History

 History

First Settlement 

Around, the 1200s, a nomadic group known as the Mexica, now called the Aztecs, settled down in an area known as the Valley of Mexico.  According to legend, they were supposed to settle where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus holding a snake in its beak.  The Aztecs supposedly saw that on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco so they established thier first settlement there in 1325.  They decided to name it Tenochtitlan, which became the capital of the Aztec Empire.

Eagle Perched on Cactus

Expansion of the Aztec Empire 

 Around the early 1400s, the Aztecs started conquering the lands around them and expanding their empire.  They proved to be very fierce fighters and did not lose very often.  Aztec soldiers wore heavy cotton armor and carried wooden shields with them.  They used a variety of weapons, but the most common was a wooden club covered in stone spikes.  The Aztecs eventually made an alliance with two other city-states during an agreement known as the Triple Alliance.  Together, they continued to expand their empire until the Aztec civilization reached its height in the 1500s. 

Aztec Warriors 

The Empire At Its Height 

In the early 1500s, an Aztec ruler named Moctezuma came to the throne.  Under his rule, the empire reached its height.  It covered a lot of Mexico and parts of the surrounding areas like Guatemala.  At this point, nearly 10 million people lived in the empire.  Just the Valley of Mexico contained about a million people and Tenochtitlan by itself had about 200,000 people living within the city.  The Aztecs thrived and built magnificent cities during this period.

Tenochtitlan 

 The Fall of the Empire

The Aztec empire started to fall in 1519 when a group of Spaniards led by Hernan Cortez entered Mexico.  They tried to conquer the Aztec civilization and kept attacking them.  The Aztecs fought back but a smallpox epidemic broke out, carried over by the Spaniards, that killed many of the Aztecs.  Eventually, the Spaniards defeated the Aztecs, putting an end to the civilization.

Spaniards Attacking Aztecs