The Aztec Empire: Home In Central America

To gain control over other groups of people was the main goal of any empire, but for it to actually happen became a reality for The Aztec Empire. Established in 1428, The Aztec Empire found its home in Central America. A sign from the gods brought them to a location where they would later established a capital called Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs would build from there and form alliances with others in the region soon to become a great power in Central American area.Feared by most civilizations, the Aztecs easily took over others and gained control of their rivaled lands. They also gained technologically staying ahead of their time, they had the knowledge that other empires. The Aztec Empire became one of the strongest Mesoamerican empires to …show more content…
The Aztec Empire was the most advanced empire in Central America. The Aztec empire created many advanced things all on their own. They also performed many advanced strategies during wars. The Aztec Empire created the first modern lunar calendar that is still somewhat used today with a couple changes that are not major. This calendar is important because the Aztecs had very limited technology, but somehow stayed ahead of the other empires. This advancement also includes effective military strategy. During battle or war they would form units of twenty men grouped into bigger units of up to four-hundred men, in total an army would include up to eight-thousand men or even more. The downfall of this strategy is that the men would travel in long lines sometimes up to five miles long. Their main goals of war was to bring back prisoners to their temples and sacrifice them to the gods as they mainly practiced Human Sacrifice to please the gods with the offering of human …show more content…
The Aztec Empire was overtaken because of their lack of technology and accessibility to modern weapons. The Aztec Empire was hit hard with a disease called smallpox. The disease cleared over half of their population. Many fled the area to escape the disease. With a total of about eighty percent of the population gone they were trying to rebuild the best they could from the outcome of the disease. That was only the first half of the downfall, the second came along when Hernan Cortes was exploring the Central American coastlines. On his journey, he discovered the great empire. In 1521, Cortes launched his attack on the Aztecs while they were still recovering from the disease outbreak. Weak and broken, the Aztecs were hesitant to attack back because they thought that Hernan Cortes was one of their gods making a return to help them rebuild. With that final mistake Cortes was able to take over the Empire with his five hundred men. They had certain advantages that made it easy to overtake the power of the Aztecs. For example, Cortes and his crew had horses that increased their mobility so they could advance on more territory quick and attack the unprepared