Tenochtitlan While The Development Of The Aztecs example essay topic

Growing up in the Untied States, I never really knew much about my heritage the first few years of my life. My teachers never really talked about other countries other then the United States. Well actually they did talk about them they just never really went into much detail about other heritage. I actually never knew there was more to my ancestors and how cheated I felt for not knowing or being taught about them.

All I really knew about them was the Aztecs was that they did their certain human practices (some not as good as others), the empire was taken over by the Spanish who were lead by Hernando Cortes. Which leaves me with some questions: Why did the Spanish feel they had to take over the Aztec Empire? Why did they feel they had to conquer in the first place? What made the Aztec people turn against there ruler Montezuma? These are questions that always ran threw my head while learning or "trying to learn" about the Aztecs Empire.

Maybe the answer to my questions will make me pretty much understands why it was so easy for the empire to crumble and collapse. There fore I thought to do this research, to better help me understand. I hope to get a lot out of this project. I will leave with knowing that this project has further helped me understand more about my culture. Maybe also teach other who will read my paper a bit about it. Aztec Creation - Who were the Aztecs?

The story of the mother of the Aztec creation was called "Coatlique" (the lady of the skirt with the snakes). Coatlique gave birth to her first child daughter "Coyolxanuhqui" (goddess of the moon), and a group of boys that became the stars. Thru her sinful, playful antics Coatlique became pregnant again. Her children became embarrassed of her and plotted to kill her. While her children were planning her death, Coatlique gave birth to Huitzilpochtli (the fiery god), who later with the help of a fire serpent destroyed his brothers and sister. He beheaded Coyolxanhqui and threw her body into a deep gorge in a mountain.

A century after the crumple of the Toltec civilization, several tribes of Nahuatl speaking people moved into the valley of Mexico from the north. The main tribe was known as the Mexico and later the tribe came to be known as the Aztecs. The Aztec civilization later came to be known as the leading tribe above all the others. It was the major organization in mid Mexico. The Aztec civilization deriving from the Toltec's and other people that lived in the section reached far levels of imaginative, financial, and academic development.

The Aztec created an empire in the 1400's in the section that is now Mexico. The capital of Tenochtitlan what is now current day Mexico City. Arriving on the Valley Of Mexico, the Aztecs were forced to occupy a damp area on the western side of Lake Texaco, where their only piece of dry land was a tiny island surrounded by wetland. The Aztecs established their settlement of the site where they observed an eagle with a serpent in it's grab on top of a cactus.

This figure became the symbol that is now on the Mexican flag. Tenochtitlan While the development of the Aztecs was lengthened. They developed military and common organizations. Tenochtitlan began to mature from the small village of huts into a large city of adobe houses and rock temples. It was said that at the time of the Spanish attack, Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world, with the populace of about 200,000 natives. Tenochtitlan's armed strength enlarged under the ruling if Itzcoatl, the first Aztec ruler.

There was much growth throughout the Valley of Mexico. By the fifteenth century the Aztec had top power in the central and southern Mexico. The opinionated association of the Aztec Empire extended far ahead of Tenochtitlan and rested on the triple alliance between city states of Tenochtitlan, Tex coco, and Tia copan. A series of armed campaigns extended the Aztecs power and influenced well beyond the central valley and across Mesoamerica. Because of the bitterness of the Aztec ruling and the domestic conflict with in the far flung Aztec empire, Spanish invaders would later be able to partner with a number of Native-American peoples who would help the overpower of the Aztecs. Hernando Cortes Hernando Cortes was born in the small town of Medellin in 1485.

His father was Martin Cortes de Monroe and mother Dona Catalina Pizarro Alta Marino. The family was of minor nobility but with little means. Cortes was described as a sickly child. By the age of fourteen he was sent to study at the University of Salamanca. After two years of schooling for Cortes, before he returned to Medellin to the annoyance of his parents who had hoped to see him equipped for a profitable legal career. Plans were made in 1502 for Cortes to sail to the Americas with a family acquaintance, Ovando, the newly appointed governor of Hispaniola.

In 1503, at the age of eighteen Cortes sailed in a convoy of merchant ships bound for Santo Domingo, the Capital of Hispaniola. In 1511, he was sent with Diego Velasquez and 300 men to conquer Cuba. At the age of twenty six he served as a clerk to the treasurer which entailed keeping account of the king's fifth. In Cuba he became related to the governor Velasquez by a reluctant marriage to the governor's sister- in- law Catalina. Toward the end of 1518, the opportunity finally presented itself, in 1517 and again in the early part of 1518.

Two voyages funded by the governor Velasquez had been made to the Yucatan Peninsula from the western end of Cuba. Velasquez immediately sent another expedition under the command of Juan de Grijalva which discovered the island of Cozumel and sailed up the Gulf Coast of Mexico, almost as far as the modern port Vera Cruz. Grijalva had opened the door of Mexico, but it was Cortes who was to claim it. On October 23, 1518 an agreement was signed between Velasquez and Cortes appointing him Captain General of the Third Expedition. Jealous gossip, possibly justified, suggested to the governor that Cortes was the wrong man for the command, that he was ambitious and might take the success of the voyage for himself, eliminating Velasquez's claims.

Velasquez suspicions grew and Cortes, fearing that he might be recalled as captain of the venture, ordered his ship to set sail Trinidad.