The similarity between the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas is that all had control of massive empires that eventually ceased to exist. Other than that common factor, the groups all had different ways of life and unique languages, political agendas, religious views and ways to provide for their people.

They had the greatest military skill and weapons of their time. They were pastoral nomads who knew the land well. They incorporated those they conquered into their culture.

Which were the usual characteristics of the Aztec and Inca societies? no advanced weaponry. government centered on religion. advanced written languages.

The conquest by foreigners was an immediate cause for the collapse of the Aztecs civilization.

Scientists Uncover New Clues. The mysterious epidemic that devastated Aztecs may have been food poisoning. In 1545, an unknown disease struck the Aztec Empire. Over the next five years, the disease—then called “cocoliztli,” or “pestilence”—killed between seven and 17 million people.

A few days later, her father arrived in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital city. He expected to discuss would goods his daughter would bring to her marriage with the emperor’s son. That’s when he heard that his daughter and her many attendants had been sacrificed to feed the many hungry Aztec gods.

The Culhuacan chief agreed and sent his daughter to the Aztecs. But instead of a royal treatment, the Princess experienced firsthand being a sacrifice in an Aztec ritual. The Aztecs killed the Princess and flayed her. Their sacrifice of the Culhuacan princess led the Aztecs to be driven out.

10,000 and 80,400 persons

260 days

In similar ways to the ancient Maya, the Aztecs also made careful observations and records of visible astronomical events over extended periods of time that were used to predict future like-in-kind events or to back-calculate eclipses or other celestial phenomena that could then be correlated with socio-political or …

The Aztec Calendar Stone was carved from solidified lava in the late 15th century. It somehow got lost for 300 years and was found in 1790, buried under the zocalo, or central square of Mexico City.

The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtémoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.