History UsefulNotes / PreColumbianCivilizations

Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in North) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the UsefulNotes/{{North America}}n peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} that don't fit in cultures mentioned below see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology, Myth/MayanMythology and Myth/IncaMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to indigenous cultures of UsefulNotes/TheAmericas before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests started at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("Pre-Columbian" as in "before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards on the Atlantic). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in North) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the UsefulNotes/{{North America}}n peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} that don't fit in cultures mentioned below see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology, Myth/MayanMythology and Myth/IncaMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to indigenous cultures of UsefulNotes/TheAmericas before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests started at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("Pre-Columbian" as in "before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards on the Atlantic). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} that don't fit in the Mississippi Mound Culture or Puebloans see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology, Myth/MayanMythology and Myth/IncaMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to indigenous cultures of UsefulNotes/TheAmericas before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests started at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("Pre-Columbian" as in "before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards on the Atlantic). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology, Myth/MayanMythology and Myth/IncaMythology.

Popular perception tends to lump these people together and gets rather tabloid and inventive -- see '''{{Mayincatec}}''' for the trope. In RealLife, the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs were three very distinct groups.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to indigenous cultures of UsefulNotes/TheAmericas before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("Pre-Columbian" as in "before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards on the Atlantic). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology, Myth/MayanMythology and Myth/IncaMythology.

* There were actually hundreds of cultures that existed in the area at various times, we tend to know less about them. We do know though a bit about the Nazca, known for their [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_lines cool geoglyphs]], are an example of one of these. So are the Olmecs, known mostly for carving massive heads out of stone and being considered the {{Precursors}} to later Meso American civilizatons.

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''[[Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold Goodbye -- 'til next time.]]''

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to indigenous cultures of UsefulNotes/TheAmericas before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards on the Atlantic). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology, Myth/MayanMythology and Myth/IncaMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to indigenous cultures of UsefulNotes/TheAmericas before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards on the Atlantic). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericas American]] indigenous cultures before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards on the Atlantic). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericas American]] indigenous cultures before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to American indigenous cultures before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica; for the peoples who inhabited the lands of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to American indigenous cultures before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting at the tail end of the fifteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica, for the peoples who inhabited the land of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to American indigenous cultures before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting in the sixteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards). Usually it means Middle (though UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is sometimes lumped in UsefulNotes/{{North|America}}) and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica, for the peoples who inhabited the land of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to American indigenous cultures before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting in the sixteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards). Usually it means Middle and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica, for the peoples who inhabited the land of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to American indigenous cultures before the UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an conquests starting in the sixteenth century ("before UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus", as he was the first of that era to venture westwards). Usually it means Middle and UsefulNotes/{{South America}}n peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica, for the peoples from UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica see UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. For the inside story on the most famous Pre-Columbian gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

Pre-Columbian civilizations refers to American indigenous cultures before the European conquests starting in the sixteenth century. Usually it means Middle and South American peoples in what is now known as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica. For the inside story on the most famous gods, see Myth/AztecMythology.

The Aztecs had a heavily agrarian society, with several rather successful farming methods used, and were also one of the first civilizations to implement mandatory education for all children (although, strange to say, they had no true writing system; however, it's highly likely that their system of pictograms and ideograms--which are generally understood to be a kind of proto-writing--would have become a true logographic or (more likely) logosyllabic[[note]]At the time of the Conquest, certain symbols were developing into accepted rebus signs for syllables even when their literal meaning was not called for. At that phase, it seems this was almost more {{pun}}ning on the symbols than an attempt at a syllabary. However, (again) the Aztecs definitely knew what "writing" was from their contacts with the Maya, and so it's probable that absent the Conquest the Aztecs would have regularized their symbols into a proper writing system. Given a wold in which the Mexica do eventually turn their glyphs into writing, it probably becomes a Mayan-style logosyllabary because (1) an existing logosyllabary is literally the only other writing system they have access to, and (2) Nahuatl morphology is agglutinative bordering on polysynthetic, so a logosyllabary fits the language better than a pure logography (compare Japanese--also agglutinative--with its logosyllabic system and Chinese--an analytic language, the opposite of the other thing--which uses an almost-pure logographic script).[[/note]] script if not for the unfortunate incident with the Spaniards, especially given that the Aztecs definitely knew what writing was from their contact with the literate Maya peoples to their south and east). Their stratified society allowed for some social climbing, but the noble-commoner distinction was often difficult to cross. A commoner could be awarded a noble title, usually for taking a certain number of captives in battle, but he could not personally benefit from it. His children, however, would be considered true nobles and receive all the benefits after his death. Commoners were allowed their own land and possessions, however, and were often quite active in the marketplace. \\

By the way, despite [[HollywoodHistory their portrayal]] in the film ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', the Mayans didn't sacrifice as many people as the Aztecs--though that, admittedly, is a pretty low bar. They preferred to sacrifice captured royals and prisoners for the most part, which naturally led to a lot of wars. However, the Mayans were also very concerned with hygiene, and purification rituals mostly centered around ''self''-sacrifice, usually by means of carving cuts in his bodies, or drawing a barbed thread or nailing spikes through [[BodyHorror the tongue]] or [[GroinAttack the penis]]. Nor were they ignorant of climate or astronomy; their calendar was especially good at predicting eclipses and they also were able to precisely measure the orbits of planets. The Mayan Ballgame was an especially difficult combination of basketball, lacrosse, and rollerball wherein either the captain of the winning team or the losing team got sacrificed; we're not sure which. This was apparently more in line with GladiatorGames, however.

One puebloan motif that most Americans can recognize is the fertility god [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokopelli Kokopelli]]. They are also sometimes associated with UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories, possibly because in many people's minds they are in the same general area as [[RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell]] and Area 51.

By the way, despite [[HollywoodHistory their portrayal]] in the film ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', the Mayans didn't sacrifice as many people as the Aztecs--though that, admittedly, is a pretty low bar. They preferred to sacrifice captured royals and prisoners for the most part, which naturally led to a lot of wars. However, the Mayans were also very concerned with hygiene, and purification rituals mostly centered around ''self''-sacrifice, usually by means of carving cuts in his bodies, or drawing a barbed thread or nailing spikes through [[{{Squick}} BodyHorror the tongue]] or [[GroinAttack the penis]]. Nor were they ignorant of climate or astronomy; their calendar was especially good at predicting eclipses and they also were able to precisely measure the orbits of planets. The Mayan Ballgame was an especially difficult combination of basketball, lacrosse, and rollerball wherein either the captain of the winning team or the losing team got sacrificed; we're not sure which. This was apparently more in line with GladiatorGames, however.

The Aztecs had a heavily agrarian society, with several rather successful farming methods used, and were also one of the first civilizations to implement mandatory education for all children (although, strange to say, they had no true writing system; however, it's highly likely that their system of pictograms and ideograms--which are generally understood to be a kind of proto-writing--would have become a true logographic or (more likely) logosyllabic[[note]]At the time of the Conquest, certain symbols were developing into accepted rebus signs for syllables even when their literal meaning was not called for. At that phase, it seems this was almost more {{pun}}ning on the symbols than an attempt at a syllabary. However, (again) the Aztecs definitely knew what "writing" was from their contacts with the Maya, and so it's probable that absent the Conquest the Aztecs would have regularized their symbols into a proper writing system. Given a wold in which the Mexica do eventually turn their glyphs into writing, it probably becomes a Mayan-style logosyllabary because (1) an existing logosyllabary is literally the only other writing system they have access to, and (2) Nahuatl morphology is agglutinative bordering on polysynthetic, so a logosyllabary fits the language better than a pure logography (compare Japanese--also agglutinative--with its logosyllabic system and Chinese--an analytic language, the opposite of the other thing--which uses a purely logographic script).[[/note]] script if not for the unfortunate incident with the Spaniards, especially given that the Aztecs definitely knew what writing was from their contact with the literate Maya peoples to their south and east). Their stratified society allowed for some social climbing, but the noble-commoner distinction was often difficult to cross. A commoner could be awarded a noble title, usually for taking a certain number of captives in battle, but he could not personally benefit from it. His children, however, would be considered true nobles and receive all the benefits after his death. Commoners were allowed their own land and possessions, however, and were often quite active in the marketplace. \\

Much like the Greeks, ethnic Mayans retain their languages and culture on a small scale; some Mayan temple sites are still venerated by individual Mayan villages in syncretistic fashion (see Inca, below) and the often-bloody tension between Mayans, Hispanic and Mestizo culture which came down from the north has never really gone away.\\

By the way, despite [[HollywoodHistory their portrayal]] in the film ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', the Mayans didn't sacrifice as many people as the Aztecs--though that, admittedly, is a pretty low bar. They preferred to sacrifice captured royals and prisoners for the most part, which naturally led to a lot of wars. However, the Mayans were also very concerned with hygiene, and purification rituals mostly centered around ''self''-sacrifice, usually by means of drawing a barbed thread through the [[{{Squick}} tongue or the penis]]. Nor were they ignorant of climate or astronomy; their calendar was especially good at predicting eclipses and they also were able to precisely measure the orbits of planets. The Mayan Ballgame was an especially difficult combination of Basketball, Lacrosse, and Rollerball wherein either the captain of the winning team or the losing team got sacrificed; we're not sure which. This was apparently more in line with GladiatorGames, however.

The Aztecs are most commonly described as [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Evil]] [[ReligionOfEvil Incarnate]], and to be fair they did kill people as part of their religion. Every month--that is, eighteen times a year--they'd have a big festival and party a bit, and then they'd have a human sacrifice. While fun for those on the right end of the knife, it did carry a deeper meaning. In Myth/AztecMythology, the gods are continually sacrificing themselves so that the universe can keep existing. So they felt indebted to the gods. Instead of praying, people would cut themselves with knives and cover some thorns with their blood, then put the thorns in the temple. The Aztecs themselves reported ''80,400'' sacrifices in a four-day period on one occasion (but they probably fudged the numbers a lot, considering that to hit that number there would have to a sacrifice every 4 seconds for all four days). Most likely, they sacrificed "only" a couple thousand a year. Fun fact: Each god had a specific sacrificial offering, and Quetzalcoatl's sacrifice consisted of butterflies and hummingbirds.\\

Now we've shooed the elephant out of the room, we can talk about the stuff people usually don't know about the Aztecs. Let's start with history. The [[OlderThanTheyThink Mexica]] (pronounced "Mesheeka"), a tribe of Nahua people, migrated to central Mexico in the 13th century from the north; they called their ancestral land in the north "Aztlan," but where it was (and it might not have been anywhere in particular) nobody knows.[[note]]Hypotheses range from Nayarit (in western Mexico, where the local indigenous peoples speak languages reasonably closely related to Nahuatl) to the Sonoran Desert (currently the hypothesized ''Urheimat'' of the Uto-Aztecan language family, whose members at time of contact with Europeans were spoken as far north as UsefulNotes/{{Idaho}} and as far south as UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}). There's also the possibility that "Aztlan" is a mythical location not intended to correspond to any particular place in the vagabond history of the Nahua peoples.[[/note]] After arriving in the Valley of Mexico, they founded the city-state of Tenochtitlan. Some time after, they allied with two other Nahua city-states, Texcoco and Tlacopan, creating together the Aztec Triple Alliance, better known as the Aztec Empire, in 1428. The Aztecs had a different way of looking at an empire; rather than seeing the lowest parts as something to be ruled from the top, they considered the top to be constituted of the parts. (No, that doesn't mean you get a room in the palace. Get back in the field and keep constituting.) They fell apart around 100 years later, with the Conquistadors allying themselves with the Aztecs' nemesis the Tlaxcala Confederacy (another Nahuatl-speaking polity/alliance) and soundly defeating them and destroying the capital.\\

The other main part of Aztec society was warfare. Some of their gods required an enemy to be sacrificed in the temple, so they had to have wars a lot. Sometimes they had Flower Wars, which were ritualistic "mock" wars fought for the purpose of obtaining captives for sacrifices, and also served to train new soldiers. In any case, every male commoner was given basic military training, and noble children were trained more thoroughly. A commoner could take a prisoner for sacrifice in order to become a professional warrior, which was a useful means of social climbing. The Aztecs ruled effectively by having a massive population of which nearly all males could be mobilized in the event of war. The Aztecs also tended to be victorious as there were no need for siege weapons at the time. Mesoamericans were effectively limited to ZergRush tactics in the event of a siege. This is why the Aztecs, who had a massive population, nearly always won.\\

In 1519 one UsefulNotes/HernanCortez landed with some horses and a few hundred Spanish conquistadors, armed with guns, cannons, and steel swords. Through a combination of terror tactics and shrewd alliances with the Aztecs' many enemies, he gained enough strength to march on Tenochtitlan. His forces were greeted in the city of 200,000 by Aztec leader Moctezuma II himself. A few days later, Cortes took Moctezuma prisoner in his own palace. They remained in the city as "guests" for quite some time, but relations got increasingly tense. When some conquistadors killed most of the Aztec nobility during a festivity, the Aztecs decided they were having none of it. They chose a new leader and drove the Spanish and their allies out of the city. Cortes, undeterred, regrouped, gathered an army of native allies, and went back to besiege Tenochtitlan, which by this time had been weakened by an epidemic of smallpox, which claimed almost half the city population and the new Huey Tlatoani (emperor), Cuitláhuac (pronounced coo-ee-TLA-oo-ac). The UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheAztecEmpire ended there.\\

A few short months later, nothing would remain of the Aztec Empire... except for the twin capital cites of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco (where the last emperor Cuauhtémoc gave his FinalBattle), and the name of the future country, and a few of the festival days; and the canals, which were turned into boulevards, and the stones of the temples and palaces, which were [[MonumentOfHumiliationAndDefeat recycled into]]... [[HijackedByJesus er, cathedrals and government buildings]]. However, most of the regional towns were rebuilt in the Spanish style. Today, the Zocalo in Mexico City marks the site of the great plaza of Tenochtitlan; a few original sculptures can be seen in the foundation stones.\\

A few Spaniards wanted to keep the pyramids and turn them into churches, what with the view and all; after all, it's what they'd done with all the Moorish mosques back in Spain [[UsefulNotes/SpanishReconquista a generation or two earlier]]. However, most of them were [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank literally plastered with blood and gore]], so only the long-abandoned ones remain. To be fair, the Spaniards were no pikers [[note]]well, not ''that'' kind of pikers[[/note]]: entire tribes would be slaughtered under the policy of "convert or die"; and given the apparent collapse of the Aztecs, who were already the bane of other tribes in the region, they had no want of willing converts.\\

The Aztec language, Nahuatl, is still spoken today; it still flavors the Spanish in much of Mexico and has given the world some fairly useful words like tomato (from ''xitomatl''), [[FireBreathingDiner chilli]] (from ''chīlli''), chocolate (from ''xocolātl''), and coyote (from ''cóyotl''). The image associated with the myth of the founding of Tenochtitlan, an eagle devouring a snake on a cactus, is today depicted in the Coat of Arms of Mexico and on the Mexican flag.

Entrance to the nobility was based on merit as determined by some sort of Inca SAT-equivalent. They were very bureaucracy- and business-oriented, as they pretty much had to be to rule an empire that large. Even their marriages were strictly a business deal. The Incas believed in equality, that All Men Must Work In Order To Live, and every citizen -- even nobility -- paid tribute in the form of some manual labor as a public service.\\

Moreso than any other culture in the region, the Inca chose to survive and adapt to [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheIncaEmpire Spanish conquest]], with the last Inca Emperor instructing his citizens to convert to Christianity and worship Inca traditions on the side, which some Quechua people continue to do today. Their language and much of their agrarian lifestyle has also survived. They were aided in this by the mountainous nature of the region which left the Spaniards dependent on Inca infrastructure and foodstuffs, a fact which protected the Inca from wholesale slaughter. In particular, Incan roads inhibited Spanish spread. European mountain roads consist of multiple switchbacks in order to accommodate the proclivities of the Eurasian horse. In contrast, Incan roads were built with the llama and alpaca in mind, and consist of stairsteps up the sides of mountains. Eurasian horses '''hated''' them.\\

The Aztecs had a heavily agrarian society, with several rather successful farming methods used, and were also one of the first civilizations to implement mandatory education for all children (although, strange to say, they had no true writing system; however, it's highly likely that their system of pictograms and ideograms--which are generally understood to be a kind of proto-writing--would have become a true logographic or (more likely) logosyllabic[[note]]At the time of the Conquest, certain symbols were developing into accepted rebus signs for syllables even when their literal meaning was not called for. At that phase, it seems this was almost more {{pun}}ning on the symbols than an attempt at a syllabary. However, (again) the Aztecs definitely knew what "writing" was from their contacts with the Maya, and so it's probable that absent the Conquest the Aztecs would have regularized their symbols into a proper writing system. Given that the Mexica do eventually turn their glyphs into writing, it probably becomes a Mayan-style logosyllabary because (1) an existing logosyllabary is literally the only other writing system they have access to, and (2) Nahuatl morphology is agglutinative bordering on polysynthetic, so a logosyllabary fits the language better than a pure logography (compare Japanese--also agglutinative--with its logosyllabic system and Chinese--an analytic language, the opposite of the other thing--which uses a purely logographic script).[[/note]] script if not for the unfortunate incident with the Spaniards, especially given that the Aztecs definitely knew what writing was from their contact with the literate Maya peoples to their south and east). Their stratified society allowed for some social climbing, but the noble-commoner distinction was often difficult to cross. A commoner could be awarded a noble title, usually for taking a certain number of captives in battle, but he could not personally benefit from it. His children, however, would be considered true nobles and receive all the benefits after his death. Commoners were allowed their own land and possessions, however, and were often quite active in the marketplace. \\

The Aztecs had a heavily agrarian society, with several rather successful farming methods used, and were also one of the first civilizations to implement mandatory education for all children (although, strange to say, they had no true writing system; however, it's highly likely that their system of pictograms and ideograms--which are generally understood to be a kind of proto-writing--would have become a true logographic or (more likely) logosyllabic[[note]]At the time of the Conquest, certain symbols were developing into accepted rebus signs for syllables even when their literal meaning was not called for. At that phase, it seems this was almost more {{pun}}ning on the symbols than an attempt at a syllabary, but given the known history of other logographic scripts in general and the way the Mayan script worked--as a logosyllabary--in particular, combined with the structure of Nahuatl as an agglutinative/polysynthetic language, makes it likely that the Aztec symbols would go down the logosyllabic path (rather like Japanese, which is also agglutinative) rather than a pure logography (like Chinese, which is analytic, the opposite of the other thing).[[/note]] script if not for the unfortunate incident with the Spaniards, especially given that the Aztecs definitely knew what writing was from their contact with the literate Maya peoples to their south and east). Their stratified society allowed for some social climbing, but the noble-commoner distinction was often difficult to cross. A commoner could be awarded a noble title, usually for taking a certain number of captives in battle, but he could not personally benefit from it. His children, however, would be considered true nobles and receive all the benefits after his death. Commoners were allowed their own land and possessions, however, and were often quite active in the marketplace. \\

Now we've shooed the elephant out of the room, we can talk about the stuff people usually don't know about the Aztecs. Let's start with history. The [[OlderThanTheyThink Mexica]] (pronounced "Mesheeka"), a tribe of Nahua people, migrated to central Mexico in the 13th century from the north; they called their ancestral land in the north "Aztlan," but where it was (and it might not have been anywhere in particular) nobody knows.[[note]]Hypotheses range from Nayarit (in western Mexico, where the local indigenous peoples speak languages reasonably closely related to Nahuatl) to the Sonoran Desert (currently the hypothesized ''Urheimat'' of the Uto-Aztecan language family, whose members at time of contact with Europeans were spoken as far north as UsefulNotes/{{Montana}} and as far south as UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}). There's also the possibility that "Aztlan" is a mythical location not intended to correspond to any particular place in the vagabond history of the Nahua peoples.[[/note]] After arriving in the Valley of Mexico, they founded the city-state of Tenochtitlan. Some time after, they allied with two other Nahua city-states, Texcoco and Tlacopan, creating together the Aztec Triple Alliance, better known as the Aztec Empire, in 1428. The Aztecs had a different way of looking at an empire; rather than seeing the lowest parts as something to be ruled from the top, they considered the top to be constituted of the parts. (No, that doesn't mean you get a room in the palace. Get back in the field and keep constituting.) They fell apart around 100 years later, with the Conquistadors allying themselves with the Aztecs' nemesis the Tlaxcala Confederacy (another Nahuatl-speaking polity/alliance) and soundly defeating them and destroying the capital.\\

Now we've shooed the elephant out of the room, we can talk about the stuff people usually don't know about the Aztecs. Let's start with history. The [[OlderThanTheyThink Mexica]] (pronounced "Mesheeka"), a tribe of Nahua people, migrated to central Mexico in the 13th century from the north; they called their ancestral land in the north "Aztlan," but where it was (and it might not have been anywhere in particular) nobody knows.[[note]]Hypotheses range from Nayarit (in western Mexico, where the local indigenous peoples speak languages reasonably closely related to Nahuatl) to the Sonoran Desert (currently the hypothesized ''Urheimat'' of the Uto-Aztecan language family, whose members at time of contact with Europeans were spoken as far north as Montana and as far south as Nicaragua). There's also the possibility that "Aztlan" is a mythical location not intended to correspond to any particular place in the vagabond history of the Nahua peoples.[[/note]] After arriving in the Valley of Mexico, they founded the city-state of Tenochtitlan. Some time after, they allied with two other Nahua city-states, Texcoco and Tlacopan, creating together the Aztec Triple Alliance, better known as the Aztec Empire, in 1428. The Aztecs had a different way of looking at an empire; rather than seeing the lowest parts as something to be ruled from the top, they considered the top to be constituted of the parts. (No, that doesn't mean you get a room in the palace. Get back in the field and keep constituting.) They fell apart around 100 years later, with the Conquistadors allying themselves with the Aztecs' nemesis the Tlaxcala Confederacy (another Nahuatl-speaking polity/alliance) and soundly defeating them and destroying the capital.\\

Now we've shooed the elephant out of the room, we can talk about the stuff people usually don't know about the Aztecs. Let's start with history. The [[OlderThanTheyThink Mexica]] (pronounced "Mesheeka"), a tribe of Nahua people, migrated to central Mexico in the 13th century from the north; they called their ancestral land in the north "Aztlan," but where it was (and it might not have been anywhere in particular) nobody knows.[[note]]Hypotheses range from Nayarit (in western Mexico, where the local indigenous peoples speak languages reasonably closely related to Nahuatl) to the Sonoran Desert (currently the hypothesized ''Urheimat'' of the Uto-Aztecan language family). There's also the possibility that "Aztlan" is a mythical location not intended to correspond to any particular place in the vagabond history of the Nahua peoples.[[/note]] After arriving in the Valley of Mexico, they founded the city-state of Tenochtitlan. Some time after, they allied with two other Nahua city-states, Texcoco and Tlacopan, creating together the Aztec Triple Alliance, better known as the Aztec Empire, in 1428. The Aztecs had a different way of looking at an empire; rather than seeing the lowest parts as something to be ruled from the top, they considered the top to be constituted of the parts. (No, that doesn't mean you get a room in the palace. Get back in the field and keep constituting.) They fell apart around 100 years later, with the Conquistadors allying themselves with the Aztecs' nemesis the Tlaxcala Confederacy (another Nahuatl-speaking polity/alliance) and soundly defeating them and destroying the capital.\\