The Aztecs or Mexicas

Traditionally called Aztecs, but their oficial name is The Mexicas.The Mexicas were
one of the most splendid towns in Mesoamérica. In addition, one point
of history The Mexicas came to constitute the
core of the largest empire of Mesoamerica, where they founded Mexico-
Tenochtitlan.
However, they were not fully recognized by the other lordships of Mesoamérica
because their culture included cruel sacrifices, they were quarrelsome and they
used to steal women married. As result, the lordships who were enemies of the
Aztecs were key to the fall of the Mexico-Tenochtitlan empire and the conquest of
the Spanish. Furthermore, religious beliefs were also important in the rise of that
empire.
To start talking about this topic, I would like to talk about the journey that the
Aztecs undertook from Aztlan to Tenochtitlan.
Some historians said that the origin of the Mexicas would have been in a place
called Aztlan, a word whose meaning would be "place of the herons", hence the
name of Aztecs, although they named themselves Culhuas-Mexicas. Aztlan, it is
believed, was an island located in the Mexcaltitlan lagoon, on the coast of Nayarit,
and from there they would have left around the year 890 to cross the northern
regions of Jalisco and then, following the course of the Lerma river, parts
Guanajuato and Michoacan. However, the itinerary is uncertain because their
occupation as fishermen and hunters kept them in permanent movement until their
arrival in the Valley of Mexico.
The Aztecs during their trip had to survive different situations due to their religious
customs and their aggressive attitude. Consecuently, they went from being a town
of fishermen and hunters, to mercenaries who allowed them to get a place to live
and eat. Also, begin to gain strength as warriors and be able to build the promised
city for which they left their place of origin.
When the Aztecs were expelled of the Chapultepec for the lord of Culhuacan, they
arrived in a desert place, this place was a small island, that in the center had a
cactus where an eagle was eating a snake. Therefore, the Aztecs decided to build
their empire and began to ally with other lordships to defeat the lord of Culhuacan
and become the most powerful of the Mesomerica lordships. They shrewdly
imposed their hierarchy on their allies.
From that momento the Aztecs were a very advanced civilization in culture,
education, religion and technology.
They extended their domain to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of
Mexico,and established the city of Tenochtitlan as capital.
Moreover, they acquired wealth and power from the imposition of a strict tax
system, in such a way that upon the arrival of the Spanish in the early sixteenth
century, their capital was considered the most important and magnificent city of its
time. Even the narratives of the Spanish conquerors said that the Aztec empire
surpassed the cities of Europe in architecture, engineering, and the arts.
Social organization
Mexica society was divided into twenty clans or calpullis, linked by kinship,
territorial division and religious practice, the latter inseparable from the art of war.
Each clan had an authority or calpullec, an assigned territory and its own temple.
It included people from all three social classes:
Noble warriors (pipiltin): They controlled the government and religion, given the
theocratic nature of Mexica society.
Commoners (macehualtin): They included artisans, peasants and merchants
from the common people.
Economic organization
The Aztec economy was, especially during the imperial heyday, extremely
prosperous. Particularly because dominance of neighboring towns provided an
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 clan families and their
chief. Thanks to its advanced agricultural techniques, the waters of Lake Texcoco
were used through a cultivation system called chinampas, which used the lake's
mud as fertilizer and could sow several times a year.
Besides, they learned about the trade, mainly barter “tueque”, as well as the slave
trade, and the mining (especially obsidian to make utensils and weapons) and
textile industries (using cotton and magüey fibers).

Aztec religión
The Mexicas had a worldview that was the result of the inheritance and
hybridization of previous cultures, organized around the veneration of a sun god
Huitzilopochtli. However, it is possible and frequent to find evidence of veneration
of Toltec gods such as Tláloc (God of rain), Tezcatlipoca (god of providence and
darkness) or Quetzalcóatl.
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 military castes.
The Spanish friars said that the human sacrifices were a religious cult that served
as payment or compensation that the Aztecs had to give to the gods. The
sacrifices were organized around a specific ritual in the "Stone of Sacrifices" of the
temple. There were different very cruel ways to make an offering to the god; for
example, priests were in charge of extracting the prisoner's heart and cutting off his
head, other prisoners were shot to death and their blood ran to the ground to
fertilize it.
Education of the aztecs
Education was important but the teaching of the nobles, developed in specialized
schools (calmécac), differed from that received by the macehualtn, the
underprivileged. The formation of the elite had to be more complete, since it was
they who would occupy important positions in the army and in the administration;
They were trained in law, history, astronomy, religion, but also in poetry and
singing.´