- What was the Aztec culture?
- Geographical location of the Aztecs
- General characteristics of the Aztec culture
- Political and social organization of the Aztecs
- Aztec economy
- Aztec religion
- Military organization of the Aztecs
We explain everything about the Aztec culture. Location of your empire, political, social, military organization and other characteristics.
What was the Aztec culture?
One of the best known peoples is known as the Aztecs, Tenochcas or Mexica Mesoamerican from pre-Columbian times. They were the founders of the largest and most powerful political-territorial entity in the region until the arrival of the Spanish conquerors in the 15th century: the Aztec Empire, located in the south-central region of present-day Mexican territory.
The Aztec Empire emerged in just 200 years, ruled and colonized the central Mesoamerican region in a triple alliance between the peoples of Texcoco (Acolhuas), Tlacopan (Tepanecas) and México-Tenochtitlán. In fact, Tenochtitlán was the capital of the entire Empire.
Each of these populations was a altépetl distinct, that is, an organized political, social and religious body. As a whole they made up the same Condition that invaded, enslaved and controlled the neighboring peoples, imposing on them, among other things, its language (Nahuatl) and its religion (the cult of the solar god and warrior Huitzilopochtli).
For this reason, once the conquering armies arrived in the 15th century, it was very easy to convince rival populations to ally themselves with the Europeans in the war against the Aztecs. This was the decision of both the Tlaxcalans and Totonacs, despite the fact that later they themselves shared the destiny of subjugation and extermination that put an end to the Mexica culture.
It is estimated that, at the time of its fall, the Aztec Empire numbered some 22 million people and a population density of 72.3 inhabitants per square kilometer (along 304,325 kilometers of surface).
Other cultures:
| Teotihuacan culture | Toltec culture |
| Mayan culture | Greek culture |
| Olmec culture | Totonac culture |
| Zapotec culture | Mixtec culture |
Geographical location of the Aztecs
The Mexica came from a Mesoamerican nomadic tribe that settled around the year 1325 in Mexico-Tenochtitlán, in the center of the current territory of Mexico, where Mexico City, the capital of the country, is currently located.
From there they expanded outward, taking over the current states of Mexico, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas (the coast), Hidalgo and part of the current territory of Guatemala. In that region they had various ecosystems, different climatic regions and therefore different natural resources to take advantage of.
Thus, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Aztecs, ruled by Moctezuma II, exercised imperial control of the region and had converted Nahuatl into lingua franca in practically all of Mesoamerica.
General characteristics of the Aztec culture
The Aztecs were a fundamentally warrior and religious people, whose main patron was the god Sun, Huitzilopochtli. In his name they made human sacrifices, with the warriors of the conquered ethnic groups, to which they also imposed a tax system that centralized as much wealth as possible in Tenochtitlán.
Their warmongering character was reflected in their clothing, adorned with feathers and other ornaments that also showed the hierarchy of the individual within society. They dominated a type of pre-Hispanic metallurgy based on bronze, gold, silver and obsidian, with which they made ornaments and weapons for the war.
They also had a pictographic writing that served documentation purposes, their own metric system with which they developed numerous works architectural, and a system astronomical based on the observation of the Sun, the Moon and Venus.
His empire inherited cultural tendencies from earlier cultures, such as the teotihuacanos. In fact, they made Teotihuacán, already abandoned and in ruins, a place of religious pilgrimage in which to carry out rites and human offerings: men to the Sun god, women to the Moon goddess.
Political and social organization of the Aztecs
Mexica society was divided into twenty clans or calpullis, linked to each other by kinship, territorial division and religious practice, the latter inseparable from the art of war. Each clan had an authority o calpullec, an assigned territory and a temple of its own. It included people from all three social classes:
- Noble warriorspipiltin). They controlled the government and religion, given the theocratic character of Mexica society.
- Commoners (macehualtin). They comprised artisans, peasants and merchants of the common people.
- Slaves (tlatlacohtin). They were generally prisoners of war, criminals or citizens who paid large debts to third parties through servitude.
In each altépetl local and administrative justice was exercised through institutions designated for it. On the other hand, unsolvable problems could be raised to judicial courts in Mexico-Tenochtitlán and Texcoco.
There, justice was delivered in the royal palace itself by the authorities. However, among the common people it was imparted by a tecutli or popular election judge, who was in office for a year.
Above the tecutli was a tribunal of three judges for life, appointed by the adviser in charge of the executive o cihuacoatl, who served as an advisor to the highest political authority of the Empire, the huey-tlatoani. The latter was elected, in turn, from among the nobility of the clans of the society, by a council made up of representatives of each clan.
Aztec economy
The Aztec economy was, especially during the imperial heyday, extremely prosperous. In particular because the dominance of neighboring towns offered the opportunity for cheap and abundant labor.
In addition, the cultivation of the lands was assigned to the clans or calpulli, dividing the production between the State, the priests, the families of the clan and its head. Thanks to its advanced techniques agricultural, they took advantage of waters from Lake Texcoco through a cultivation system called chinampas, which used the lake's mud as fertilizer and was able to sow several times a year.
In addition, they met the Commerce, mainly barter, as well as the slave trade, and the mining industries (especially obsidian to make utensils and weapons) and textiles (using cotton and magüey fibers).
Aztec religion
Like other Mesoamerican tribes, the Mexica possessed a worldview fruit of inheritance and hybridization of cultures previous, organized around the veneration of a solar god. However, it is possible and frequent to find evidence of the veneration of Toltec gods such as Tláloc, Tezcatlipoca or Quetzalcóatl.
Even as the Empire grew new deities were worshiped. This was because new populations were assimilated and the Mexica pantheon was expanding. To do this, their mythological tales with those of the existing gods.
This resulted in a religion full of intricate and complex kinship stories between the gods, the result of syncretism between civilizations. However, as the Empire was established, a certain monistic conception of the divine emerged, abandoning traditional polytheism. On this, scholars do not reach a definitive consensus.
In any case, the religion of the Aztecs was a central element in their culture. The rites of offering to the gods and human sacrifices (generally of prisoners of war) were common and important in the consolidation of the military castes.
Military organization of the Aztecs
The Aztecs had a formidable military organization, which guaranteed them domination of the region during their imperial period. They relied on the intelligence work of merchants and merchants, who provided key information prior to invasions, which generally lasted until their enemies yielded to vassalage.
It is also possible (although it has not been proven) that marriage also gave them the possibility of assimilating noble castes particularly resistant to vassalage into the Empire.
The Mexica army consisted of numerous commoners (yaoquizqueh), with just a basic military training, and a smaller but considerable number of professional warriors from the nobility, organized into different warrior societies, according to their performance and their tradition warfare.
War was central to the Aztec way of life. For example, it was the only factor of social advancement for commoners, so men received military training from an early age.
His preferred weapons of combat were obsidian swords (macuahuitls), spears (tepoztopillis) and shields (chimallis). Moctezuma is said to have owned a luxurious armory whose instruments were adorned with precious stones.