| HOME | Columbus Text | Arrival of the Spanish text |
The Aztec were hunter-gatherers living on a small
island
in northwestern Mexico, when their god, Huitzilopochtli
(wee tsee loh POCH tlee),
told them to leave their
homeland. He said:![]() |
"Go where the cactus
grows, on
which the
eagle sits happily…there you shall wait, there you shall meet a number of
tribes and with your arrow or with your shield you shall conquer them."![]() |

| There was no time to
grow food,
so they ate fly eggs and
snakes
to survive. There was no time to weave
cloth, so they wore animal skins
for clothing. They journeyed through the lands of tribes that were larger and stronger. These tribes called them Dog People because of their barbarian ways. They did not allow the Aztec to settle. Besides, the Aztec still had not seen the sign. |
![]() |
| Finally the Aztec came
upon the promised sign. They found the eagle eating the snake on a cactus on a small, swampy island
in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. After 200 years of
wandering, they
started
to build a powerful empire. They named their new home Tenochtitlan,(tay nawch tee TLAN) " Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus." No one knows exactly why the Aztec came to the Valley of Mexico. But by the time the Aztec arrived in the early 1300s, powerful tribes had already claimed the best farm lands in the area. |
![]() |
|
Building an Empire
So they settled on a soggy, uninhabited island in Lake Texcoco. The island was about 12 miles square in size. |
![]() |
|
Adapting to the Land
The future did not look good for the Aztec. Because the land on their island was mostly swamp, they couldn't grow corn for food or cotton for clothing. Since there wasn't much wood and
stone on the small island to build huts,
the
Aztec used grass and mud from the swamp
to make their houses.
|
![]() |
| They caught and ate birds and fish that lived on the island or in the water around it. The ate algae from the water too! | ![]() ![]() |
| From the tribes around them, the Aztec learned a method of farming that worked well in the swampy areas. It was called chinampas, or "floating gardens." Chinampas are narrow strips of land about 300 feet long and 15 to 30 feet wide, almost completely surrounded by canals. The Aztec built these floating gardens around their central city. | ![]() |


Aztec neighbors were more powerful and more civilized. They forced the Aztec to serve as
soldiers
in their armies.![]() |
They learned to
be skilled warriors. ![]() |
As the number of Aztec warriors
increased,
and so did their reputation. They
formed an alliance, or union, with two other powerful tribes.
![]() |
The empire they created covered the southern third of Mexico and included Guatemala, an
area about 375 miles
wide
and 315 miles long.
![]() |
|
One of the greatest
rulers of
the empire was Ahuitzotl
(ah WEE soh tl).
|
Ahuitzotl completed the pyramid of the Great
Temple,
which he dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli.
![]() |




| The four social classes in each Aztec town were : Commoners, slaves, nobles, and merchants. Commoners made up the biggest group of the Aztec population. They farmed their own land but also had to farm the nobles' land. Men worked in the fields, women cooked and made cloth and cared for the younger children. At age 10, boys were sent to school, where they learned Aztec religion and history. Aztec commoners had to pay tribute(a kind of tax) in goods or services to the government. |




Slaves were the lowest of the Aztec
society. Many slaves were captives of war.![]() |
Others
had committed crimes or who had not repaid debts.![]() |
The nobles were the
smallest class, but they controlled the other
classes. Being a noble was hereditary (passed down from one generation to
the
next). They were government officials,
priests,
and warriors. Nobles lived off tribute paid by commoners and conquered
peoples.![]() |
|
Aztec rule was harsh.
Many tribes were forced to give up so
much
of their food as tribute that they were nearly starving.
![]() These tribes very angry at Aztec rulers. |
Aztec
merchants traveled throughout
the
empire bringing back colored feathers, jade, and
cocoa for the nobles.
|

Aztec craftworkers created beautiful feather headdresses, ![]() |
stone
sculptures
![]() |
and
jewelry with precious
stones |
|
Perhaps
the
most important Aztec artifacts that archaeologists have discovered are
the Aztec codices
( a kind of book, with
pages made from
tree bark).
![]() The pages open and
close like folding screens with pictures that stand for words. At one time there
were
hundreds of these books.
|
Unfortunately, the Spanish
burned many of the codices, and others simply rotted in the humid
climate.
![]() |
Corn![]() |
Water![]() |
Fire![]() |
Food![]() |
Mother![]() |
Flowers![]() |
Wind![]() |
Moon
![]() |
Sun
![]() |
|
Because
the Aztec lived by farming, the two most important gods in
the Aztec world were the god of rain,
|
and
the god of the sun and
war who could destroy the
world
whenever he wanted.![]() |
The
Aztec priests offered sacrifices to
the gods to make their crops grow. ![]() |
Human
sacrifice!
When the Temple of the Sun in Tenochtitlan was dedicated to the sun and
rain gods, the Aztec sacrificed as many as 10,000 people
!![]() |

| At
schools, the boys learned ruthless
fighting
methods and became strong warriors.
Aztec warriors fought without fear of
death. They believed that if they died in war, they would go live with
the gods in the heavens.
"Only this my heart craves: death in war."
(from an Aztec codice)
|
![]() |
Warriors also fought
hard because the more captives they
took, the higher
their social rank would be. ![]() |
But
their
cruelty led to deep anger among conquered tribes.
Later, Spanish invaders
would use this anger to help defeat the Aztec.![]() |