What happened to the Aztecs after they were conquered?
During the Spaniards’ retreat, they defeated a large Aztec army at Otumba and then rejoined their Tlaxcaltec allies. In May 1521, Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán, and after a three-month siege the city fell. This victory marked the fall of the Aztec empire.
What did the Aztecs do with captives?
The Aztecs believed that the blood of sacrificial victims, especially of brave warriors, fed the god Huitzilopochtli. Taken as captives after battles, the victims had their hearts removed and the corpse was skinned, dismembered and decapitated.
What happened at the death of an Aztec warrior?
Death was an essential part of Aztec culture from sacrifice to burial. Captured warriors would be sacrificed to the sun god and in some cases, the warrior would do the sacrifice. If a warrior died in battle his corpse would be burned there on the battlefield rather than at his city-state.
How did the Aztecs treat conquered peoples?
The Aztecs conquered the surrounding peoples. However, the Aztecs did not usually rule other nations. Instead, they forced them to pay tribute (goods like gold, feathers, weapons, and precious stones).
Did the Aztecs steal people’s wives?
When a whole town was vanquished, and women as well as men were captured, most of the women became slaves. A few, however, were in fact sacrificed in specific ceremonies requiring the death of a woman.
Did the Aztecs keep slaves?
The Aztecs additionally had landless serfs and slaves. Serfs worked land that was owned by nobles and did not live in the calpulli. Individuals became slaves (tlacotin) as a form of punishment for certain crimes or for failure to pay tribute.
Are the Aztecs from Mexico?
Aztec, self name Culhua-Mexica, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The Aztecs are so called from Aztlán (“White Land”), an allusion to their origins, probably in northern Mexico.
Who was in the triple alliance Aztec?
The Aztec Empire, or the Triple Alliance (Classical Nahuatl: Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, [ˈjéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥]), was an alliance of three Nahua altepetl city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan.
How long did the Aztec triple alliance last?
100 years
Who ruled the Aztec civilization?
Itzcoatl’s successor Montezuma (Moctezuma) I, who took power in 1440, was a great warrior who was remembered as the father of the Aztec empire. By the early 16th century, the Aztecs had come to rule over up to 500 small states, and some 5 to 6 million people, either by conquest or commerce.
Who came before the Aztecs in Mexico?
Between 1800 and 300 BC, complex cultures began to form. Many matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Izapa, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Purépecha, Totonac, Toltec, and Aztec, which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before the first contact with Europeans.