Hernando Cortes and his crew had some of the attributes of their god, red hair, beard, all that, and ended up thinking their gods were returning to them. So all of the Aztec weapons were all somewhere in their house or storage, and instead they had presents and food to give their so-called “gods”, which meant that they were not going to fight at first. You may say that the Aztecs had a lot of gold and land. Having a lot of gold and land does not always mean you are a powerful empire. In this case, they were, but the Aztecs did not know the best way that they captured most of the villages and told them they had to give sacrifices, and forced them to do whatever the Aztecs needed them to do.
The Aztec: Man and Tribe is a book written by Victor W. Von Hagen. I chose this book mostly due to my interests in the Aztecs. The Aztecs are often seen as a barbaric culture that did what they wanted, when they wanted, with no regard to human life or the penalties of their actions. I do not disagree with this, but I would not speak of it in a tone that most would choose. By reading this book, I had hoped to find more information on the Aztecs to better argue my points on why I do not see them in the same light that most do.
The book “The Broken Spears” covers events of the Spaniards making their way into the Valley of Mexico and taking over the great city of Tenochtitlan. In contrary to the Spaniards views many of the documents featured in the book are taken from the point of view of those who actually saw the conquest of Tenochtitlan, that is, the Aztecs. The documents tell us about fear, bravery, loyalty, and courage of the Aztecs. As the Spanish traveled toward the Aztec city, news from the messengers of destroyed cities alerted others of what was to come. The Tlaxcaltecas immediately allied
Also, the supply system was readily available because the previous battles won by the United States that allowed them to gain more territory on the Mexican land. The Mexican forces did not count with experienced forces, the officers and cadets where between the ages of 13 and 19 years old. The Mexican army was lead by Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana who knew that the castle was a great tactical point for the defense of the
The Senate of Rome had most control over the citizens. Han China did not allow lower class citizens to have a say on how the empire was ruled; while, Imperial Rome had a senate to represent their plebeian’s or ordinary people. Another difference between the Han China and Imperial Rome was that the emperor of Han China had been chosen through the family and the citizens of Imperial Rome chose their ruler. Han China and Imperial Rome emphasized territorial expansion in both of their societies. They perceived threats to security; this led to war and then increased the length of border.
The author was not present in the society of the book, he only wrote about the sequence of events. This affects the source because we might not know if what happened was actually true. It seems as if the author’s intention was to inform people about the invasion of Mexico. The audience is the people of Mexico (book was originally written in Spanish) The bias that the conquest of Mexico was Brutal. Leon-Portilla is a reliable source as he was a credited anthropologist and historian.
This similarity shows that, though neither civilization was dependent on it, land trade played an important role in the cultures of the two civilizations. These trade roads also played a large part in the cultural diffusion of Rome and Latin America. In Classical Latin America and the early years of Classic Rome, Mountainous terrain isolated cities, towns, and villages, but through the complex trade routes, these two civilizations could interact with their surrounding civilizations. Another similarity between the two cultures was that the Aztecs, a classical civilization of Latin America, and the Romans both conquered new territory for either political or economic reasons. With Rome conquering Western Europe and the Aztecs conquering the majority of Central America, the two civilizations gathered a large amount of wealth from the conquered states.
Even though they were very similar, they did have their differences. Both of these civilizations were based on a monarchy/bureaucracy. Each had a supreme leader that stated he got his power to rule from the gods. But there were also bureaucrats to run the extensive area these civilizations once ruled that the king could not control by himself. Trade was an essential part of these societies.
The Aztec’s Fall From Greatness The Aztec people created a mighty empire in Mexico. The ingenious Aztec society possessed a powerful military. According to u.s.history.com, “They had to conquer powerful rivals to control the region and establish Tenochtitlan as their capital city.” (Aztecs) It was the beginning of the end for the Aztec people when Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador, intruded on the east coast of Mexico. How did Cortes and his soldiers defeat the mighty Aztecs? Many factors influenced the conquering of the Aztec people by the Spaniards including the Aztec’s religion, Spain’s superior weapons, alliances, and disease.
Aztec Judicial System Just as we, Americans, know our judicial system today as federal and state, the Aztec empire was classified as city and states better known as an Altepetl. As illustrated by Widener, Glass and Widener (2003) the Aztec judicial system was created to maintain social order amongst its people as well as for the people to respect its government structure. Each Altepetl was ruled by the Emperor or supreme leader who was better known as a Tlatoani. The Tlatoani selected the Cihuacoatl who was considered to be the supreme judge and appointed the administrators who were better known as the lower court judges except for the neighborhood judges who were elected by the people of the city. The neighborhood judges would be equal to the justice of the peace in our society.