Lesson video

Hello there and welcome to history today with me Mrs Badhan.

In this lesson, we will be continuing our inquiry into the Aztecs.

This will be our second lesson, after our full lesson inquiry, looking at the inquiry question.

How far did fear allow the Aztecs to control their Empire? In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper and a pen.

So, if you don't have any press pause now, go and grab yourself some and come back.

Great, let's make a start.

The sound you heard being played was the shell trumpet.

During the war, Aztecs would play frightening noises by the Eagle and Jaguar warriors of the Aztec Empire.

These noises were made with shell trumpets and whistles, which were given during attacks to direct the movement of their troops.

Pretty cool, hey.

These noises were also made during death rituals of human sacrifice.

For this first task, I would like you to have a look at this image.

I want you to think about what you can infer from the pictures within this image.

You may want to press pause now so that you can have a good look at this picture in detail.

This image represents some of the stages a warrior would undergo in their progression in the military.

You may have noticed that this warrior in particular is carrying things.

This would be called a Porter.

All males would join the Aztec military educational system.

And those who excelled would be suggested for the army.

This image here shows the role of a porter, which was an essential role as supplies had to be transported by hand.

The Porter would follow along with the army, helping to carry the soldier supplies.

In return, the oldest soldier would protect the Porter and held true to him.

Porters would be dressed simply.

Porters would then move on to become a Novice soldier around the age of 20.

You may have also noticed this image of a warrior wearing animal print.

With each rank, came different equipment, clothing and hairstyles, and soldiers were given different rewards for performing in battle, such as land grants and gifts.

You could only progress by taking captives.

This particular warrior in this image was considered a ruler of youths and would have four captives.

They were now able to lead their own school and they could also now wear a Jaguar pattern.

I would now like you to think about your observations and note them down in this structure.

Could you please record your observations, thinking about what this may suggest about the Aztecs.

Press pause now and write your answer and then press play when you're ready.

Fantastic.

You may have something like this, in this picture, I can see lots of different types of Aztec warriors.

This picture suggests that there was a hierarchical system amongst the Aztec warriors.

We can assume that as a worrier became more skilled and showed more bravery, he would rise through the ranks.

If you didn't quite write something like this, but you wrote something similar based on your own observations, that's absolutely fine too.

Before we continue our lesson, we'll need to know some key words.

So, it seems sensible to stop here and go through what these words mean as we should be using them throughout this lesson and the duration of the rest of this inquiry.

The first word we'll need to know is the word Empire.

Empire means a group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch.

Hierarchy is our second word.

Hierarchy is when people are being ranked by power or status.

Now that we know what these words are, let's move on.

Who held power in Aztec society? Aztec society was hierarchical.

At the top of this hierarchical structure, was the Huey Tlatoani, the Emperor.

He held ultimate power in the land.

The Aztec people believed he was appointed by the gods and had the divine right to rule.

Below him was the Tecuhtli.

These men were very wealthy and lived in large palaces in their cities.

They had complete power over their cities, as long as they paid tribute to their Empire.

Next was the Pipiltin and the Pochteca.

The Pipiltin, were the Naples, who would hold high ranking positions, such as priests or positions within the army.

The Pochteca were merchants and their role was considered very important within the Aztec Empire.

Next, the Macehualtin were common people such as farmers, warriors, and craftsmen.

And at the bottom of Aztec society, were the enslaved people.

The Aztec people became slaves by selling themselves into slavery to pay their debt, or as a punishment for crimes they had committed.

Slaves had certain rights within the Aztec Empire and they could buy their freedom and they could not be sold by their masters unless they had agreed.

Let's test your knowledge and see if you can remember who's who in the Aztec Empire.

All you need to do for this next task is choose the correct option in relation to the question.

The first question is Huey Tlatoani was the-- option one, emperor, option two merchants, option three, commoners, or option four, slaves.

Pause now and make your decision.

The correct answer was, Huey Tlatoani was the Emperor.

Next question.

Pipiltin were? Option one, commoners, option two nobles, option three, merchants or option four, slaves.

Pause now, make your choice, press play when you're ready.

Pipiltin was option two, nobles.

Next question.

Macehualtin were? Option one, slaves, option two, nobles, option three, merchants or option four, commoners.

Pause now and make your decision.

Great, option four, macehualtin were the commoners.

Next question.

The Pochteca were? Option one, slaves, option two, nobbles, option three, merchants, or option four, commoners.

Press pause now, make your decision and press play when you're ready.

The Pochteca were the merchants.

Now you know who Aztec society were and what they did.

Let's move on to the next part of our lesson.

For this next task, you will need to pause the video and read through the information on the Aztecs and answer the comprehension questions.

These comprehension questions are, question number one, who wrote the Aztec cities? Question number two, how did the Aztec Emperors gain more power for their Empire? Question number three, how did the Aztec systems of law work? Question number four, what does the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, show about Aztec power? And the challenge question for today is how much control did the Emperors have over their Empire? Pause the video now, read through the information page and answer the comprehension questions.

Once you're ready, you can resume the video and you can check your answers.

Great, let's check through your answers and see how you did.

Question number one was who ruled the Aztec cities.

An acceptable answer to this question would have been the Aztec cities were ruled by Tecuhtli.

To extend this answer further, you may have put something like the Aztecs cities were ruled by Tecuhtli.

These men were required to ensure that their states paid tribute to the Emperor.

If they did this, then the Aztec Emperor did not interfere with the ruling of the city-states.

As long as the tribute was paid, the city state remained somewhat independent of Aztec life.

Question number two.

How did the Aztec Emperors gain more power for their Empire? You may have answered this question with the following.

The Aztec Emperors gained more power for the Empire by creating alliances and taking more land.

If you wanted to extend this answer further, you may have answered something along the lines of, the Aztec Emperors gain more power for the Empire by creating alliances, such as the Triple Alliance.

Additionally, they also were able to gain more power by expanding their territories and taking more land.

Question number three, how did the Aztec system of law work? An acceptable answer would have been, the Aztecs, had a system of courts, which would judge people as guilty or not guilty for the crimes they had committed.

To extend this answer further, you may have explained it in a bit more detail and may have said something along the lines of, the Aztec court system was very advanced and showed that there was a system of hierarchy within the system of law.

Citizens could appeal and take their cases to a higher court such as the Supreme Court, if they did not agree with the judge.

Furthermore, the Aztecs also had a law which was called the one time law, forgiveness store.

Under this law, a citizen could confess a crime to a priest and they would be forgiven.

This only worked if they confessed to the crime prior to being caught.

It also could only be used once.

Question number four, what does the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan show about Aztec power? An acceptable answer would have been, the Aztec capital city shows that the Aztecs had power as it was the centre of the Empire and where the Emperor lived.

You may have wanted to extend this answer further, and you may have put something along the lines of the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, demonstrates the Aztec power and might.

This is because it was the centre of the empire and where the Emperor and his neighbours lived.

All cities would have to pay tribute to the capital.

Therefore it held dominance power over its subjects.

It was also highly populated and was the central point for people at the Aztec Empire.

Now, for the challenge question, how much control did the Emperor have over his Empire? An acceptable answer would have been the Emperor had huge amounts of power over the Empire, which is absolutely true.

If you want to take it a little bit further, you could have said, the Emperor had significant amounts power of the Empire and was able to extend his powers through creating alliances and through the tribute system.

For the last challenge of the lesson, I would now like you to make a spider diagram to show the different ways the Emperor controlled the people in the Aztec Empire.

You can now press pause and you can use the template spider diagram to fill out all of your ideas and all of the different ways the Emperor controlled the people in the Aztec Empire.

Once you're done, press play and we'll go through our answers together.

Fantastic, your task was to make a spider diagram to show the different ways the Emperor controlled the people in the Aztec Empire.

Now, one of the first things you could have talked about or put down on your spider diagram was that an hierarchical system existed within the Aztec Empire, which ensured that people continue to be loyal to the Emperor and played their role in society.

Another way in which the Emperor controlled the people in the Aztec Empire was that the cities had to pay tribute to the Emperor and to the capital city.

And if they didn't, then their independence was actually quite limited.

Furthermore, the Aztecs had a system of law and punishment for anyone who broke the law.

This meant that they were accountable and that they knew that there was consequences for their actions.

And lastly, the Aztecs continuously made alliances and took more land to control more people.

You may have come up with many more ideas and that's great and fantastic, and all those ideas we will need and we will take forward into our next lesson.

I really look forward to seeing you in our third lesson.

Until then, if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and LearnwithOak.

Thank you for listening and see you next lesson.