Aztec Civilization

The beautiful region of Northern Mexico was home to the Aztecs, who are believed to have originated as a nomadic hunting and gathering tribe. They arrived in Mesoamerica at the beginning of the 13th century, from their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an complex social, political, religious and commercial organization that brought many of the region’s city-states under their control by the 15th century.

One of the Aztec empire's contributions to society was that they happened to be one of the first to have mandatory education for everyone. In the years ahead, education was going to become more and more important around the world. Many countries had education for the upper classes, but for the Aztec's, education was important no matter what your gender or rank. They also invented the use of antispasmodic medicine. This is medicine to prevent muscle spasms, and relax muscles, which may have had a major impact and helped in surgeries. The Passion flower, which still grows in Mexico today was and still is used as an herbal remedy, and was believed to help with insomnia, epilepsy, and high blood pressure.

The Aztec religion is the Mesoamerican religion of the Aztecs. Like other Mesoamerican religions, it had elements of human sacrifice in and a large number of religious festivals which were held according to patterns of the Aztec calendar. Religion was the center of all of the societies in Mesoamerica.

 The empire fell tragically in 1521 when invaders led by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes overthrew the civilization by force and captured Tenochtitlan, bringing the end to Mesoamerica’s last great native civilization.