stone embankment every certain distance to leave a cross channel, the channel on the drawbridge, can be readily put away in case of invasion by foreign enemies. The city was built with palaces, temples, official residences, schools, magnificent architecture, the largest one pyramid temple its size can even be compared with the ancient Egyptian. In order to meet the needs of the city's dense population for food, a unique "water garden" was built in the lake to expand the planting area. The island city was surrounded by water, with rivers running through the city, and the scenery was so rich that the colonizers fell in love with it and called it the "Garden of the World". But Cortés burned the city to the ground, and later Mexico City was built on the ruins. The Aztecs' main tools of production were still stone tools, mostly made of obsidian, but they could already make copper and gold objects. The Aztecs had an accurate calendar, used a variety of herbal remedies to treat illnesses, and had a certain level of skill in music, dance, and painting.
Religion played an important role in the life of the Aztecs. The inhabitants believed in the immortality of the soul and in the existence of a supreme master. They worshipped the gods of nature, the main god Huitzilopochtli was regarded as the god of the sun and the god of war, and the other gods were mainly: the god of creation, Tloque-Nahuaque, the sun god, Tonatinh, the rain god, Tláloc, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, the rain god, and the rain god. Tloque-Nahuaque, Tonatinh, Tláloc, the god of rain, Xilonen, the god of corn, Quetzalcóatl, the "two-headed god" Ometecuhtli, and his wife Omecíhuatl, etc. The king was regarded as the embodiment of the gods, and prisoners of war were sacrificed to them. Ometecuhtli and his wife, Omecíhuatl, etc., and the king was regarded as the embodiment of the god, and sacrifices were made to the gods as prisoners of war. One of its peculiar customs was the sacrifice of living human beings, thousands of whom were sacrificed to the gods each year. Warriors were proud to sacrifice themselves on the altar.
The Teotihuacan civilization was a typical urban civilization of ancient Mexican civilization. Around two centuries B.C., Teotihuacan began to take the form of a city "with an area of about twenty square kilometers and a population of about fifty thousand people". Between 350 and 650 AD, Teotihuacan's most prosperous period, the population may have reached around 200,000 people. The "Avenue of the Dead" extends three kilometers to the south, creating east-west avenues. The intersecting crossroads divided the city into four blocks. The temple of Ketzalcoatl was in the center of the city. At the northern end of the "Avenue of the Dead" stands the Pyramid of the Moon, and on both sides of the street are many temples, including the Pyramid of the Sun. At the southern end of the "Avenue of the Dead" is the Temple of the Plumed Serpent. Teotihuacan was an urban society with many classes and occupations, and there was already a sound civilized life. Between 650 and 750 AD, this civilization was destroyed, and archaeological evidence suggests that the city was supposedly destroyed by a man-made fire.
After the fall of Teotihuacan, a new period of Toltec civilization emerged, which was also the result of a long period of cultural exchange and intermingling of populations. The pioneers of these civilizations inherited the characteristics of the Teotihuacan civilization and established a new civilization in the Valley of Mexico. The Toltecs consisted mainly of foreign tribes who came to Culhuacan around the ninth century AD and established their capital in Tula.
The Aztecs later inherited the civilization of the Toltecs and combined it with their own creations to establish the last Indian civilization in the ancient Valley of Mexico. It was a process of cultural alternation.
As we mentioned earlier, the Aztecs were not native to the Valley of Mexico; they were a nomadic people. Around 1276 AD the Aztecs entered the Valley of Mexico and moved into Chapultepec. And because of their warlike nature, they constantly infested neighboring tribes, angering their neighbors. So they joined together in a crusade. The war resulted in a defeat for the Aztecs, with most of them being captured and a small number escaping to small islands. The captured Aztecs were taken to Kulhuacan, a dynasty of descendants of the Toltecs, and lived under the watchful eye of Cox's Cox's, the chief of Kulhuacan. Their reputation later soared as a result of meritorious service in one of the battles of Culhuacan. Around 1325 A.D., these Aztecs moved to live on an island in Lake Texcoco, joining those who had previously fled there. This island later grew into the city of Tenochtitlan.
The real development of the Aztecs should have begun with their fourth chief, Izcoatl (1426~1440), while Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina, or Muntizuma I, consolidated the rule of the Aztecs. Under Axayacatl (1449-1481), Tizoc (1481-1485), Ahuizotl (1486-1502), and Muntizuma II (1502-1520), Aztec rule expanded.
In 1519, an invading Spanish army led by Cortés launched a war of conquest against Tenochtitlan. According to Spanish accounts, Muntizuma II was stoned to death by his own people; according to Indian history, he was strangled by the Spaniards. After the death of Muntizuma II, Cuauhtlahuac succeeded to the throne, but died of smallpox a month later. The last chief was Cuauhtemoc, who organized the defense of Tenochtitlan and was hanged by the Spaniards four years later.