European Invasion of the Aztec Empire After Columbus discovered the New World, Europeans began to flood into the new region where they encountered many native people mistakenly referring to them as people of India hence the term Indians. These native civilizations, though seeming cut off from the rest of the world flourished with large cities and advanced technology that is still revival in today’s modern science, especially in the field of Astrology. One of the societies the Europeans encountered were the Aztecs, the last of three great Meso-American Empires, an empire that that made up much of modern-day central Mexico and as far south as Guatemala. Sadly, Spanish adventurers known as conquistadores
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They migrated to the region in the 12th century having been a warrior tribe in northern Mexico, and in less than a century constructed an empire that controlled most of modern-day Mexico. The empire’s capital city, Tenochtitlan, translated to “Place of the Gods”, was positioned on an island in the middle of the Lake Texcoco and is thought to be home to nearly 250,000 people in its prime (Wood). The residents of this city were able to access the mainland via three main causeways that also served as aqueducts to provide the city with clean water. When the Spanish arrived at Tenochtitlan in 1519 they were astounded at the incredible feats of engineering like roads, canals, and aqueducts that the Aztecs managed to accomplish giving their isolation from the rest of the world. Hernan Cortes describes the city’s architecture in great detail in his second letter to the king where he also makes a statement that “considering that they are barbarous and so far from the knowledge of God and cut off from all civilized nations, it is truly remarkable to see what they have achieved in all things”(qtd. In Fiero 112). Also in this letter to the King, Cortes describes the many different roads and avenues leading to homes and palaces lined with merchants selling various types of objects and
They migrated to the region in the 12th century having been a warrior tribe in northern Mexico, and in less than a century constructed an empire that controlled most of modern-day Mexico. The empire’s capital city, Tenochtitlan, translated to “Place of the Gods”, was positioned on an island in the middle of the Lake Texcoco and is thought to be home to nearly 250,000 people in its prime (Wood). The residents of this city were able to access the mainland via three main causeways that also served as aqueducts to provide the city with clean water. When the Spanish arrived at Tenochtitlan in 1519 they were astounded at the incredible feats of engineering like roads, canals, and aqueducts that the Aztecs managed to accomplish giving their isolation from the rest of the world. Hernan Cortes describes the city’s architecture in great detail in his second letter to the king where he also makes a statement that “considering that they are barbarous and so far from the knowledge of God and cut off from all civilized nations, it is truly remarkable to see what they have achieved in all things”(qtd. In Fiero 112). Also in this letter to the King, Cortes describes the many different roads and avenues leading to homes and palaces lined with merchants selling various types of objects and