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Aztec society was traditionally divided into social classes. They became sophisticated once the Mexica people settled and began to build the Aztec Empire . The class structure was so elaborate that it impressed the Spanish almost as much as Aztec architecture .
Aztec society was a highly complex and stratified society that developed among the Aztecs of central Mexico in the centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and which was built on the cultural foundations of the larger region of Mesoamerica.
An invaluable source of information about many aspects of Aztec religious thought, political and social structure, as well as the history of the Spanish conquest from the Mexica viewpoint is the Florentine Codex.
The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance (Classical Nahuatl: Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, [ˈjéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥]) was an alliance of three Nahua city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan.
Reconstruction of an Aztec market in Tenochtitlan in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Tenochtitlan can be considered the most complex society in Mesoamerica in regard to social stratification. The complex system involved many social classes. The macehualtin were commoners who lived outside the island city of Tenochtitlan.
It is said that the Aztec god, Huitzilopochtli, instructed the Aztecs to found their city at the location where they saw an eagle, on a cactus, with a snake in its talons (which is on the current Mexican flag). The Aztecs, apparently, saw this vision on the small island where Tenochtitlan was founded.
Aztec slaves were a vehicle for moving around the societal hierarchy. José Luis de Rojas, the author of Tenochtitlan: Capital of the Aztec Empire , states that one of the most respected positions an Aztec commoner could obtain was the role of “tealtiani" or the person responsible for the cleansing of slaves before sacrifice .
Back then societies had no social structure, all families lived under the same conditions, the only one that stood out was the Tlatoani. There were three types of workers: landlords, land workers, and slaves. The landlords work other people's land but were not required to remain in perpetuity in those lands.