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 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 Mexica, the founders and dominant group of the Aztec Empire, were one of the first people in the world to have mandatory education for nearly all children, regardless of gender, rank, or station. [16] Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpulli ...
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]
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 ...
Main page; Contents; Current events; Random article; About Wikipedia; Contact us; Pages for logged out editors learn more
The recruits were expected to be brave and noble. Those who were of noble lineage also received training in religion, politics, or history by the priests. To achieve adult status, a young man had to capture his first prisoner. Aztec warriors could move up in ranking by capturing enemies.
Jaguar warriors were used at the battlefront in military campaigns. 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 ...