Reasons For The Rise Of The Aztecs

The Aztecs cosmology was a unique combination of mythology. Their beliefs about themselves and their purpose were not something they took lightly. “The mystic-militaristic approach characteristic of Aztec religion…felt that the purpose of man’s creation was to provide blood for the maintenance of the Sun’s life” (Leon-Portilla, Aztec Thought & Culture, 122). With this perspective of themselves, the Aztecs believed that human sacrifice was not only justified but necessary for the lives of civilization. Simply put, mankind was “food” for god.

It was clear through the human sacrifice that the Aztecs practiced that they had no regard for the quality of human life and did it for the benefit of their society. First of all, they would kill thousands of people at a time, and then they ate the arms, thighs, and heads leaving the bodies to feed to the wild animals (Document G). This shows that the Aztecs did not care about the people that they were killing, only about sacrificing to the gods. Secondly, many say that the Aztecs sacrificed human beings for the sole purpose of pleasing the gods. In the eyes of the Aztec religion, if then gods were happy with the Aztecs, then that they would be blessed. It is clear the Aztecs sacrificed to make their civilization the most successful of their time. In contrast, it is also a popular belief that the reason for human sacrifice was for cannibalism. It is a possible that since they had no animals such as cattle or lamb, they had to resort to eating human beings (Document J). This theory demonstrates that the Aztecs valued the well- being of their society over human life. Regardless of what approach regarding human

They believed that the sun would not rise each day without the offering of blood (Gleeson, Matthew).The most important part of the Aztec religious life was the role of human sacrifice. The Mayan priests would nourish the gods with their blood caused by piercing their tongues, ears, extremities, or genitals. Sacrifice had other practices like prayer, offerings of food, sports, and even dramas. The heart was the most sacred body part that the Aztec offered to the gods (Forgotten Empires: The Aztec Empire | Discovery History Documentary). The Aztecs developed the idea that gods were nourished better by living hearts of captives. If the captive was brave, the better the sacrifice. Aztecs thought their gods would turn against them if they were not given human sacrifices. This belief led to many wars to find victims both captured in war and those paid to the Aztecs as tribute by the people who were conquered. Human sacrifices were made to make the sun rise the next day. They believed that if the sun god were not fed human hearts and blood the sun would not rise and the world would end in disaster. The Aztecs believed that their special purpose in life was to delay that destruction. They sacrificed to the gods to avoid destruction for as long as possible. On God's Feast Day, slaves were killed for the gods. The most brutal sacrifices were those

They honored their gods, and did rituals to honor them. The Aztecs for example honored Huitzilopochtli, or the sun god through human sacrifices. Usually prisoners, were sacrificed to please the gods, so they could receive their blessings in return. This could have ranged from good health to receiving good weather. The Incas did human sacrifices too, and they would sacrifice noble children or the virgins of the sun. In a video, ¨Virgins of the Sun¨, the author teaches us that the children and parents viewed being sacrificed as a privilege. The Incas believed the children would sacrifice their lives to later be guardians of their society. Both of these empires took their faith seriously, and respected all their deities. The only reasoning behind these practices is because they were motivated by religion. Both Empires didn't want to disappoint their deities, but instead wanted to praise them to get something in

The second most important reason that the Aztecs human sacrifice was more important than agriculture was that they treated the people in the prison like they were walking gods. They gave them the best

The Aztecs should also be remembered for their strong army and expert tactics. Aztec warriors were some of the most “fierce fighters” in Mesoamerica, conquering almost all of southern Mexico in a span of about 100 years (Doc. 1). This extraordinary success came from not only the Aztecs’ expert fighting skills, but the fear they instilled within their enemy. As previously stated, the Aztecs are most known for their human sacrifices; most of which were captured enemies. In The History of the Indies of New Spain, Friar Diego Duran describes a sacrificial ritual he witnessed where 2,300 prisoners from Teuclepec were killed in the name of the Aztec religion (Doc. 6). However, some historians believe that these sacrifices were not performed for

Religion played a very important role in the Aztec and Inca culture. Religious rituals consisted of human sacrifice and polytheism. Their deities were inspired by nature and the earth’s physical makeup. Both appear to be similar but peel back the onion and notable differences reveal themselves. It is difficult for modern day society to understand how human sacrifice can exist in such advanced civilizations.

The Aztecs have two remarkable qualities about their culture; human sacrifice and agriculture. While both of these qualities holds an importance in their history, historians should emphasize human sacrifice more. The Aztecs human sacrifice is more notable than the Aztecs agricultural ability, because they left land unoccupied for later sacrifices, it resulted in many’s death, and even the finest were sacrificed.

From sacrifices to worshipping the gods, the Aztecs created a society that surprised and impressed the Spanish conquistadors from 1350-1519. The Aztecs wanted to create a world-class society. Because of strong military and agriculture success, they controlled about 20 million people and sacrificed them to the gods. This caused the Aztec society to be at the peak of its height. Although they were very successful, the truth behind their history is very dark. Does human sacrifice deserve greater emphasis? We should emphasize the three reasons: the terrible scale of sacrifice, please the gods, and the conquistadors.

The Aztecs had many many gods and goddesses in their religion such as god of the rain, god of the springtime, god of nature, maize goddesses, god of war, god of the dead and so on. One of the main gods was the god of the Sun. In order to keep their world from ending the Aztec people believed that they had to make human sacrifices to the god of the Sun in a sacred temple. Most of the people that they

The Aztecs and Incas possessed different ideological and intellectual values or developments throughout their powers. For instance, an image of the Aztecs shows their practice of human sacrifice through a ceremony and the building of large temples to honor the gods (Fefferman, “Human Sacrifice Mendoza”). Ideology was a major interest of the Aztecs for they sacrificed themselves for their many deities and cared more about them, unlike the Incas who did not practice sacrifice for their gods. Aztec

The first being political political: the subjugation of enemy city states in order expand the empire and demonstrate power and superiority. The second objective was religious and socioeconomic: the taking of captives to be sacrificed in religious ceremonies. According to Friar Diego Durán’s accounts of the Aztec civilization, Tlacaelel - a king of the Aztec Empire - arranged with leaders of other Pre-Columbian city states to engage in ritual battles that would provide all parties with enough sacrificial victims to appease the gods. Tlacaelel reigned over a period of great famine in the empire in year 1450. The Aztec Religion believed that Gods required sacrifices to keep all running smoothly. There were several gods that the Aztecs worshiped to for agricultural purposes, for example: Tláloc, who sends rain and nourishes maize7, Centeotl, the god of maize in general, Teteoinnan, the god of agriculture as well as sexual fertility, and Xipe Totec, god of rituals and sacrifice8. The Aztecs believed that through worshipping certain gods, and generously providing them with a steady supply of sacrifices and blood, the gods would in return keep things balanced. When there was not enough victims, Tlacaelel resorted to these battles to collect more humans to be sacrificed. War was a dominant aspect of the Aztec civilization, and they aspired to exponentially expand their empire through military conquest, while also collecting tribute from the

The Aztec civilization during its peak was the strongest civilization in the western hemisphere. When the Spaniards first set foot in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, they could not believe that a civilization so primitive in their minds could have been so culturally developed and powerful. However, before making it to Tenochtitlan, they had discovered that all was not well in the Aztec empire. From many native Indians that had tension with the Aztecs, they learned of internal and pre-existing problems that existed. This investigation examines to what extent where those internal and pre-existing factors to blame for the downfall of the Aztec Empire. The investigation was undertaken using some of the only primary

The religion of the Aztecs was made up of mainly three gods: Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. Below these three main gods were four creating gods. Below these four gods were many other gods, however the most important were Tlaloc, the rain god, Chalchihuitlicue, the god of growth and Xipe, the god of spring. The main thing that captures the attention of Aztec religion is their human sacrifice made to the different gods. Although human sacrifice was practiced around Mesoamerica, the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice in a large scale never seen before to date. The idea of human sacrifice was that Gods gave things to humans like food, rain, wealth, and other goods only if they were given human beings in return. The Aztecs believed that the goods liked best the living hearths of sacrificed captives. If the captive was a well skilled soldier and very brave then the Gods would return better goods to his people. This idea lead to wars were the Aztecs fought with other indians and capture their bravest men for sacrifice. As we can imagine,

Aztec is civilization created by the ancient Indian, which was mainly distributed in central and southern Mexico. Aztecs were a tribe with a lower level of development at first, but they absorb and fuse with other outstanding cultural traditions of Indian in the region that they rose rapidly. Aztec had developed agriculture and the main crops were corn, beans, squash, potatoes. Religion played an important role in the life of the Aztecs. The inhabitants believed in the immortality of the soul and Supreme domination. They adored the natural god that one of the peculiar was to use the living person for sacrifice.