Aztec
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Aztecs were very successful people. The Aztec Empire lasted from the 14th to the 16th century. With their capital of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs settled in present-day Mexico. The Aztecs spoke the language of Náhuatl. The parts of the Aztec culture consisted of human sacrifices and the belief of mythical creatures. To add to this, the Aztecs had an extremely accurate calendar which consisted of 365 days. They also had a religious calendar which was made up of 260 days.
The Aztecs were a Native American people that lived in Mexico in the 15th and 16th century. They called themselves Mexicans or Nahua. The Aztec capital was Tenochtitlan. It was built on islands in a lake. Tenochtitlan was one of the greatest cities of the world in that time.
The Aztecs believed in several gods. Quetzalcoatl (feathered snake), Huitzilopochtli (hummingbird of the south) and Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror) were the most important ones. Sometimes the Aztecs killed humans because they wanted to please their gods. Between 1519 and 1521 the Spanish leader Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztecs and took their empire. Some Aztecs didn't want to fight against the soldiers of Cortés, because they thought they were gods.
Today many Mexicans have Aztec and other Native American forefathers. People still use Aztec symbols in Mexico. On the Mexican flag there is a picture of an eagle on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. This was an Aztec symbol. Also the name Mexico is an Aztec word. The aztecs flourished for centuries before the spanish conquest in the 16th century.
The Aztecs ate a lot of plants and vegetables that could be grown easily in the Mexico area. The main food that they ate was corn, which they called maize. Another food that they ate was squash.
aztecs also had alot of harsh punishments for the simplest of crimes, for the folowing crimes the punishment was death: adultery, commoner found wearing cotton clothes, cutting down a living tree, moving a field boundry making your land bigger macking someone eles smaller.) majour theft and treason. so as you can tell aztecs were very harsh people and didnt really care for the value of human life.
