Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi and by the earlier term the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado.
The word Aztec in modern usage would not have been used by the people themselves. It has variously been used to refer to the Aztecs or Triple Alliance, the Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, or specifically the Mexica ethnicity of the Nahuatl-speaking tribes (from tlaca). [7]
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.
In the 21st century, the government of Mexico broadly classifies all Nahuatl-speaking peoples as Nahuas, making the number of Mexica people living in Mexico difficult to estimate. [4] Since 1810, the name "Aztec” has been more common when referring to the Mexica and the two names have become largely interchangeable. [5]
The Zacatecos were a nomadic tribe and others were sedentary which means they lived in one area. Some tribes did in fact have temples dedicated to some kind of worship in the southwestern part of the state of Zacatecas. In a town called El Teul Gonzalez De Ortega there is a hill called El Cerro del Sombrero.
The 1450s saw the Aztec forces invaded the Valley of Oaxaca in a bid to extend hegomony over the area. [7] The area would be conquered by the Aztecs in 1458. [7] In 1486, the Aztec would establish a fort on the hill of Huaxyácac (now called El Fortín), which would use to enforce the collection of tribute payments in Oaxaca. [7]
However, there were also other European accounts, earlier than 1560, that give a first-hand description of the enormous earth-built mounds being constructed by Native Americans. One of them was Garcilaso de la Vega (c.1539–1616), a Spanish chronicler also known as " El Inca " because of his Incan mother.