Aztecs & Their Gods

Huitzilopochtli: The Patron God Read page 232-233 out loud: The Long Migration To summarize: The Aztecs were semi-nomadic, sometimes settled, sometimes moving around. They were migrating until their god told their priests they could settle somewhere They left their own land in the first place because they had offended a god by cutting down a forbidden tree They were looking for the land of their destiny

Huitzilopochtli: The Patron God The incarnation of the sun His job is to struggle against the forces of the night to keep humans alive His birth story is on page 233

Tenochtitlan One day, while migrating, the Aztecs saw a sign: An eagle sitting on a cactus with a rattle snake in its mouth They had been moving around for many years and were happy to settle and build the city of Tenochtitlan The place they settled was surrounded by three powerful societies: Chichimec (chee-CHEE-make) Culhuacan (Kool-wak-kahn) Tepanec This proved to be an excellent place to settle because they could work as servants for the surrounded societies or as mercenaries The Aztecs could travel by water to trade and by 1500, they grew their city to be bigger than any city in Europe!

Reflect and Respond: In groups, complete questions 1-5 in the reflect and respond section on page 235

Spain Spain had many influences over the hundreds of years preceding contact with the Aztecs They had had all manner of religions and civilizations present at some point Muslim rule in Spain lasted more than 700 years, some areas were still dominated by Catholics and Jews were present also. A Catholic military move to take back Spain began called the Reconquista The end result was the defeat of Muslim control and Catholicism claimed the entire country by 1492

The Spanish Inquisition In our Renaissance unit, we learned that after Martin Luther defied the Roman Catholic church, many people began to believe in religious freedom The rulers of Spain, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille, made it their mission to create a unified Spain by forcing everyone to have the same religion This is when Spain deported or killed/tortured anyone who did not convert to Catholicism. This period was called the Spanish Inquisition

King Ferdinand and Queen ISabella Agree or disagree with their methods, we cannot deny that they were in fact successful at unifying Spain. This was a time of great change in Europe as many countries were beginning to explore to expand their wealth and power Columbus found North America while looking for a trade route to Asia. Nevertheless, he claimed some of these areas for Spain. The King and Queen had two goals Spread Catholicism to the whole world Make Spain rich and powerful

#powergoals Missionaries sent out Any lands captured meant any resources from those places belonged to the King and Queen to make Spain wealthy and powerful Spanish ethnocentrism was strong and caused them to treat other cultures and religions as inferior They used this ethnocentric attitude to justify treated people harshly

Moorish influence on Spain

Moorish Influence on SPain For almost 700 year, the Muslims controlled a huge stretch of area from Asia to North Africa, but it had never had control of the western part of Europe Moors began to capture areas of the Iberian peninsula and aspects of their culture began to be seen through trade and settlement Spain is now a beautiful mix of Islamic and Christian art, architecture and culture, showing the layers of history Islamic influence….Can you guess what cultural aspects remain today? Think about Art and architecture… Mosaics Schools of mathematics and astronomy Magnificent palaces and mosques

The Great Mosque of Cordoba

Who influenced the Aztecs? 3 societies in the area influenced the Aztecs’ culture and society; the Olmec the Teotihuacan and the Toltec

The Pyramid of the SUn

Totems from the city of Tula

Olmec Culture

Influencing the Aztecs Each time the Aztecs lived among new people, they absorbed some of their culture, religions, customs and beliefs. They learned many new skills, the best of the best from each culture

Comparing Cause and Effect: Rise to power Create a visual (such as a timeline or diagram) and list the most important events that led to the Aztec’s rise to power. Use the information from your textbook, pages 249-253 You will need to read the information and choose the most significant events and people. Determine what information is key and what can be left out. The same should then be done for the Spanish rise to power on pages 254-256 After, write a compare and contrast paragraph to describe the similarities and differences between the two rises to power. You will hand in, two timelines or other diagram of your choice with the paragraph. See the next slide for diagram examples you can find on Word.

The Fishbone method

Chapter test will include vocabulary End of Chapter 7 Chapter test will include vocabulary