Aztec Civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Aztec Civilization - Essay Example It was the result of historical, geographic and other reasons – they made Aztec and some other civilizations achieve rather highly developed society: â€Å"In such environments arose two of the advanced societies of ancient America: the Aztec and Inca civilizations† (Keen, 1955, p.1). This article will give a short description of the Aztecs, their economy, way of life, and it will prove the thesis about the great importance of Aztec civilization for the development of the world history. 2. Hooker wrote that â€Å"The term, Aztec, is a startlingly imprecise term to describe the culture that dominated the Valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries† (Hooker, 1996). They were native Americans and dominated the vast territory in northern Mexico by the time of the Spanish invasion under Hernan Cortes which took place in the beginning of the 16th century. The true origin of the Aztecs is still uncertain, but it is concerned that they lived on the territory of to the north of the Valley of Mexico, or in the Southwestern United States. They created vast empire and dominated a lot of peoples on its territory: â€Å"Fearless warriors and pragmatic builders, the Aztecs created an empire during the 15th century that was surpassed in size in the Americas only by that of the Incas in Peru† (The Aztecs/Mexicans). So, by the time of the Spanish conquest the Aztecs had high developed economy and traditional way of life which became the result of their pr ogressive development. 3. The capital of the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan, was the greatest city in Mexico, but there were also other cities in the empire. The Aztecs had rather strong class structure which determined their way of life. The highest social class was nobility, or the pilli. Originally the class system was not hereditary, but later, by the time of the Spanish, it took on hereditary aspects. The lowest social class of the Aztecs was slaves, but slaves had opportunities to become free by