Aztec

5 Pages 1149 Words

The Start
Goods were exported and traded in many other parts of the Aztec Empire.The Aztecs are also known as the Mexicas or the Tenochas. They are originaly from Aztlan. The Aztec legend says that their god, Huitzilopochtli, told them to leave Aztlan. The god also said to stop when they saw an eagle eating a snake while sitting on a cactus. That was a sign to show them where to build their village. They called it Tenochtitlan, which means "Place of the Cactus". They settled there in about 1325.The Aztecs were late arrivals to the Lake Texcoco area. They were surrounded by very strong neighbors, so they were forced to live on the swampy, western side of the lake. As the Aztecs grew in number they made excellent military and civil organizations. By 1325, they founded the city of Tenochtitlan. The city was located on present day Mexico City. It was very hard to build Tenochtitlan because the Aztecs only had a small piece of land in the surrounding marshes. The Aztecs made the swampy, shallow lake into chinampas. In this case the islands were made by piling up mud from the lake bottom. They used them as their city foundations. Then they built causeways and bridges to connect the city to the mainland. To easily move people and goods, canals were dug and lined with stone. All this made it easy to defent the city from attack. Because of Tenochtitlan's location and high organization, the city grew rapidly. By 1519 there were about 60,000 people in the city every day.

Occupation
Most Aztecs were farmersTheir main crop is maize{indian corn}. They used it to make tortillas, tamales, and atol. The Aztecs made terraces, which were steps descending down a hill to control the flow of water. This kept their crops from flooding. Like the Olmec civilization, the Aztecs also used a slash and burn method of farming. Chinampas, artificial islands made by weacing giant reed mats and covering them with muded and plants, were used to extend crops into ...