The Aztecs are thought to be decedents of hunters and gatherers from northern Mexico. The Aztecs were farmers who developed an advanced agricultural system that allowed them to grow crops on swampy and dry lans that would normally not sustain crops.
They did this by developing an advanced system of irrigation which would supply water to the crops planted in land that did not have enough water to support the crops. The Aztecs' religious beliefs were similar to those of the Maya; they believed in many gods such as Tonatiuh, the god of the sun and Tlaloc, the god of rain, to who they prayed. You cannot download interactives. For thousands of years, this area was populated by groups such as the Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec peoples.
Cultural traits that define the region include the domestication of maize, beans, avocado, and vanilla, and a common architectural style. Learn more about the rich cultures and lives of these early civilizations. Mexico City is founded on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. If you could go back in time, what would you see? Each country had different motivations for colonization and expectations about the potential benefits.
Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Image Pyramid of the Sun The Teotihuacan pyramids are some of the largest of their kind in the Americas.
Photograph by f9photos. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Spanish explorer or conqueror of Latin America in the 16th century. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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Related Resources. View Collection. The Spaniards then murdered thousands of Aztec nobles during a ritual dance ceremony, and Montezuma died under uncertain circumstances while in custody. European diseases like smallpox, mumps and measles were also powerful weapons against the local population, who lacked immunity to them. After his victory, Cortes razed Tenochtitla and built Mexico City on its ruins; it quickly became the premier European center in the New World.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing The Aztec Empire was a shifting and fragile alliance of three principle city-states.
The Aztec Triple Alliance exerted tremendous power over a Teotihuacan is an ancient Mesoamerican city located 30 miles 50 km northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Aztec priests, using razor-sharp obsidian blades, sliced open the chests of sacrificial victims and offered their The history of chocolate can be traced to the ancient Mayans, and even earlier to the ancient Olmecs of southern Mexico.
The word chocolate may conjure up images of sweet candy bars and luscious truffles, but the chocolate of today is little like the chocolate of the past. The ancient Maya, a diverse group of indigenous people who lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, had one of the most sophisticated and complex civilizations in the Western Hemisphere. Between about and A. Tikal is a complex of Mayan ruins deep in the rainforests of northern Guatemala.
Historians believe that the more than 3, structures on the site are the remains of a Mayan city called Yax Mutal, which was the capital of one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient empire.
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