Aztec Empire

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Arts

Most of the art produced by the Aztec expressed aspects of their religion. Brilliantly colored paintings, done mainly on walls and amatl (paper made of pounded bark), depicted religious ceremonies and stiff, angular gods. The Aztec carved freestanding idols and bas-relief wall sculptures on their temple-pyramids. Stone sculptures were often made to represent gods and sacrificial victims.

One of their most famous surviving Aztec sculptures is the so-called calendar stone, which weighs 22 metric tons and measures 3.7 m (12 ft) in diameter. The calendar stone represents the Aztec universe. The face of the Aztec sun god is carved in the center. Surrounding it are circular bands of designs that symbolize the days and the heavens. The Aztec also carved small, realistic figures of people and animals out of quartz, obsidian (volcanic glass), and jade.

The Aztec wrote in pictographs, or small pictures symbolizing objects or the sounds of syllables. They also used pictographs in their counting system, which was based on the number 20. A picture of a flag indicated 20 items; a fir tree represented 20 times 20 items, or 400; and a pouch indicated 400 times 20 items, or 8000. Pictographs could not express abstract ideas but were useful for recording history, conducting business, and maintaining genealogy and landholding records.

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Tools and Crafts

Although the Aztec had only simple hand tools to work with, they were expert craftspeople. Women spun cotton and maguey fibers into thread by twisting them onto a stick weighted by a clay spindle whorl. They dyed the thread in vivid colors and wove it into cloth with elaborate geometric designs. From this cloth they made clothing—loincloths and capes for men and long skirts and sleeveless blouses for women. Specially trained craftsmen knotted feathers into webs to make mantles (cloaks), headdresses, and banners.

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The Aztec layered strips of clay to make storage jars, griddles, goblets, and other kinds of vessels, which were fired in open kilns. These clay vessels were generally red or white, with finely drawn black-and-white geometric designs. Unlike the early civilized peoples of the Middle East, the Aztec had no iron or bronze. Their cutting tools were made of obsidian and chert, and by the time of the Spanish conquest, they had begun to experiment with tools made of copper. The Aztec fashioned jewelry using gold, silver, copper, emerald, turquoise, and a kind of jade that they prized above all other materials. They cut stone for use in construction using rawhide cord and an abrasive of sand and water. Axes were made of blades of stone or copper, set in wooden handles. Drills were made of bone or reed.

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Spanish Conquest

In 1519 Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés and more than 500 Spaniards landed in eastern Mexico in search of land and gold. Advised by Malinche, his Native American mistress, Cortés formed an alliance with one of the rivals of the Aztec, the Tlaxcalans, and set out for Tenochtitlán. After wavering about how to respond to the Spanish force, Aztec ruler Montezuma II allowed Cortés to enter the city in order to learn more about him and his intentions.

Finding large amounts of gold and other treasure, and fearful that the Aztec would attack his vastly outnumbered Spanish force, Cortés seized Montezuma as a hostage and demanded a ransom of treasure. The Spaniards melted down the intricate gold ornaments of the Aztec for shipment to Spain and forced Montezuma to swear allegiance to the king of Spain. The Spaniards remained in the city without opposition until about six months later, when, in Cortés’s absence, Spanish officer Pedro de Alvarado massacred 200 Aztec nobles who had gathered for a religious ceremony. After Cortés returned, the Aztec rebelled, fighting to drive the Spaniards out of Tenochtitlán. The Aztec warriors tore up the city’s bridges and chased the Spaniards into the canals, where three-fourths of them, weighted down with stolen gold, quickly drowned. Montezuma was killed during the revolt. Montezuma’s successor, Cuitlahuac, ruled only a few months before dying of disease. Montezuma’s nephew Cuauhtémoc became the next Aztec ruler.

Cortés retreated to Tlaxcala and gathered more Native American allies for a siege of Tenochtitlán. The Aztecs’ crude weapons were no match for the iron, steel, and gunpowder of the Spaniards, who also had the advantage of a large number of indigenous allies. After three months of desperate and bloody fighting, Cuauhtémoc surrendered in August 1521. Cortés tortured and hanged him while on an expedition to Honduras in 1525. The Spaniards conquered the remaining Aztec peoples, whose population was decimated by about a third due to a smallpox epidemic triggered by one of the Spanish soldiers, and took over their lands, forcing them to work in gold mines and on Spanish estates.

The fall of Tenochtitlán marked the end of the Native American civilizations that had existed in Mesoamerica since the first human settlement of the region. On the ruins of Tenochtitlán, the Spaniards built Mexico City. The city’s present-day cathedral rises over the ruins of an Aztec temple, and the palace of the Mexican president stands on the site of the palace of Montezuma. See also Mexico: History.