Mayans and Aztecs

The Aztecs had the most complex religion of all the Mesoamerican civilizations.

Like most other civilizations, their religion was polytheistic, or believing in multiple gods. They had the same basic gods but emphasized their god Quetzalcoatl.  Quetzalcoatl means feathered serpent. The Aztecs believed in the fifth sun. This was a belief that the earth was built and destroyed only five times and that this Earth was the last one. Once this earth was destroyed, life would cease to exist. To prevent the gods from getting angry and destroying the world, they gave them blood, borrowed from the Mayans, or sacrificed people, borrowed from the Chichimecs.  Unlike the Mayans who just gave a little blood, the Aztecs would cut a person and let them bleed almost to death. They might also cut out a person’s heart and throw the dead carcass down the steps of the shrine which would leave a blood trail. This seems disgusting to us, but the Aztec priests would cut up the body and feed it to other people in the empire. The Aztecs would also sacrifice prisoners of war. They didn’t sacrifice one every now and then, but actually killed hundreds of people at a time. Sometimes these sacrificial ceremonies lasted days without stop.

            The down fall of the Aztecs was actually due to their religion. When Heran Cortes, a Spanish explorer, and his conquistadors arrived in Mexico looking for gold, the Aztecs were in for a surprise. The Aztecs believed that Heran Cortes was their god Quetzalcoatl because the legend says he was supposed to return the same day the Spanish arrived! He also was wearing bright colors, like the feathers on their god, and armor so when a sentry on the coast shot an arrow at him it bounced off. This, to the Aztecs, was amazing. To top it all off, the Spanish pulled out this wooden pole with metal (a gun) and shot the sentry, who had shot him, and he was killed only with a big boom! This was the most amazing thing the Aztecs because they had never seen anything like it. The Aztecs, to please their gods (the Spanish), offered them gold. This was just what the Spanish wanted so they continued to pretend they were gods. But when Heran Cortes found out the Aztecs killed people for their gods, he, as a catholic, got extremely angry. He rallied up hundreds of Indian men, who wanted revenge on the Aztecs for taking their tribe’s people for sacrifice, and prepared an attack on the Aztecs. When the Spanish attacked with their guns, and the Indians came to help, the Aztecs were easily defeated. It took the Spanish only 2 years to destroy the entire, very advanced, Aztec empire. Then the Spanish spent years taking all the gold the Aztecs had back to Spain.

            The Aztecs and Mayas were the most civilized empires but were not the only ones. The Olmecs were the first civilization in Mesoamerica.  The Chichimecs were the barbarian tribe that broke up into the Toltecs and the Aztecs.  There are a lot of things involved when classifying a group of people as being a tribe, or a great civilization, like the Aztecs and Mayas. Although we know a lot about Mesoamerican empires we can still learn much more by exploring each group further, and deciphering the codices of the Aztecs.