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The ranking and status of the Aztec warriors were influenced by how many captives or prisoners the individual warrior had taken, the higher the number the more decorated their dress would be. [15] Usually made to work as a single piece of clothing with an opening in the back, they covered the entire torso and most of the extremities of a ...
The Aztecs [a] (/ ˈ æ z t ɛ k s / AZ-teks) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
The Aztecs were conquered by Spain in 1521 after a long siege of the capital, Tenochtitlan, where much of the population died from hunger and smallpox. Cortés, with 508 Spaniards, did not fight alone but with as many as 150,000 or 200,000 allies from Tlaxcala , and eventually other Aztec tributary states.
The situation inside the city was desperate: because of the famine and the smallpox there were already thousands of victims, women offered to the gods even their children's clothes, so most children were stark naked. Many Aztecs drank dirty, brackish water because of their severe thirst and contracted dysentery.
Mexica children were forcibly taken to newly established Christian schools where they were indoctrinated into Christian beliefs and Spanish culture, and the surviving Mexica men and women were sent to work in newly-established Spanish estates, known as haciendas, as well as mines and other civil projects, such as digging canals.
The earliest, and most basic, form of agriculture implemented by the Aztecs is known as " rainfall cultivation." The Aztecs implemented terrace agriculture in hilly areas, typically in the highlands of the Aztec Empire. Terracing allowed for an increased soil depth and impeded soil erosion. Terraces were built by piling a wall of stones ...
They were also used to capture prisoners for sacrifice to the Aztec gods. [2] Many statues and images (in pre-Columbian and post-Columbian codices) of these warriors have survived. [5] They fought with a wooden club, studded with obsidian volcanic glass blades, called a macuahuitl. They also used spears and atlatls. To become a jaguar warrior ...
Varieties of tilmàtli worn by Aztec men, before the Spanish massacres, signifying their social positions: a: a young person wearing only a maxtlatl b: a common person (Macehualtin) dress c: a noble or high ranking warrior dress d: dress of the ruling classes and the clergy e: a less common way to wear the tilmàtli f: war dress.