The Aztec culture.

Essay by Baseball16University, Bachelor'sA+, April 2003

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As you travel through Mexico you run straight into the Valley of Mexico. The valley of Mexico is where the Aztec Empire was mainly located from the early 1600's. In the Valley of Mexico there was no natural outlets and its changing rain fall patterns had sever altercations to lake Texcoco. These problems were the cause of the volcanic Cordillera and its intense volcanism and frequent earthquakes due to these altercations the Aztec Empire was forced into using the chinampas or "Floating Gardens" to produce food. The chinampa system was the main way for the Aztec culture to produce food as well as storing food, but as the population started to grow this system was not efficient enough to provide for everyone. Therefore they had to find a better way to survive, this is were there massive population came into action. By using there size they enact the tribute system.

This was a way for the larger cities to feed its community. Even with the chinampas and the tribute system the Aztecs still had to trade for the items that they could not produce or receive at the market place.

The basis of the Aztec system was there agriculture. Many farmers lived outside of the main city of Tenochtitlan on small plots of land or chinampa's. Chinampa's were one of the most intensive systems of agriculture ever developed. This was also the main system used by the Aztecs in the 16th century for agriculture growth. To make the chinampa's, the Aztecs dug canals through the marshy shores and islands, then heaped the mud from the bottom of lake Texcoco onto huge mats made of woven reeds. The mud was laid out onto long parallel rows with narrow plots. As the Aztec empire exploded and the population sky rocketed, more quantities...