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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 Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mēxihcah (pronounced [meˈʃikaʔ]).. The capital of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlan.
According to legend, the various groups who became the Aztecs arrived from the North into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake of destination is clear – it is the heart of modern Mexico City – but little can be known with certainty about the origin of the Aztec. There are different accounts of their ...
Xochitlicue, goddess of fertility, life, death, and rebirth. Ītzpāpālōtl, death and sacrifice goddess, ruler of the Tzitzimimeh. Toci, goddess of healing. Toci has also been under the name of "Teteoinnan". Temazcalteci, goddess of maternity associated with Toci. Quilaztli, aztec patron of midwives. Quilaztli is also known as Cōhuācihuātl ...
Sacrifice was a common theme in the Aztec culture. In the Aztec "Legend of the Five Suns", all the gods sacrificed themselves so that mankind could live.Some years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, a body of the Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from this traditional practice.
The life of Aztec warriors was one of constant battle, and the primary purpose of this continual warfare was to take prisoners to be sacrificed to their gods. As the Aztec Empire expanded, however, the expansion of the empire in size and power became increasingly important.
The Aztec people who came from Aztlán and settled in Tenochtitlan (today's Mexico City) called their land Cemanahuac, knowing their land was surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The notion of Cemanahuac is also tied to the pyramid-driven philosophy of the Aztecs, their land sitting on top of a natural ...
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]