Truth and Fiction about Aztec Civilization - Research Paper Example

The Rise of the Aztec Empire Mexico is a country with a rich cultural heritage. Along with its rich Spanish influence comes a colorful saga of ancient civilizations which gave birth to the government we presently know. A study on these ancient civilizations will make us analyze how the first people of the world formed their own government and maintained a strict rule so that we may learn from the mistakes of our past. Most of the work of archeologists and epigraphers has centered on one of the most ancient and most interesting civilizations of Mexico, the Aztec government. It was said that human presence in Mesoamerica was thought to date back 40,000 years based upon what were believed to be ancient human footprints in the Valley of Mexico, though recent evidence now disproves this. Indigenous peoples began to selectively breed maize plants around 8,000 BC. Evidence shows a marked increase in pottery working by 2300 BC and the beginning of intensive corn farming between 1800 and 1500 BC. It was during this timeline that complex cultures began to form. Many matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Izapa, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Tarascan, "Toltec" and Aztec, which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before the first contact with Europeans. The Aztec people made up a strong civilization with either ambition or military skill. Because of their qualities, they were able to lead a war of liberation against their rulers from the city of Azcapotzalco in 1428. After their independence, they ruled central Mexico with cunning political maneuvers and ferocious fighting skills. This paper aims to elaborate how the Aztecs maintained their system of government and their society and to further discuss the limitations 9in this form of government. II. Regional Tribal Makeup before the Aztecs The first city to be built in Mexico was Tenochtitlan, which later on on formed an alliance with two other cities—Texcoco and Tlacopan. This Triple Alliance ruled the Valley of Mexico until the Spanish arrived and gave rise to the Aztec Civilization. Originally, the Aztecs were from Aztlan, which meant "place of the heron", which was located somewhere to the north of the Valley of Mexico. It was unknown to most investigators what made the Aztecs leave Aztlan in the mid 13th century. During this time, there were many city-states in the Valley of Mexico, which included Chalco, Xochimilco, Tlacopan, Culhuacan, and Atzcapotzalco. The most powerful city states at that time were Culhuacan, which was located on the south shore of Lake Texcoco and Azcapotzalco which was located on the west shore. When the Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico, they first settled on Chapultepec, a hill on the west shore of Lake Texcoco with numerous springs. During this time, the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco drove the Aztecs away from Chapultepec. As a result, the ruler of Culhuacan, Cocoxtli, gave the Mexica permission to settle in the Tizaapan in 1299. After this, people intermarried and assimilated into Culhuacan culture. During the year 1323, the Aztecs asked permission to the new ruler of Culhuacan, Achicometl, to make his daughter the goddess Yaocihuatl. The king did not know that the Aztecs actually planned to sacrifice her to make the princess join the gods as a deity. As the story goes, during a festival dinner, a priest came out wearing her flayed skin as part of the ritual. Upon seeing this, the king and the people of Culhuacan were horrified and drove away the Aztecs from their place. In 1325 the Aztecs settled in a small island on the west side of Lake Texcoco, where they began to build their city Tenochtitlan, which later on became a large artificial island. It was said that the Aztec god, Huitzlipochtli, had instructed the Aztecs to found their city at the location where they saw an eagle, on a cactus, with a snake in its talons. The Aztecs, apparently, saw this vision on the small island where Tenochtitlan was founded. In 1376, the Aztecs elected their first tlatoani, Acamapichtli, and hired themselves out as mercenaries in wars between the different Nahua states. From the years 1376 until 1427, they became a tributary of Azcapotzalco. The Aztec rulers Acamapichtli, Huitzilihuitl and Chimalpopoca were, in fact, vassals of Tezozomoc, the Tepanec ruler of Azcapotzalco. When Tezozomoc died in 1426, his son Maxtla ascended to the throne of Azcapotzalco. Shortly thereafter, Maxtla assassinated Chimalpopoca, the Aztec ruler. In an effort to defeat Maxtla, Chimalpopocas successor, Itzcoatl became allies with Nezahualcoyotl, who was the exiled ruler of Texcoco. This coalition became the foundation of the Aztec Triple Alliance. Later on, the Triple Alliance would, in the next 100 years, come to dominate the Valley of Mexico and extend its power to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific shores. From the beginning of the Triple Alliance, Tenochtitlan was mostly in charge of the military and conquest, whereas the other two cities had other responsibilities. This military dominance of Tenochtitlan gradually led to this city becoming the dominant power in the alliance. Each state in the Aztec empire was ruled by its local government, which paid tribute and followed a number of laws dictated by the Triple Alliance. Most of the tribute went to Tenochtitlan, since it had most of the power. This type of empire is called a hegemonic or informal empire. The territories ruled by the Aztec civilization werent entirely connected, either. Since some city-states successfully resisted, maps of the Aztec empire often have "holes" in them. This doesnt appear to have affected the strength of the empire, however. Had Europeans not appeared, the empire may have kept on growing. At its height, the Aztec civilization reached east and west from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. North-south, the empire stretched from Central Mexico to modern day Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. III. Aztec Rise to Power The basic units of government in the empire were groups of families. These groups, called calpulli, had existed long before the Aztec civilization, and were set up to own land. The leaders of the calpulli set up schools for common citizens, collected taxes, and took care of basic group needs. Later calpullis were less family related and more regional, but operated in much the same way. Leaders of the calpullis formed a city council - possibly the unit with the most power in the ancient Aztec government. Each city council had another council within it - an executive council made of four members. One of them would be the leader of the city, or tlatcani. The council of Tenochtitlan led the empire itself, and has been compared to the senate of Rome. The leader of this group was the Huey Tlatcani, or the emperor. He was worshiped as a god, and had the support of the city council, major government officials, and the priesthood. The most famous of the Aztec emperors was Montezuma II, ruler when Cortes reached the Aztecs. The famous human sacrifices of the Aztecs were originally infrequent, grotesque to modern eyes. It seems that, during the mid fifteenth century, a series of natural disasters convinced the Mexica that massive sacrifice was needed to satiate their gods. These practices were among the excuses that the Spanish used to attempt to destroy the empire so completely. During this time, the emperor Motecuhzoma sat atop a complex social and political hierarchy, and the Aztec populace owed allegiance and tribute to nobles at several levels. Below the emperor were the kings of subject city-states. The Aztec dominion employed a policy of indirect rule, and imperial authorities supported local dynasties so long as they delivered their quarterly tribute payments on time. Local nobles, who lived in both urban and rural areas, were subjects of their city-state king. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the commoners, whose tribute payments supported all these nobles. Aztec commoners must have had a heavy tribute obligation. How were they able to meet their payments? First of all, there were millions of commoners, so the tribute burden was spread over a large population. During the 1970s, surveys of patterns of settlement turned up the startling discovery that the Aztec period witnessed one of the major population explosions of antiquity. IV. Aztec Society The Aztec population increased over time and placed a heavy stress on the environment of central Mexico. New villages and towns sprung up everywhere, and all available land was cultivated, often at considerable labor expense. Wherever possible, farmers built dams and canals to irrigate cropland; they also built terraced stone walls on hillsides to make new fields; and they drained the swamps outside Tenochtitlán to create raised fields (chinampas), one of the most highly productive agricultural systems of the ancient world. These intensive farming practices transformed the central Mexican countryside into a managed landscape of cultivation. Provincial society was far more complex than previously thought. Aztec peasants were not simple farmers whose lives were dominated by the need to pay tribute to their elite overlords. Commoners living in both rural and urban areas of the provinces made heavy use of a thriving marketing system. They exchanged craft goods produced in their homes for a variety of foreign goods, and most of this economic activity was accomplished outside imperial control. Farmers built terraces on slopes and in ravines to create additional, more productive plots in which they grew maize, beans and cotton. Houses at these sites were not packed very closely together, and open areas were probably devoted to farming. Cotton was an important crop in this part of the Aztec Empire, and household production of cotton textiles soon became the major craft. Documentary sources state that all Aztec women, from the lowest slave to the highest noblewoman, spun and wove cloth. Cotton textiles had two economic functions beyond use as clothing. First, they were the most common item of tribute demanded by both city-states and the Aztec Empire. Second, they served as a form of money in the marketplaces, where they could be used to obtain a range of goods and services. In addition to textiles, some residents of these sites manufactured paper out of the bark of the wild fig tree, as attested to by “bark beaters” made of basalt. The Aztecs used paper to make books of picture-writing and to burn in ritual offerings. The many ceramic vessels used and discarded at each house were probably purchased in the marketplaces. Although local potters produced a full range of vessels, people often bought many decorated foreign pots. In addition to ceramic vessels, people had other foreign goods in their homes. Obsidian blades, which had extremely sharp cutting edges, served in many household and craft activities. Needles and other items of bronze were imported from western Mexico. People obtained salt from the Valley of Mexico, where specialists extracted it by boiling and evaporating the saline lake water. Salt was transported in distinctive ceramic basins. The market system connected the inhabitants of these rural sites to the rest of the Aztec Empire and beyond. In the leading city of Tenochtitlán, the city leaders led the empire. The leader was known as the Huey Tlatcani, or Great Speaker. His rule was supported not only by the city council, but also the priests, judges, governors, and a host of other officials. The Huey Tlatcani did have absolute power in a sense. However, he did come to power by a semi-democratic system, and he could be removed from power. How this position was decided upon is not fully understood - it doesnt seem to have been hereditary, but family lines did play some part. In terms of the social divisions, the Aztec city was divided in Calpullis, or neighborhoods. Each neighborhood had its own chief or "calpullec", elected by the people and assisted by a group of elder counselors, the "huehueteque". Few things of public interest were done without the approval of the huehueteque. The main task of the calpullec was to keep a record of the collective lands that belonged to the calpulli, these lands were distributed by parcels among the different families. Land was given based on certain labor conditions (i.e. agricultural production based on the type of crops) the calpullec and its counselors were in charge of making sure that these conditions were met by each family. The Aztec word macehualtin designated the people that did not belong to the upper social spheres (artisans, traders, and government officials), but excluded the sphere of the slaves. The word is derived from the verb macehualo, which means "work to earn”. The Mexican macehualli, member of a calpulli in the city of Tenochtitlan had the right to use a piece of land to build a house for his family and to cultivate his crops. His children were admitted in the local schools, and he could take part in the election of the local chiefs, though in the last instance, their final designation was carried out by the emperor. But, as he is still a plebeian, he is subject to heavy duties. In particular, to those duties that relate to the military and public services. The macehualli could be called at any moment to carry out cleaning duties in the streets. They were also called to supply the workforce for the conservation and construction of public roads and bridges. The Aztec macehualli belonged to a privileged social class when compared to the macehualli of a conquered city, or in comparison to the rural worker. The macehualli paid his taxes, but very similar to the Roman anona, he was also recipient of those taxes paid by the Aztec provinces to the city of Tenochtitlan. Regarding the opportunities for climbing the social ladder, they were relatively open. The military career and the religious service provided the macehualli of several opportunities. At the bottom of the "free" social classes were the peasants without land, or tlamaitl. Usually victims of wars or civil strikes, they were forced to offer their services to noble lords. In exchange of their services, the noble Aztec lord provided the peasant and his family of shelter and food. The lowest social class among the Aztecs was occupied by the tlacotlin. It comes close to being a slave. The tlacoltin worked for someone else, usually like an agricultural or domestic worker. The tlacotli did not receive any payment for his services, but he is given shelter, food and clothes like an ordinary citizen. There were the cases of tlacoltin that became the "butlers" of big houses and had under their command free people. Besides this, the tlacoltin could accumulate goods and wealth, and if he had enough, he could also purchase houses, land and even slaves for his own service. An Aztec slave could marry a free woman; often, an Aztec widow married one of her slaves who later became the lord of the house and the chief of the family. Their children were all born free, since there wasn’t any adhered hereditary stigma to the Aztec condition of slave. There was still, hope even at the bottom of social Aztec condition. Aztec crime and punishment varied from city to city. Aztec laws covered almost every aspect of life.  This included laws about marriage, inheriting an estate, the class system, and economic situations.  Punishment was harsh since much of crime was efficiently dealt with through a system of courts.  Some crimes considered serious would include stealing from anothers crops, public drunkenness (except at a festival, or if youre over 70 years old), and murder. Most crime was dealt with in a local court, where senior warriors would be the judges. If the crime was more serious, it could be tried in Tenochtitlan in the teccalco court. Very serious cases, such as those involving nobles, could be tried by professional judges in the emperors palace. These judges may even include the emperor himself.  There were no prisons, and no torture.  Instead, the death penalty was a common punishment for crime.  The criminal could be taken to an alter and put to death, strangled, or even stoned on the spot.  The nobles, who were supposed to set an example, often got harsher punishments. Sometimes there would be a lighter punishment, for example if this was a first offense.  A lighter punishment might include having your home demolished, or having your head shaved. In not-so-serious crimes, people would simply be required to make restitution.  For example, if there was a fight, the one who started the fight might be required to pay for the medical expenses.  Or, if something was stolen it would have to be paid back, though often even minor theft would be punished with death. Slavery was often a punishment as well.  In the Aztec empire, slavery was a common way to pay back what was owed.  Exile was also a punishment in certain cases. V. Conclusion The Aztec government was a very efficient government system. It was more of a system of tribute in which conquered cities paid respect to the Aztec empire. In return, these conquered cities tended to show an increase in their own economic welfare. The most likely reason for this efficiency was because the Aztec rulers had better forms of communication with the people and built ways on easy access to barter and trade. We have discussed the government and society of the Aztecs with the purpose of learning from them If only own modern governments will follow the just and organized system of the Aztecs, there would be equality, justice and lawful order with lessened crime and prejudice. References: 1. Berdan, Frances F. (2005) The Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society. 2nd ed. Thomson-Wadsworth, Belmont, CA. 2. Carrasco, Pedro (1999) The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico: The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 3. Smith, Michael E. (2003) The Aztecs. 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford. 4. Smith, Michael E, (2004) "Life in the Provinces of the Aztec Empire", Scientific American. 5. Townsend, Richard F. (2000) The Aztecs. Revised ed. Thames and Hudson, New York. Read More