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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 name Aztec was coined by Alexander von Humboldt, who combined Aztlán ("place of the heron"), their mythic homeland, and tec(atl) "people of". [6] The term "Aztec" often today refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, Mēxihcah Tenochcah, a tribal designation referring only to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, excluding those of ...
Family and lineage were the basic units of Aztec society. One's lineage determined social standing, and noble traced their lineage back to the mythical past, as they were said to be descended from the god Quetzalcoatl. [9] Prestigious lineages also traced their kin back through ruling dynasties, preferably ones with a Toltec heritage.
Gold-silver-copper alloy figure of an Aztec warrior, who holds a dartthrower, darts, and a shield. Aztec warfare concerns the aspects associated with the military conventions, forces, weaponry and strategic expansions conducted by the Late Postclassic Aztec civilizations of Mesoamerica, including particularly the military history of the Aztec Triple Alliance involving the city-states of ...
In the 1450s, Aztec forces under Moctezuma would invade the Valley of Oaxaca in a bid to extend Aztec hegemony. [17] In about 1458, Moctezuma led an expedition into Mixtec territory against the city-state of Coixtlahuaca. The Mixtecs were defeated, despite the support of contingents of Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco warriors, traditional enemies of ...
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 ...
During the siege of the city, the sons of Moctezuma were murdered by the Aztecs, possibly because they wanted to surrender. By the following year, the Aztec Empire had fallen to an army of Spanish and their Native American allies, primarily Tlaxcalans, who were traditional enemies of the Aztecs.
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.