Exploration of the New World

destroyed by the Conquistadors in the name of greed and Christ-ianity. The Aztecs were regarded as uncivilized heathens, and their lands were taken from them, their goods were stolen, and their leaders murdered.

Aztec civilization--and it was indeed a civilization--created

its most extraordinary achievements in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It received a sudden and painful defeat at the hands

of the Spanish army in 1519-1521. Aztec civilization flourished

in the Valley of Mexico, a tiny area in comparison with the total territory of the Aztec empire (Gibson 1).

The term "Aztec" actually has no precise meaning, and it is used in an inclusive sense in reference to Indian peoples who have a more particular tribal nomenclature. There were many tribes in-volved, and their history to 1519 was quite complex and was

governed by military victory and defeat in the Valley of Mexico. By 1519, there was a major alliance drawing these peoples together (Gibson 20-22).

Aztec society was a military state with a population in the millions. The Aztecs were considered the most aggressive and dedicated warriors in the area, and fighting was glorified and deified. T

. . .
at could be explained by the deterioration of natural resources, and the population rise in the eighteenth century still failed to 1ive up to the Valley's capacity to support human 1ife. There were many changes which followed the population decline. The survivors faced a physical environment on which a smaller Indian population was making fewer demands. Because of this, the deterioration of the land and the social disruption brought about by the conquest still led to a certain easing of environmental tensions. The upper slopes of the Valley were depopulated as people moved to the lower altitudes (Gibson 6-7). The Spaniards destroyed the Aztec Empire because it was thought necessary in order to be able to control the population and exploit the natural resources of the region. To a degree, of course, the Spanish looked upon the Aztecs as uncivilized, and to be fair there were many elements in the Aztec social world which were violent and distasteful to the Spanish, including the rituals of human sacrifice and the militarism of the society. The destruc-tion of the Aztecs therefore had several facets--military, relig-ious, social, and personal. The last is simply because the Spaniards were outnumbered by a considerable amount and
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2765
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)