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WATCH: Aztec Empire
An overview of how Tenochtitlan creates the tributary Aztec Empire in the 15th Century (from the Triple Alliance). They rule until being conquered by Hernando Cortez. Created by World History Project.
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how did they drain Lake Texcoco?(11 votes)
Originally one of the five lakes contained in Anáhuac, or the Valley of Mexico, Texcoco has been drained via channels and a tunnel to the Pánuco River since the early 17th century, until it now occupies only a small area surrounded by salt marshes 2 1/2 mi (4 km) east of Mexico City.(3 votes)
How did Aztec political communities differ from Maya political communities?(3 votes)
These empires were in different locations, used different languages and had different leaders.(3 votes)
- How did they drain the Lake Texcoco?(2 votes)
- Originally one of the five lakes contained in Anáhuac, or the Valley of Mexico, Texcoco has been drained via channels and a tunnel to the Pánuco River since the early 17th century, until it now occupies only a small area surrounded by salt marshes 2 1/2 mi (4 km) east of Mexico City.(4 votes)
- What did Aztec society have in common with ancient Greece?(2 votes)
- Each civilization had an organizational structure. Each civilization had a principle polytheistic religion. Each civilization had urban centers. Each civilization had a priestly heirarchy.(3 votes)
why is tenochtilan weaker then he other cities stats?(0 votes)- In history and in the modern world, power is often a matter of resources.(6 votes)
- What did the incas eat(2 votes)
- This is an interesting question, coming in a lesson about the Aztecs. You're on the wrong continent.(2 votes)
- How did they drain Lake Texcoco?(2 votes)
- Lake Texcoco was up in the mountains. All that was needed was to open a channel to the lowest place in the surrounding ridge and let the water flow out.(2 votes)
and how were the aztec enemies of the spanish(2 votes)- The invaders from Spain wanted to take the wealth and land of the native peoples of Mexico, and to control the society there. I'd say, the invaders from Spain were the enemies. The native peoples of Mexico were the defenders.(2 votes)
- what year did atezz come(1 vote)
were they native Americans?(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Lecturer] We've already talked about the Aztec civilization in several videos, but what we're going to
focus on in this video is the Aztec empire which
shouldn't be confused with the Aztec civilization. The civilization is
referring to the broader groups of people over hundreds of years, but the Aztec empire is
a very specific entity that formed in the 100 years
before Spanish colonization. What you see here is a zoomed in version of what today would be southern Mexico and right over here on the globe and you can see many
city-states formed here. A city-state is a city that
is also considers itself a state that has its own political organization, its own way of functioning. It's not dependent on any
other government forms, and it's analogous to what
we see in classical Greece where we have the city-states
of Athens and Sparta. Now what's particularly
interesting is what's going on around Lake
Texcoco in the 14th Century. In 1325 you have the
city of Tenochtitlan form on this island in Lake Texcoco and initially Tenochtitlan is one of the weaker city-states around Lake Texcoco. You see many of these city-states, some of the stronger ones
you have Texcoco right here, and in particular you have Azcapotzalco, but as we fast forward roughly 100 years, you get to a situation where Azcapotzalco falls into a civil war. Their ruler dies and
there's a succession battle and the various city-states
around Lake Texcoco take sides. What eventually happens is Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan form what is known as a triple alliance
or the triple alliance and are able to conquer the Azcapotzalco. And so in conquering the Azcapotzalco, what you have forming is
known as the Aztec empire. Now it starts as an alliance between these three city-states and
other city-states in the area, but over time Tenochtitlan
which is sometimes referred to as Mexico Tenochtitlan because it is a city-state
of the Mexico people and this is where the name Mexico or Mexico actually comes from. Now even though it's an alliance, over time, Tenochtitlan essentially becomes the capital of this alliance, or the capital of this Aztec empire which continues on for roughly 100 years until 1521 when it is
defeated by Hernando Cortes. Now the story of how Hernando Cortes is able to conquer this
empire is fascinating and I'm not going to be able to go into all of the details in this
video, but needless to say he's able to convince
several hundred conquistadors to come and try to conquer the empire and he's able to do so by
recruiting tens of thousands, some estimates I've seen
are 100,000 soldiers from neighboring
city-states who had issues with the Mexico or with the Aztec empire and so he's eventually able to take over the famed city of Tenochtitlan. It's really important to recognize how advanced they were at the time. You see these causeways, these bridges leading into the island. They had a fairly advanced dam system to collect freshwater from the rain while also to control flooding. In fact a lot of that was destroyed when the conquistadors
came and Mexico City which eventually gets
founded over this lake is going to have issues with flooding for some time in the future. In fact the Spanish, in order
to control the flooding, end up draining this lake and
it's where Mexico City forms. But the big takeaway here is near the end of the Aztec civilization, as we get to the 100 years
before the conquistadors arrive, you have this empire form. This empire which starts as
an alliance of city-states but eventually becomes a tributary empire. Unlike the neighboring Mayans, which were on the Yucatan peninsula. On this map they would be in
this region right over here, the neighboring Mayans were
autonomous city-states. Some might have had more
power, more influence at different times, but the
Aztec tributary state means the other city-states are
paying tribute to Tenochtitlan. They are paying revenue,
they are paying service to what essentially is the capital or the seat of that empire
until it is conquered by the Spanish with, and remember, the Spanish are able to do this with several hundred conquistadors with the help of neighboring city-states and a smallpox epidemic which kills 50% of the population of the region.