Characteristics Of The Aztecs

The Aztecs or Mexicas (also called "Tenochcas" by the name of their capital), were one of the Mesoamerican peoples who created an advanced culture, as well as a empire, which encompassed territories currently occupied by the Mexican states of Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Morelos, Hidalgo, State of Mexico, the city of Mexico, and part of the states of Chiapas, Michoacán, and Querétaro, as well as part of Guatemala, having influence in areas as far away from each other as Central America and Áridoamerica.

Characteristics of the Aztec People:

1. Society

The pillar of Mexica society was the family, which was patriarchal and generally monogamous, although polygamy did occur, especially among some nobles; a group of several families made up a calpulli, who were generally related to each other, forming a clan, which had various functions in charge within Mexica society. Each one of the families that belonged to the calpulli, enjoyed part of the communal lands and the harvest, returning the fields if they stopped cultivating. The calpullis had certain specific tasks to perform within Aztec society such as pottery, weavers, farmers, merchants, etc., and were distributed in specific areas within the city, for this reason each calpulli was taken as "neighborhoods" in times later.

They were divided socially among the pípiltin, (which could be translated as chiefs, lords or nobles), in this caste there were priests, warriors and poctecas or merchants; And the macehuales or maceuhaltin, who were the majority of the common people, a stratum in which the farmers, fishermen, hunters, and artisans were found, this class They served in the military, paid taxes and were workers in collective works, such as the construction of pyramids and irrigation works, aqueducts and roads. This social class was free and possessed various goods, as well as possessed a certain freedom, unlike slaves or tlatlacotin, who were divided into prisoners of war, who were sacrificed in religious ceremonies, those condemned by justice who were sentenced to work for the person to whom they had caused harm or in favor of the community, and those who were bought and those who had been financially ruined by falling into alcoholism or gambling, as well as those members of a family who were placed as servants of a nobleman or a lord to pay off their debts.

2. The nobles or Tecutlis

In the highest layer of Mexica society were the tecutlis; they exercised power by carrying out military and civil functions. The huey tlatoani, members of the council of elders, judges, priests, and warriors belonged to this group. They carried out religious, warlike and administrative functions, they were maintained at the expense of the public treasury and tributes of other towns, did not carry out agricultural work, but were in charge of directing public works, educating in the telpochcalli and the calmecac, as well as waging war and administering the state, having the obligation to dedicate their lives and efforts to service public.

3. The pochtecas

In Aztec society there were two types of merchants, the common merchants called tlacemananqui, and the Pochtecas who, in addition to exercising internal trade, had in their hands the monopoly of foreign trade and had their own calpullis and neighborhoods, courts and chiefs, as well as a prominent influence, by various reasons, such as having functions of ambassadors and spies of the Aztec state, thanks to the fact that they knew the different languages ​​and customs of the peoples they came to. trade. They were traveling merchants, who came to extend their trade in regions far to the north such as the current state of New Mexico and far to the south as present-day Nicaragua. To transport their goods they used porters called tamemes, since they lacked pack animals. They achieved so much power and influence that they sometimes financed their own military campaigns to obtain commercial benefits, noting that these merchants were also skilled Mexican warriors.

4. The common people or maceualtin

The majority of the town was conformed by the calls maceualtin; They were obliged to pay taxes, do military service, and perform certain collective works, such as the construction of canals, roads, temples and various buildings. Their children received free education provided by the state in the schools corresponding to the neighborhood to which the calpullí belonged. They paid taxes but received goods and food from the state, from taxes. It stood out in Aztec society that any man regardless of his original social rank, (whether this noble or humble), could access and occupy the highest positions in the state, especially in the military and the priesthood.

5. Slavery or servitude

Like all ancient peoples, the Aztecs were a society in which slavery existed. It should be noted in this regard that in Aztec society slaves were not marked with hot irons or chained, as in Europe, and had to some extent less hardship and obligations, relative to the old world form of slavery. This can be observed through the chronicles of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas and Toribio de Benavente:

 … ”It should be noted that among the Mexicans (Mexica) there were three species of slaves. The first of the prisoners of war; the second of those bought, and the third of those who were deprived of their liberty in pain of some crime. "...

 … ”Making slaves among these natives of the new Spain is very contrary, of the nations of Europe and it still seems to me that those who call slaves (in Mexico) lack the conditions to be properly slaves"…

… ”The term slave among the Indians does not even denote what among us; because it does not mean but a servant or person who has some more care or some more obligation to help me and serve me in some things that I need "...

6. Economy

Its economy was based on agriculture, which was based on the cultivation of plants such as corn, sweet potato, beans, squash, chile, nopales, magueys, and various plants such as cacao, which they frequently used as currency, and at a later stage (as of power) in the tributes they received from the peoples subjected to vassalage, as well as in the trade that the Pochtecas exercised with other peoples. Lacking sufficient land extensions for agriculture, they developed a system of artificial "islands" called chinampas, made with branches and reeds, to which they are They added stones and silt from the bottom of the lake to form the islet, and where they planted a variety of edible plants, thus increasing the cultivable and habitable space. The cattle ranch was little developed, like in other parts of America, being some of the few domesticated animals for consumption, the turkeys (turkeys) and a breed of dog the xoloitzcuintle. Another economic source was lake resources, since they extracted salt from the lake, and other resources such as fishing for various fish and hunting various species of waterfowl, which were abundant in Lake Texcoco. There was a very abundant trade within the capital, both of local products from the countryside, animal husbandry and hunting, products that were sold by the tlacemananqui, as products from abroad, luxury and exotic, brought by the pochtecas.

7. Religion

The religion of the Aztecs, like that of the other peoples of America, was polytheistic; possessed hundreds of gods, some of their main gods being Huitzilopochtli (god of the sun and war), Coyolxauqui (goddess of the moon), Tláloc (god of rain), and Quetzalcóatl (god of wisdom), it is noted that this last god was attributed the invention of writing, the calendar and was benevolent, being the only important deity of the Aztec pantheon that did not require human sacrifices, unlike the other gods that according to the Aztec religion, needed human hearts and blood to feed, being the reason why they made human sacrifices, mainly to the sun god Huitzilopochtli, to whom they sacrificed mainly prisoners of war captured in the so-called flowery wars. In addition to this, animal sacrifices were made to them and food such as corn and other plants were offered to them, and their images were "incense" with copal.

8. Art

Aztec art developed mainly in the fields of painting, architecture and sculpture, but also in music and literature; made various and elaborate sculptures, an example of this is the so-called stone of the sun or Aztec calendar and the colossal statue of the god Tláloc, as well as various reliefs and statues that they made in their temples and in other places such as the "stone of Tizoc", which recounts the exploits and conquests of the tlatoani Tizoc and various sculptures. Likewise, they made works of art in pottery, a great diversity of vessels and statuettes that were later painted with a variety of colors. In painting, several wall paintings of their temples stand out, which they made with various natural dyes from plants, minerals and even animals. They carved stones such as jade to create figurines or to make masks, as well as making excellent headdresses from the feathers of birds such as the quetzal. They knew the music which they performed through various instruments such as flutes, drums, shells, and other instruments, but they did not write them, which is why no work has reached our time. In literature, the use of codices in which the history and Mexican myths were narrated stood out. Although there was also poetry, an example of this was the poetry of the Nahua tlatoani of Texcoco Nezahualcóyotl.

9. Culture and Knowledge

Despite the fact that the Mexica possessed stone age technology like the other American peoples, they developed various technological and cultural advances; they inherited some knowledge from previous peoples such as the Olmecs, Teotihuacanos and other peoples, and developed various technologies of their own. An example of this are the chinampas, which were made by burying wooden piles and weaving a network of sticks, branches and reeds, to which layers of lake mud were added, to form small islands. This served two main purposes, to increase the habitable territory and to sow, being very fertile land and quite moistened, with what that could obtain a harvest greater than the 3 or four that were obtained per year on the mainland, even reaching up to 6 or 7 harvests per year.

They built causeways and roads throughout the empire, being used both for trade and war and for sending and receiving messages, which was done by messengers who ran in relays with the messages, having posts every 8 kilometers, arriving to transport messages or things from the Atlantic coast or peacefully to the capital in just one day, being of an efficiency unknown to other peoples of the time, both in the American continent, as in the European or the Asian.

To bring water to Tenochtitlán, they built aqueducts, which brought water to the city from the mountains, with a lock system to regulate their flow.

They designed an ideal construction system for marshy and lake areas, through the foundations with wooden piles that were then filled with a very light volcanic stone (the tezontle), with which they could later erect large palaces and temples, without sinking, as well as the use of lime (ground and burned limestone) as cement to join the stones with which they built. It is worth noting the geometric accuracy of its constructions, both in the temples and palaces, and in the layout of its streets, whose trace and size surprised the Spaniards when they reached the capital of the Mexica, coupled with its appearance of a floating city, for be located on islets and because its streets were divided into two parts, a road for walking and a river part for the use of canoes.

Their weapons were made of wood and flint; they used macagüiles or swords, which were made of wood with sharp stones embedded with which they could sever limbs, as well as bows, arrows, masses and spears.

The use of metals was not very widespread except in goldsmithing, in which they used Gold, Silver and Copper.

Their knowledge includes having learned the manufacture of various alcoholic beverages, as well as learning how to obtain sugar (molasses) from the "canes" of corn.

They developed a writing system that was a combination of pictograms, ideograms and phonetic signs, which they embodied in inscriptions in stone, or they painted them on walls, on treated skins and on a kind of paper obtained from the maguey plant which was call amatl.

They had a very advanced astronomy, which can be seen in the precision of their calendar. In medicine they had great knowledge in herbalism, as well as in the use of medicines of mineral and animal origin, being their medicine a combination of magical-religious rituals where they applied said medicines in the healing of the wounded and sick.

10. Education

The education of the Aztecs focused on the teaching of religious rituals, the training of warriors, forming the character of the individual and a feeling of belonging to the collectivity, as well as respect and fear of the gods, reverence of the elderly, obedience to parents, and a rigid discipline in which values ​​such as compliance were instilled of duty.

There were two schools for this, in addition to the education that was taught at home: El Calmecac where education focused on the service of their gods, being able to go out only to get married. They were taught the hieroglyphs of their writing, song, dance, astronomy, herbalism, the calendars, they were taught to speak properly and knowledge of mathematics in their system vigesimal.

The other educational institution was the Tepuchcalli, it was the educational institution where the young people of the town attended, to become warriors. This was a practical education sitting in the art of war, chanting, discipline and obedience, as well as instilling the feeling of obedience and submission to the state.

Follow with:

• Brief history of the Aztecs
• Characteristics of the Mayas