The Great Empire: The Conquest Of The Aztec Empire

The Broken Spears, by Miguel Leon-Portilla, is an all-inclusive and compelling account of the Spanish conquest, told by the Aztecs also known as the conquered. Leon Portilla’s choice of events depicted in this book collides together giving the reader a broad view of the Spanish conquest. This book gives a history of emotional and spiritual human experiences, allowing the readers to comprehend, and relate to the Aztecs as they went through terror and faced their fears. This book provides an extensive amount of details concerning lack of leadership, bias and technological hardship that led to the Aztec defeat.

In The Broken Spear the spaniards were perceived as barbaric by the Aztecs and vise versa. When the spaniards attacked during the fiesta of Toxcatl they performed a lot of bloodshed and barbaric actions.

The conflict between the Aztecs and the Spaniards goes way back to the 16th century and is mostly remembered as the fall of the Aztecs. Aztec was an empire which settled in the valley of Mexico. The fall of the Aztecs empire was inevitable, simply because of 3 major aspects, religion, diseases, and the cunning tactics which the friendly Aztecs have never experienced or encountered before, this devoting nature of the Aztecs was used against them by a greedy middle class man who craved only one thing gold, he was known as Cortez. But their greatest weapon that brought Spain the great victory was the diseases that were carried to the New World.

O-the warrior of aztec has conquered the land throughout 93 years,started from itzcoatl until to the reign of Motecuhzoma.

The Aztec rise to power and formation of an imperial state was both rapid and

The Aztecs were respectful, religious people, and they also conquered neighboring states/cities. The conflict and defeat of the Aztecs was not unavoidable. The Spanish used god, glory, and gold to make the Aztec empire weak. God: caused the conflict and defeat of the Aztecs, Glory: wanted fame and trust from the King and rise up to the nobility, Gold: wanted to make Spain rich, so they could buy and make expensive material and expand their empire.

In 1521, Hernando Cortés, an adventurer from Spain, led an army of 508 men into the Yucatán peninsula on an exploratory expedition. During their explorations, they stumbled upon the Aztec Empire, the world’s largest city at the time. Despite the enormity of the empire, it was struggling to thrive due to a rigid political system and low technological development. The Spaniards, who were motivated by the promise of gold and wealth, were able to conquer the Aztecs by using the native people’s fear, instability, and lack of superior weapons to their advantage.

The author of Broken Spears tries to emphasize the fact that the it was not only the Spanish who played a role in the collapse of the Aztecs. One of the most prime reasons the Spanish were victorious was because they were worshiped and viewed as gods due to their presentation. With this to their advantage, the Spanish took leverage over the Aztecs. The Aztecs welcomed the Spanish with offerings and celebration, this gave the Spanish the idea that they had control over them and began to gather this power into ideas to take over their people. The Aztecs had a tremendous cultural difference from the Spanish when it came to their ritual ceremonies, they included a human sacrifice in their ritual and this repulsed the Spanish. This is what triggered

The Aztecs had a very tight way of running things. If one did not follow the rules they would be punished very severely by death. Their system was based upon sacrifices for their beloved gods, and it ran that way for many generations, until the Spanish came.

During the 15th century one of the events that marked history was the fall of the Aztec Empire. When Hernan Cortes, the Spanish explorer, and his small army encountered the Aztec, a conflict arose between the two empires. One question is why such a small Spanish fleet defeated the Aztec Empire in such ease. The answer lies within the problems the empire was facing. At the time, the Aztec experienced several rebellions against the empire from economic and political crisis. Eventually when the Spanish arrived, they used brutal force and contaminated many. These contributions led to the collapse of the Aztec Empire due to revolts of tribes, ineffective leadership, the military disadvantages, and spread of diseases.

When Spanish ships landed in Mexico in 1519 the tremendous Aztec empire was at the top of its power from their capital Tenochtitlan the Aztecs controlled much of America ruling 15 million people. Aztec Palaces were as big and elaborate as those in Europe and their temples rivaled the Egyptian pyramids but within just 2 years the Aztec empire perished. The center of the Aztec Empire was the Valley of Mexico, where the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco.

The Aztec Empire remains one of the most exciting yet powerful empires in the world 's history. The empire was originally made up of the Tenochtitlan city in the current day Mexico City. The city later combined with two more city states; Texcoco and Tracopan to form a Triple Alliance which ruled the Mexico Valley from 1428 until 1521 when they were overwhelmed by the joined forces of the Spanish conquistadores and their local supporters led by Hernan Cortes. All through the Aztec rule, the Tenochtitlan City was evidently the strongest in the Empire. The city makes the history of the empire more interesting due to the spectacular rise from being a sidelined people to the most influential people of the land. The city was built by the

The Book Aztecs: An Interpretation by Inga Clendinnen attempts to recreate and examine the rituals and the social norms of the ancient Aztecs through her interpretation. Inga Clendinnen writes this book with vivid imagery placing the reader into the scene with her interpretation. The very first part talks about the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. Clendinnen, describes the city’s architecture being surrounded by water and safe from enemies attacks. Then she also describes the God’s and ceremonies that took place within that society. Clendinnen argues her point is that the mexica people were more than a society of people that killed each other.

The Mayan’s lived on the Mexican Peninsula and by the West Coast. The Mayan’s lived from 2600 B.C.-1500 A.D. They were around longer than the Aztec’s and the Inca’s.

The Aztecs or Mexica as they called themselves, weren’t originally from the Valley of Mexico, many people migrated from the north. As history states the people migrated because of a great drought in northern Mexico and southwestern United States. After two centuries of migration, around 1200 AD the Aztecs started to form their foundation in the Valley of Mexico, and that was the start of one of the most mightest civilization. The Valley of Mexico attracted many more people as it was full of rich resources. The Valley was surrounded by high mountains protecting them from any enemies, freshwater from the mountains, marshy lakes that provided them with food, plants, salt and also water for cultivation and agriculture (Nicoletta Maestri, “Aztec Origins and the Founding of Tenochtitlán - Aztec Tenochtitlan”). About 1250 AD when the Aztecs finally settled and created Teotihuacan, the great city started to grow. It gained so much power that it was the most powerful city in the whole empire. The Aztecs were racing to the height of their success and knowledge. They developed new concepts and number systems. They advanced in Math, Humanities, Science, Compulsory education and Agriculture. Although having all that knowledge and developing so quickly (Unknown, “Teotihuacan”). To keep such a big empire under control they had to follow strict laws. God meant a lot to them although