America

since america wasn't covered in class I will talk about the aztecs. The aztecs were a tribe that lived in present day mexico; they were a very warlike people and as a result they conquered other tribes. The aztecs are known for their violent religion and violent conquest but that isn't all they were. The site of their capital city is now mexico city; the aztecs were a civilization.

the most important invention the aztecs made was the chinampa Tenochtitlan, the aztec capital, was centered ona lake so farmland was limited. the chinampas were giant reed mats covered with mud from the lake and dead plants to fertilize it. The aztec would grow their crops on these mats and even plant willow trees to prevent erosion. This gave them local farms that didnt require irrigation and were protected by the lake from any enemies.

The aztecs, like the maya, had their own calendar. actuall the aztecs had two caledars one caledar for time and the other for religious events. the time caledar was used to determine the best time to plant or harvest crops; the caledar had 365 days in a year with 18 months. Because the months were divided into twenty days there were five bad luck days when natural disasters were most likely to occur. The religion caledar used 260 days as a result of this the caledar days matched up every fifty two years.

the aztec were also great builders they built temples to their gods and they built a city in a lake. while they were a violent people it is unfair to focus only on that. more