Aztec Guide

By Bo Peng Zhou 8A

Aztec Economy
If you think your parents are harsh, imagine being a kid in the Aztec Empire. You can be sold as a slave for 500 to 700 cocoa beans. Cocoa beans are one of the currencies they have in the Aztec economy. Cocoa beans were used for small purchases, but quachtli were used for larger purchases. Some say that 20 quachtli could support someone for one year in Tenochtitlan. Quachtli are basically large, white cotton cloaks. Here are some prices for items sold in the market. A small rabbit for 30 cacao beans, a turkey egg for 3 cacao beans, a turkey hen for 100 cacao beans, a fresh avocado for 3 cacao beans, a large tomato for one cacao bean and 20 small tomatoes for one cacao bean. There were many markets in Tenochtitlan but the main one was called Tlatelco. Many people went there because it was really big and you could anything you wanted in this market. Almost sixty thousand people came everyday to the markets to buy food, slaves, clothing, jewellery, feathers and more. Since Tenochtitlan was a small village, many farmed on chinampas. Chinampas were made by putting soil in the shallow areas of the lake and planting reeds in them. Simple and easy, yet efficient. Because of the use of chinampas, the city of Tenochtitlan grew larger. If you compared todays economy with the Aztecs, the economy back then was pretty simple, but for that time and place, it supported the large Aztec empire.

People making chinampas.

A market in Tenochtitlan.

Aztec Society
Today, we have schools for all kind of people, but in the Aztec society, they had many schools. They had a school for boys, a school for girls, and then they have schools for nobles. Children were taught at home until they were 15 years old, then they went to school to learn. There were two types of school. One kind was called telpochcalli, which was for normal children. It taught history, religion, fighting skills, agriculture and crafts. Some of the skilled students from this school were chosen to be in the army, but most of them returned to their homes. The other school was called calmecac, which was for nobles. In telpochcalli, they were turning the children into warriors, but in calmecac, they were turning them into leaders, priests, teachers, healers and codex painters. They learn about rituals, ancient history, writing, calendars, geometry, poetry and, like in the telpochcalli, fighting skills. Girls were taught how to make things and how to raise a child. They werent taught how to read or write. The Aztecs hierarchy was similar to the Europeans hierarchy. The Aztec had an emperor, nobility and priests, and then the rest are commoners. In Europe, they had a king, barons and bishops, knights and then they had the commoners. The difference is that in Europe, you stay in the rank you were born in. But in the Aztec society, you can move up ranks, and of course, you can move down ranks. Also, in Europe the knights have their own rank, in the Aztec; the warriors are first placed in the commoners rank. After a battle, if the warrior brings many sacrificial victims, they would move up a rank, from commoner to nobility. Also, in the Aztecs, if you were a merchant, and you were really wealthy, you were noblemen. In Europe, even if you were a really wealthy merchant, you were still a merchant, not a Baron. The emperor of the Aztec was treated as a god. The Aztecs respected him show much that the people obey the emperor without questions. Also, they gave the emperor anything for him to live in luxury. However, the responsibility of the emperor was enormous. He was a chief priest, commander-in-chief and of course, head of state.

Because he is a commander-in-chief, the emperor had to be a skilled warrior who was very intelligent and can come up with military strategies to win fierce battles. When his job was head of state, before the emperor would make an important decision, he would call his council of priests and nobles to ask for their advice. In the end, the decision will be made by the emperor alone. The merchants in Tenochtitlan were the richest nobles. Merchants would go on trading expeditions, and they would bring back goods. Farmers grew crops, hunted and fished. Basically, the Aztecs had a really organized, successful and patriotic society.

Time line of the Aztec emperors.

The headdress that only the emperor wears. It was made from feathers taken off the quetzal bird.

Aztec Beliefs
The Aztecs were very religious. They had countless gods, assigning them to each village they conquered. And the villages had to give offerings depending on the god. If your village was assigned the god Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, you have to offer sacrificial victims. Huitzilopochtli was important to them because they thought that if they sacrificed people, and give him their blood, he would have the strength to overcome darkness. Thats one reason why the Aztecs sacrificed people. I will talk about the second reason later on. The Aztecs belied that the gods controlled the world. Also, they believed that, like the society they had, the gods had a hierarchy too. The most powerful god was Tezcatlipoca, the god of night. Quetzalcoatl, the god of wind, was given flowers, incense and birds as offerings. It is said that he left Mexico after he fought Tezcatlipoca. The Aztecs believed that once he returns, he would bring destruction to the Aztec empire. Tlaloc was the god of rain. He was important to the Aztecs because, if the rain was too little, it would cause droughts and crops couldnt grow, but if it rained too much, it would cause floods, which would kill the crops. The Aztecs believed that there were 4 suns, each destroyed by a disaster. And, they believed that they were in the 5th suns era. The Aztecs made two calendars, a solar and sacred calendar. The sacred calendar had 260 days, and the solar calendar had 365 days, the exact number of days we have on modern calendars. In the middle of the calendar, it was the god of the fifth sun, Tonatiuh. His tongue was sticking out, so the Aztecs believed that he wanted blood. They believed that if the gods were not given blood, the gods would grow sick and they would die. And if the fifth sun died, the Aztecs believed that the world would end. Many people in modern society are afraid of the year 2012 because thats the year that the calendar stopped at. Personally, I wouldnt think the world would end.

This is the Aztecs sun calendar. Tonatiuh is at the center of the calendar.

A priest would slice open the victims chest, pull out his heart, then push him down the stairway. Then, he would put the heart in an ern and put it in the chamber behind him.

Artisan: A person who was a skilled craft worker. Chinampas: Floating islands built in the water around Tenochtitlan to grow crops. Calpolli: Units of organization in Aztec society. Codices: Aztec books made of skin or paper that only had images in them. Compulsory: Something that is required by law. Glyph: Pictures of symbols used in writing. Ocelot: A nocturnal wildcat that has a greyish or yellow coat with black spots. Omen: A sign of something that is going to happen. Primary source: Something that is created in a specific time. If you needed a primary source of the Middle Ages, you need something that is created in the Middle Ages, whether its paintings, statues and etc. Quetzal: A colourful bird that lives in tropical rainforests of Central and South America. Secondary source: An account of an event written by someone who was not present at the time.

References and a Small Map of the Aztec Empire

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago Citation Styles. Web. 5 Mar. 2011. <http://easybib.com>. "Aztec Economy." Aztec History. Web. 5 Mar. 2011. <http://www.aztec-history.net/aztec_economy>. "Welcome to the Aztec Civilization Website." Aztec Systems to Aztec Empire. Web. 5 Mar. 2011. <http://www.aztec.com/page.php?page=economy>. "Aztec Society." Aztec History. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. <http://www.aztec-history.net/aztec_society>. "Aztec Society." Aztec History. Web. 8 Mar. 2011. <http://www.aztec-history.net/aztec_society>. "Aztec Religion." Aztec History. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. <http://www.aztec-history.net/aztec_religion>. "AZTECS: History and Myth." Carnaval.com Entry Page. Web. 12 Mar. 2011. <http://www.carnaval.com/dead/aztecmyth.htm>.

This is an old map of some parts of the Aztec empire.