Aztec Agriculture Dbq

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The Aztec civilization was one of the greatest that ever existed in the Americas. They flourished, and their empire grew exponentially in a small amount of time. This was due to multiple causes, but the largest being their amazing agricultural skills including the huge amount of land dedicated to farming mostly squash and maize, agriculture's effect on religion, and the chinampa. Historians have a tough decision of choosing whether to study specifics in either Aztec human sacrifices or Aztec agriculture.
The Aztecs put “Approximately twenty thousand acres of chinampas” (Document B). These chinampas were used for farming mainly maize and squash. They would harvest the crops about 4 times a year, producing a massive food amount that would last for months. This farming was important to the Aztec society because without it, they would not have a
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The Aztec religion had many gods who were based on agriculture including Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun, who gave sunlight for crops to grow. He was the main god of the Aztec empire, and thousands of human sacrifices a year where done to please him. This is proven, because after some sacrifices “they raised the hearts to the sun” (Document D). This shows that they are offering the hearts of the humans to the sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Another way that agriculture had an impact on the religion was that the Aztecs were most feared by other nations, because of their brutality and their mass human sacrifices. An example of this is when “Two thousand three hundred men were killed and their blood bathed the entire temple and stairway” (Document D). This proves that the Aztecs would mass sacrifice their people and prisoners of war for pleasing their god/gods. It is important to further study the impact of agriculture on the Aztec religion, because it shows how the Aztecs lived their lives, and how closely their lives and religion were connected to their agricultural