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The Aztec Indians, who are known for their domination of southern and central
Mexico, ruled between the 14th and 16th centuries. They built a great empire and
developed very modernized ways of doing things. They had phenomenal
architectural skills and waterway systems.
The Aztec Indians also had very
developed social class and government systems and practiced a form of religion.
To begin with, the Aztecs were very skilled in the art of Architecture and
waterway systems.
“An example of the monumental architecture within the Aztec
society is the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan. Montezuma I, who was the ruler of
the Aztecs in 1466, created it. The pyramid was not finished until the rule of
Montezuma II, around 1508”(Carrasco, Montezuma Mexico, Pg. 49).
“Aztec cities
and towns also had working drinking water and waste treatment systems. An
intricate plumbing system using clay pipes ran down from the mountains around
Mexico valley to all of the towns and cities in the valley.
As the water ran
into each town or city it was the dispersed to 10 or 12 places around town were
it flowed into a pool for drinking water or was piped into public baths and
toilets. Only nobles had working drinking and bathing systems with running water
in their homes.
The sewage system worked much like today, having human wastes
carried to a collection pool where solids were collected, and then having
liquids run off into a series of terraces which filtered the water. Solid wastes
were allowed to sit in a collection pool for about six months and then were
brought to the lake gardens to be used as fertilizer”(Jennings, Aztec, Pg. 220).
“The Aztec social structure contained four well defined classes. At the bottom
of the heap were slaves and serfs, or the Tlacotli, who worked the private lands
of the nobility.
Next came the Macehualtin, ‘the fortunate,’ as they were called
because they were equally free of the heavy responsibility of the nobility and
of the slave’s liability to being basely used. They were the merchants,
shopkeepers and artisans that made up the bulk of the population.
The
Macehualtin belonged to localized kin groups known as calpulli or ‘big houses,’
each of which had it’s own lands, clan leaders, and temple”(Jennings, Aztec, Pg.
354). “After that came the hereditary nobility or Pipiltin, who supplied the top
bureaucrats in the Aztec imperial system, and from whose ranks was a formed a
council which advised the emperor and elected his successor from the ruling
lineage.
Also all of the nobility had the sound ztin added to the end of their
name. At the very top of the ladder was the Uey-Tlatoani, or revered speaker. He
had absolute control over civil affairs and it was his job to increase the size
of the Aztec Empire every year and if he didn't wage enough wars within a period
of time he would be impeached and replaced by the Pipiltin”(Oliphant, Atlas of
the Ancient World. Pg. 268).
“The Aztec government consisted of principally of
the leadership of the royal house and the vast bureaucracy backed by it. The
Uey-Tlatoani dealed mainly with external affairs of the Aztec empire, such as
starting wars and making peace treaties.
Also there was a parallel ruler,
another member of the royal lineage, known as the Cihuacoatl. He dealt mainly
with the internal affairs of Tenochtitlan such as the water system and the
justice system. The bureaucracy was set into place by the nobles and performed
the same function that civil servants perform today”(Oliphant, Atlas of the
Ancient World, 195).
To maintain the empire the Aztec government made the
territories it conquered contributes twice yearly. Taxes were collected from the
territories also and careful accounts were kept of what territories had to pay.
The heavy taxation and forced tribute disgruntled many territories. When
Hernando Cortez arrived in the early 1500's they were happy to help him as spies
and informants”(Blacker, Cortez and The Aztec Conquest, 143).
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