The exact numbers of the Aztecs is not known due to the age of their culture, but judging by the size of their empire it was quite large. The only figure I could find was that in 1519 there were more than 1,000,000 people living in the civilizations boundaries. The reason that I was drawn to this culture was some of the practices that they had. The most interesting being the human sacrifices to the gods, and the large ball game that they played that sometimes went on for days without a stop.

The Aztecs lived primarily in a fertile volcanic valley of Mexico where they built their capital city named Tenochtitlan. The land in which they lived was a plateau seeing that most of the surrounding was mountainous. The soil in the settled areas was very rich and good for growing crops, due to the volcanic eruptions that occurred. The valley of Mexico was the heartland of

1981. The Mighty Aztecs. National Geographic Society

Aztec civilization. It is a large internally drained basin surrounded by volcanic mountains that are as high as 9,000 ft in elevation. Thousands of years of soil erosion had produced deep, rich soils in the valley and a system of shallow, swampy, salt lakes in its center. This gave the Aztecs a diverse variety of foods that could be available. The salty lakes made available fish, turtles, insect larvae, blue-green algae, and salt. The food that was eaten by the Aztecs varied by social classes. The peasants lived mainly on corn and beans, except for a duck or a crow that they may have trapped in their garden. Their only domesticated animals were rabbits, dogs, and turkeys which were fattened and eaten on special occasions. Corn was the main food of The Aztecs and many foods were made fresh daily from it. Every morning the woman of the family would grind up fresh corn, and make bread for the day. The higher classed people, however, enjoyed eating turtles and crabs imported from the coast. It was odd to the Spaniards to find that one of the delicacies of the Aztecs was dog.

The economy of the Aztecs was largely one of bartering (trade). The trading was of many goods; this is how the large open air markets operated. In the central market there were 4 hierarchal levels or marketplaces. These marketplaces were an area of bustling activity while they were open. The reason that these were so busy was that they were only open for and Aztec week (which is 5 days). While the market was open there were many stands set up where merchants paid a small fee to operate a stand to sell their goods. At the market products were monitored for quality, and if a product was found of bad quality they were shut down. At the same time anyone caught shoplifting was taken to the court at the market, and found guilty. The punishment was being beaten to death on the spot. The currency that was used was cacao beans for small purchases, for larger purchases the Aztecs used quachtli (cotton capes of standard sizes). The economic level of the Aztecs was quite high, and was considered as more sophisticated markets that several other civilizations. Even though there was no official currency they did use objects as money ranging from beans to capes. The only unique feature that I could pick out is how well the market was monitored by the people looking for quality products. This shows an amount of sophistication on their behalf, by regulating trade in a way. The economy was very complex, in the way that all aspects of it were tied together, which made the Aztec empire unified. The economy was highly commercialized and dynamic, but it was not a capitalist economy. There was no paid labor, land was not a commodity to be bought and sold, and there were no chances for investment. The markets and the economy were embedded in a rigid system of social classes, and no amount of economic success would enable one to cross class barriers.

Some common words found in the essay are:
, Templo Mayor, Gods Aztec, Spanish Spanish, Aztecs Cortez', York NY, Bray Warwick, Hooker Richard, Vaillant George, aztec religion, Aztecs- Peoples, heart sacrifice, social classes, human sacrifice, aztecs myths culture, valley mexico, everyday life, culture aztecs, social status, myth suns, aztecs- peoples,
Approximate Word count = 2413
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)