Aztec Dbq Research Paper

Improved Essays
Since the beginning of time, people have been working to create better versions of life. This was something that the Aztec people valued greatly. They took pride in their organized society and worked well within it. Based on the remnants of Aztec culture, the Aztecs should be remembered for their developed society, which was extremely complex. One of the main aspects of the Aztec culture was their working system. When the Aztecs settled in Mexico, they placed their capital, Tenochtitlan, in a swampy area that was very overrun with water. They used this water to their advantage while farming. Document 8 shows a picture of what the Aztecs would have looked like while working in the fields. The caption reads, “Depiction of the floating gardens, or chinampas, of …show more content…
In document 6, a painting of one of these sacrifices is shown. The caption explains, “.Motecuhzoma and Chihuacoatl began to sacrifice them, slicing open their chests and extracting their hearts. First, they raised the hearts to the sun, then they threw them into the shrine before the gods.” (Codex Mendoza). These ceremonies often last half of the day. The people did not balk at the sight of the sacrifice but thought of it as an honor to be sacrificed, as they would be serving their gods. Based on this, the Aztecs should be remembered for their hard-lined and intricately-formed religious ideals and their willingness to serve the gods. Lastly, the Aztecs were eventually compared to other civilizations. For a long time, the Aztecs did not communicate with other types of people save for the indigenous people that lived around them. Only until the Spanish landed on the shores of Mexico did the Aztecs meet more people. Document 3 contains a quote from Hernan Cortes when he arrived in what is now Mexico. “The city has many squares where markets are held and trading is carried on. There is one

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    My impression of the Aztec culture is that even thought they were thought to be barbaric in nature because of their ritualistic killings they were actually very religious and kind. They were well educated and many described them as creative thinkers and mathematicians. This is evident through the engineering marvel of the city they constructed without the use of modern tools or transportation methods. Even though the Aztecs knew of the wheel at the time the city was built, they only used the wheel for toys. The Aztecs had a dynamic agricultural economy focusing primarily on farming.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Aztec Dbq Analysis

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The Aztecs were complex people who ruled an empire in Mexico City from 1350-1519.From their capital city of Tenochtitlan presently the site of central Mexico. They had many achievements. Two things they are most known for is using human Sacrafice on a big scale and capturing enemy warriors and then sacrificing them. However, historians should emphasize Human Sacrafice. ""It was Human Sacrafice that led to the Aztecs expanding their empire.…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Broken Spears Summary

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary In Miguel Leon-Portilla’s The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, the author shares the Aztec account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519. Throughout the book, Portilla discusses the significant events that occurred in the Aztec society. The indigenous groups in Mexico such as the Mexica (Aztec) had a thriving culture and advanced society in ancient Mesoamerica. The people of the Aztec society were educated, studied many subjects of interest such as astrology, and built great architectural pyramids that were breathtaking and beautiful.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Aztecs Book Review

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This work does an exceptional job of explaining the entire history, customs, and culture of the Aztec people without reading like a fact book. It presents itself as a very readable narrative, a story of a people who built a civilization up to a climax of extraordinary greatness, and then witnessed a massive and unexpected fall from grace. This work is easily readable for an audience high school level or above and, while it does present a large amount of names and terms, it does not ever become overwhelming or dull to read. An understanding of the Aztec civilization is crucial to understanding the history of Latin America as a whole and this book is of great historical importance due to the fact that it can be used by anyone as a concise but thoroughly detailed history of an exceptional and controversial civilization whose existence still hangs on even…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine a civilization growing crops in a lake. It seems strange and impossible, but the Aztecs figured out how to do so with their ingenious farming technique. Thriving in harsh environments, the Aztecs were ahead of their time due to their agricultural advancements. They were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in Central Mexico between 1300CE and 1521CE. Historians should emphasize Aztec agriculture because of the influence of agriculture on territorial expansion, the value of agriculture to society, and the ingenious creation of chinampas.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aztec Dbq Analysis

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Through All Evil, There is A Light: Sacrifice “If you don’t SACRIFICE for what you want, what you want becomes the SACRIFICE” -Unknown. Agriculture and human sacrifice were major parts of the Aztec Empire’s history; from their amazing inventions for farming to how they worshiped their gods, this impacted how historians wrote Aztec history. Both influenced the empire equally and stood out as the unique factors of the Aztecs’ thriving civilization. Although the Aztecs had great advances toward agriculture, human sacrifice should be further emphasized, due to the many hidden facts to why and the intentions of the Aztecs to perform these horrid rituals.…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The aztecs were a large empire because they fought in wars a lot and acquired a lot of land, and not only did they get land, they got sacrifice victims captured from the war. According to Document D by Friar Diego Duran, 1581, priests performed rituals with these 2,300 sacrifice victims by slicing their chests open, ripping out their heart, throwing it into the shrine, and rolling their bodies down the stairs. The Aztecs did a large amount of sacrifice, but their everyday life was agriculture. They would plant, harvest, and turn the crops into food. Everyday people had to make the corn into flour for baking.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever wondered what is more important, Human sacrifice or Agriculture? Well in this case, Human Sacrifice is more important than Agriculture. The Aztec society was in Mexico City,from 1350 to 1519. The Aztec society was very large. What should we stress most about?…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Aztecs were Mesoamerican people of the 14th-16th centuries. They were also known as the Mexica and lived in central Mexico. Their capital was Tenochtitlan and is now where Mexico City stands. The Aztecs were a strong, efficient and evolved civilization. Each city had its own government and the military continued to conquest new territories.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aztec Dbq

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A big part of Aztec life was religion. The Aztecs had many gods that they worshiped. The Aztecs held multiple…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In recent discussions of the Aztec Society , a controversial issue has been whether to highlight the Aztec’s achievements or human sacrifice. On the one hand, some argue that the Aztecs should be remembered for their achievements, as that is what fueled their society and allow them to build such a vast empire. From this perspective it is easy to see how the Aztecs achievements greatly contributed to the construction of their great empire. On the other hand, however, others argue that human sacrifices are what built their empire, and what they should be remembered for. Many historians also argue that human sacrifice was a practice that was embedded in their daily lives and religious practices, a practice that made them unique and themselves.…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The focus of chapter four is the human life cycle with the importance of looking at the educational process that the Aztec children followed. The reader learns just how important the education process is believed to be in the Aztec culture by a quote from the author that states, “The direction this education would take was determined early in the child’s life, in fact twenty days after birth” (93). Carrasco emphasizes the importance of education by showing how the parents decided what educational path their child was following just twenty days after the child’s birth. Chapter five focused on the social pyramid and how important it was for elders to maintain their statues. “The Aztecs, like many peoples, constructed a pyramidal society, a hierarchical society (127),” was stated by the author to show the reader that the Aztecs had a social pyramid.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aztec Culture Essay

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Most people nowadays would assume the aztecs was such a long time ago but it is actually estimated that 1.5 - 2 million people still speak nahuatl, the aztec language. When they went under many things changed for the aztecs. They weren't allowed to practise their old religion and were expected under the law, to adopt the dominant spanish catholic religion, so they converted to catholicism. They had many negative effects on the civilization but they also had few positive effects.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The captured people would be chosen for victims if they fought bravely, were beautiful, or were considered desirable in any way, otherwise they became slaves in the Aztec hierarchy (Young). As well, for the Aztecs if they caught a person in one of these flower wars they would be heaped with rewards for furnishing a victim for the sacrifices, creating a system were wars and human sacrifice were both profitable and religious. The ceremony associated with the Aztec form of human sacrifice, which is all done by the priests, is especially brutal on the victims. The victims are taken up to the top of a temple were four priests hold them down while a fifth priest cuts the sacrifice below the rib cage, while they are still alive,…

    • 1345 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They were a strong believer on forgiveness and they tried to give everyone a change to confess one at least on time in their life, but it was mostly when they were old. The last subtopic talks about racism. For Aztecs did not care about racial features or race. Anybody could have a high position, Aztecs thought about betterment for their society and opportunities rather than worrying about racial appearance.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays