The Aztecs believed they lived in the 'fifth world,' whose four predecessors had each been destroyed by the death of the sun and of humanity. Aztec human sacrifices were designed to keep the sun alive. Like the Maya, the Aztecs saw the world as having four directiions, 13 heavens and nine hells. Those who died by drowning, leprosy, lightning, gout, dropsy or lung disease went to the paradisiac gardens of Tlaloc. the god who had killed them; warriors who were sacrificed or died in battle, merchants killed while traveling far away, and women who died giving birth to their first child all went to heaven as companions
of the sun; everyone else traveled for four years under the northern deserts, in the abode of the death god Mictlantecuhtli, before reaching the ninth hell, where they vanished altogether.
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Rise of the Aztecs The Aztecs' legends relate that they were the chosen people of their tribal god Huizilopochtli. Originally nomads from the north or west of Mexico who were led to the Valle de Mexico (site of present day Mexico City) by their priests, the Aztecs settled on islands in the lakes that then filled much of the valley.
The Aztec capital. Tenochtitlan, was founded on one of those islands in the first half of the 14th century. Around 1427 the Aztecs rebelled against Azcapotzalco, then the strongest statelet in the valley, and themselves became the most powerful people in the valley.
The Aztec Empire In the mid 15th century the Aztecs formed the Triple Alliance with two other valley states, Texcoco and Tlacopan, to wage war against Tlaxcala and Huejotzingo, east of the valley. The prisoners they took would form the diet of sacrificed warriors that their god Huizilopochtli demanded to keep the sun rising every day For the dedication of Tenochtitlan's Templo king Abuizotl had 20,000 captives sacrificed. The Triple Alliance brought most of central Mexico from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific (though not Tlaxcala) under its control.The total population of the empire's 38 provinces may have been about 5 million. The empire's purpose was to exact tribute of resources absent from the heartland. Jade, turquoise, cotton, paper, tobacco, rubber, lowland fruits and vegetables, cacao, precious feathers were needed for the glorification of the Aztec elite and to support the many nonproductive servants of its waroriented state.
Ahuizotl's successor was Moctezuma 11 Xocoyotzin, a reflective character who believed perhaps fatally that the Spaniard Hernan Cortes, who arrived on the Gulf Coast in 1519, might be Quetzalcoatl returned from the east to reclaim his throne.
Economy & SocietyBy l519 Tenochtitlan and the adjoining Aztec city of Tlatelolco probably had more than 200,000 inhabitants, and the Valle de Mexico as a whole over a million. They were supported by a variety of intensive farming methods using only stone and wooden tools, including irrigation, terracing and swamp reclamation.
The basic unit of Aztec society was the calpulli, consisting of a few dozen to a few hundred extended families, owning land communally. The king held absolute power but delegated important roles such as priest or tax collector to members of the pilli (nobility). Military leaders were usually tecuhtli, elite professional soldiers. Another special group was the pochteca, militarized merchants who helped extend the empire, brought goods to the capital and organized large markets, which were held daily in big towns. At the bottom of society were pawns (paupers who could sell themselves for a specified period), serfs and slaves.
Culture & Religion Tenochtitlan Tlatelolco had hundreds of temple complexes. The greatest, located on and around modern Mexico City's Zocalo, marked the center of the universe. Its main temple pyramid was dedicated to Huizilopochtfi and the rain god, Tlaloc.
Much of Aztec culture was drawn from earlier Mexican civilizations. They had writing, bark paper books and the Calendar Round. They observed the heavens for astrological purposes. Celibate priests performed cycles of great ceremonies, typically including sacrifices and masked dances or processions enacting myths.