The Rise of the Aztec Society

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and discusses the history of the Aztecs and the development of the Aztec society. According to the paper, the Aztecs were not the first great civilization that inhabited the region of today's Mexico, but settled after many former cultures had passed and left their influence hundreds of years before the empire was built. The paper reports that like other cultures, the Aztecs started as a small group of people that managed to achieve power and riches through hard work and a vision of the future.

From the Paper:

"The lowest stage of society was a kind of peasant that was not allowed to have properties, was bound to the land of the nearby nobles and had the task of working it, in exchange for a portion of the harvest. A lower stage were the slaves, less in number and that achieved such condition only if they were war prisoners, had debts or committed crimes. A slave was similar to a paid servant. The children of the poor people could be sold as slaves, but it was usually for a determined period of time. The slaves had the right to buy their freedom."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Carrasco, David. Daily life of the Aztecs: people of the sun and earth. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, 1998.
• Coe, Michael D., Koontz, Rex. Mexico: from Olmecs to Aztecs, Thames and Hudson, New York, 2002.
• Hooker, Richard, World Civilizations. Civilizations in America, the Toltecs. 1996 http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/TOLTECS.HTM (accessed December 9, 2006)
• Lawrence Rebecca Olmecs mysteries and resources, http://www.tylwythteg.com/OLMEC/Olmec1.html 2003, (accessed December 9, 2006)
• Miguel Leon-Portilla. Fifteen poets of the Aztec world, Norman University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.

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