It was a culture like no other in North America. Where other tribes were nomadic the Aztec built cities of thousands and suburbs with a large agriculture. They had beautiful gardens with plants from all over their world. Mexico was a city like no other: paved streets, stone buildings, and large pyramids with temples on top. It had a zoo and an aviary with many birds. It had tanks with both fresh and saltwater for fish. But it had no wagons and no beasts of burden. Montezuma had subjected most all of the towns around, many with several thousand Indians. In the end, this proved to be his undoing as these tribes, after losing in battle, quickly made league with the Spanish conquerors. Yet for all their science their religion was totally barbaric. They believed their god, a white man, would one day return, which left them open to the Spanish conqueror. Then, they offered human sacrifices and even cannibalism, a horrible practice. They were a proud people, in the end refusing to give up until many were dead from starvation. The most advanced civilization in North America ultimately fell to the sword of the Spanish and the Conquest.

Provides information about the Aztec empire, discussing Tenochtitlán, daily life, ruins, and other related topics.

Aztec Culture It was a culture like no other in North America. Where other tribes were nomadic the Aztec built cities of thousands and suburbs with a large agriculture. They had beautiful gardens with plants from all over their world. Mexico was a city like no other: paved streets, stone buildings, and large pyramids with temples on top. It had a zoo and an aviary with many birds. It had tanks with both fresh and saltwater for fish. But it had no wagons and no beasts of burden. Montezuma had subjected most all of the towns around, many with several thousand Indians. In the end, this proved to be his undoing as these tribes, after losing in battle, quickly made league with the Spanish conquerors. Yet for all their science their religion was totally barbaric. They believed their god, a white man, would one day return, which left them open to the Spanish conqueror. Then, they offered human sacrifices and even cannibalism, a horrible practice. They were a proud people, in the end refusing to give up until many were dead from starvation. The most advanced civilization in North America ultimately fell to the sword of the Spanish and the Conquest.

The ultimate exploration of early 16th century Aztec culture features over 500 archaeological objects and works from Mexico and the United States, including jewelry, works of precious metals, and household and ceremonial artifactsQmany of which have never been exhibited before in the U.S. 0-89207-316-0$85.00 / DAP / Distributed Arts Publishers

Fifth Sun offers a comprehensive history of the Aztecs, spanning the period before conquest to a century after the conquest, based on rarely-used Nahuatl-language sources written by the indigenous people.

In this rich and surprising book, Frances F. Berdan shines fresh light on the enigmatic ancient Aztecs. She casts her net wide, covering topics as diverse as ethnicity, empire-building, palace life, etiquette, origin myths, and human sacrifice. While the Aztecs are often described as “stone age,” their achievements were remarkable. They constructed lofty temples and produced fine arts in precious stones, gold, and shimmering feathers. They crafted beautiful poetry and studied the sciences. They had schools and libraries, entrepreneurs and money, and a bewildering array of deities and dramatic ceremonies. Based on the latest research and lavishly illustrated, this book reveals the Aztecs to have created a civilization of sophistication and finesse.

Describes the history of the Aztec empire, society, religion, culture, and war, the Spanish conquest, and the survival of Aztec elements in later Mexican culture.

Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire before the Spanish conquest, rivaled any other great city of its time. In Europe, only Paris, Venice, and Constantinople were larger. Cradled in the Valley of Mexico, the city is unique among New World capitals in that it was well-described and chronicled by the conquistadors who subsequently demolished it. This means that, though centuries of redevelopment have frustrated efforts to access the ancient city’s remains, much can be told about its urban landscape, politics, economy, and religion. While Tenochtitlan commands a great deal of attention from archaeologists and Mesoamerican scholars, very little has been written about the city for a non-technical audience in English. In this fascinating book, eminent expert José Luis de Rojas presents an accessible yet authoritative exploration of this famous city--interweaving glimpses into its inhabitants’ daily lives with the broader stories of urbanization, culture, and the rise and fall of the Aztec empire.

Masterly....The complexities of Mexico's ancient cultures are perceptively presented and interpreted.--Library Journal

Some sixty years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a group of Nahua intellectuals in Mexico City set about compiling an extensive book of miscellanea, which was recorded in pictorial form with alphabetic texts in Nahuatl clarifying some imagery or adding new information altogether. This manuscript, known as the Codex Mexicanus, includes records pertaining to the Aztec and Christian calendars, European medical astrology, a genealogy of the Tenochca royal house, and an annals history of pre-conquest Tenochtitlan and early colonial Mexico City, among other topics. Though filled with intriguing information, the Mexicanus has long defied a comprehensive scholarly analysis, surely due to its disparate contents. In this pathfinding volume, Lori Boornazian Diel presents the first thorough study of the entire Codex Mexicanus that considers its varied contents in a holistic manner. She provides an authoritative reading of the Mexicanus’s contents and explains what its creation and use reveal about native reactions to and negotiations of colonial rule in Mexico City. Diel makes sense of the codex by revealing how its miscellaneous contents find counterparts in Spanish books called Reportorios de los tiempos. Based on the medieval almanac tradition, Reportorios contain vast assortments of information related to the issue of time, as does the Mexicanus. Diel masterfully demonstrates that, just as Reportorios were used as guides to living in early modern Spain, likewise the Codex Mexicanus provided its Nahua audience a guide to living in colonial New Spain.