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Term Paper - Freshman Year

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place where an eagle on a cactus kills a serpent. Build your city there."1 It was not until 1325 that they finally settled and built the city of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) in the Valley of Mexico. This city, and the Aztec civilization grew and flourished until, by 1521, they "held various alien tribes in subjection, embracing more than three hundred municipalities, extending over at least forty thousand square miles of territory and possessing an empire of several million souls. In that short period they had become the most powerful and, except for the Tezcucans, the most civilized nation in North America.

The city of Tenochtitlan is, perhaps, one of the chief indica- tions of the culture and high degree of civilization which the Aztecs attained. It is estimated that it had a population of approximately three hundred thousand people. In the center of the city stood a great pyramid temple, eighty-six feet in height, surrounded by the plain, whitewashed stone houses of the Indians. Small gardens, filled with tropical plants, were attached to many of the residences, and served to offset their simplicity. Scattered throughout the city and enhancing its beauty greatly were public fountains, smooth, wide streets, and canals on which travelled the canoes of the Indians.3

Once a week, a fair was held in Tenochtitlan, and here the products and wealth of the empire were displayed. Vegetables, many kinds of meat, grains, fresh fruits, and flowers were sold, as well as finely woven and embroidered cloth, feather garments, handmade jewelry, carvings of different varieties, and carefully moulded pottery.4

Social custom governed the conduct and behaviour of the Aztecs to a large degree, and crime was not nearly so prevalent as it is