Adapted from another slideshare account. I have added a few activities and videos to accompany the presentation.

1. ANCIENT AZTECS
Adapted From:
http://www.slideshare.net/jmarazas/wh-chapter-7-
aztecs?qid=b29221fd-ec05-4e7e-bcb4-
b3b230c78953&v=default&b=&from_search=1

2. ROOTS OF AZTEC CULTURE
 Long before Mayan cities rose in the south, the
city of Teotihuacan emerged in the Valley of
Mexico
 The Valley of Mexico is a huge oval basin ringed
by snowcapped volcanoes, located in the high
plateau of central Mexico

3. MAP OF EARLY CIVILIZATIONS IN MEXICO

4. TEOTIHUACAN
 The city of Teotihuacan was well planned, with
wide roads, massive temples, and large
apartment buildings
 The Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the
Moon rose majestically towards the sky along the
main avenue
 Citizens of Teotihuacan worshipped a powerful
nature goddess and rain god
 Eventually Teotihuacan fell to invaders but its
culture influenced later peoples, especially the
Aztecs

5. TEOTIHUACAN

6. ARRIVAL OF THE AZTECS
 In the late 1200s, bands of nomadic peoples, the
ancestors of the Aztecs, migrated into the Valley
of Mexico from the north
 According to Aztec legend, the gods had told
them to search for an eagle perched atop a cactus
holding a snake in its beak
 The people found this sign on a swampy island in
Lake Texcoco
 Once they settled, the Aztecs shifted from
hunting to farming
 They slowly built the city of Tenochtitlan on the
site of present-day Mexico City

7. VALLEY OF MEXICO

8. LAKE TEXCOCO

9. ARRIVAL OF THE AZTECS
 As their population grew, the Aztecs found
ingenious ways to create more farmland
 They built chinampas, artificial islands made of
earth piled on reed mats that were anchored to
the shallow lake bed
 On these “floating gardens”, they raised corn,
beans, and squash
 They gradually filled in parts of the lake and
created canals for transportation
 Three wide stone causeways linked Tenochtitlan
to the mainland

10. CHINAMPAS

11. TENOCHTITLAN

12. TENOCHTITLAN

13. CONQUERING AN EMPIRE
 In the 1400s, the Aztecs greatly expanded their
territory
 Through a combination of fierce conquests and
shrewd alliances, they spread their rule across
most of Mexico, from the Gulf of Mexico on the
east to the Pacific Ocean on the west
 By 1500, the Aztec empire numbered an
estimated 30 million people
 War brought immense wealth as well as power
 Tribute, or payment from conquered peoples,
helped the Aztecs turn their capital into a
magnificent city

14. AZTEC EMPIRE

15. THE WORLD OF THE AZTECS
 When the Spanish and Hernan Cortes reached
Tenochtitlan in 1519, they were awestruck at its
magnificence
 From its temples and royal palaces to its zoos
and floating gardens, Tenochtitlan was a city of
wonders

16. WORLD OF THE AZTECS---GOVERNMENT
AND SOCIETY
 Unlike the Mayan city-states, each of which had its
own king, the Aztecs had a single ruler
 Aztec Social Pyramid:
 Emperor
 Nobles, Priests
 Warriors
 Commoners
 Slaves
 Long-distance traders ferried goods across the empire
and beyond
 From the highlands, they took goods such as
weapons, tools, and rope to barter for tropical
products such as jaguar skins and cocoa beans
 They also served as spies, finding new areas for trade
and conquest

17. WORLD OF THE AZTECS---RELIGIOUS
BELIEFS
 Priests were very important to the Aztecs
 They performed rituals needed to appease the
many Aztec gods
 The chief god was Huitzilopochtli, the sun god
 The Aztecs believed that Huitzilopochtli battled
the forces of darkness each night and was reborn
again each morning
 To give the sun the strength to rise each day, the
Aztecs offered human sacrifices

18. HUITZILOPOCHTLI

19. WORLD OF THE AZTECS---RELIGIOUS
BELIEFS
 Priests offered the hearts of tens of thousands of
victims to Huitzilopochtili and other Aztec gods
 Most of the victims were prisoners of war, but
sometimes a noble family gave up one of its own
members to appease the gods
 Other cultures such as the Olmecs and Mayas
had practiced human sacrifice, but not on the
massive scale of the Aztecs

20. AZTEC SACRIFICES

21. TEMPLE OF BLOOD
 Watch Discovery Channel’s ‘Aztec: Temple of
Blood
 Learn about:
 Aztec’s sacrifice rituals
 Temples
 Fighting techniques
 How they fell

22. WORLD OF THE AZTECS---EDUCATION AND
LEARNING
 Priests were the keepers of Aztec knowledge
 Besides performing rituals, they also recorded
laws and events, and they also ran schools
 Others used their skills in astronomy and
mathematics to produce a calendar
 The Aztecs believed that illnesses were
punishments from the gods
 Aztec physicians could set broken bones, treat
dental cavities, and also prescribed steam baths
as cures for ills

23. HORRIBLE HISTORIES
 Aztec tidbits:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBQ-O3cy-fQ

24. AZTEC ENTERTAINMENT
 Aztecs also had a similar ball game to the
Mayans
 They enjoyed games and gambling
 Patolli: type of board game, which was played by
the common people as well as the nobles
 The name comes from the word for small red beans,
which were used to play the game.
 Sacrifices were made to the "dice" in hopes that the
gods would bring victory
 Totoloque: another gambling game popular in
Mexico at the time
 The object of the game was to hit a target with gold
pellets
 Bernal Diaz, the Spanish historian, wrote that Cortés
and Moctezuma II played totoloque together

25. LET’S PLAY SOME PATOLLI!
 Grab a game sheet and put it together
 Grab some beans and make them dice
 Get some game pieces and read over the rules

26. DOWNFALL OF THE AZTECS
 Hernan Cortes was the Spanish conquistador
who took over the Aztec empire
 The Aztec emperor, Montezuma, tried to appease
the Spanish by offering gold but by then
Spaniards could never be given enough to satisfy
their liking
 After finally defeating the Aztecs, Cortes
destroyed Tenochtitlan and rebuilt the city as
Mexico City, the present-day capital of Mexico

27. HERNAN CORTES

28. SPANISH HONOR

29. ROUTE OF THE SPANIARDS

30. MONTEZUMA

31. CORTES AND THE AZTECS
 Fact of Fiction? What were Cortes’ real motives
when going to the Americas?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0xm3aiPU-w

32. MEXICO CITY

33. MEXICO CITY AT NIGHT

34. THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
 We’ve looked at how various cultures were
destroyed by the Spanish but how did the finding
of the New World impact the Americas and
Eurasia?
 Watch John Green’s take:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQPA5oNpf
M4&index=24&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9
 Do you think Columbus’ founding of the New
World has made the world less or more?

35. OTHER SOURCES:
 http://www.aztec-history.com/ancient-aztec-
games.html