Aztec Civilization: Engineering an Empire PDF

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The article examine Aztec civilization through analysis of Documentary Aztec: Engineering an Empire by Michael Carroll and Peter Weller....

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Running head: AZTEC

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Aztec: Engineering an Empire Name Academic Institution

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Aztec: Engineering an Empire Introduction I chose a documentary published by History Channel called the Aztec: Engineering an Empire narrated by Michael Carroll and hosted with Peter Weller. The video narrates an ancient civilization that took place in the Mesoamerican society at the beginning of 1325 AD (Weller & Caroll, 2014, 00:01:35), including some of the ancient cultures in the pre-contact era before the invasion of the European societies. The video explores some of the greatest architectural designs and technology used during the pre-contact era within the Aztec community. The documentary of the Aztec empire begins with a narration of the murder of a princess bore of a local chief. After such a heinous act, the Local chief banished the Aztec community into Lake Texcoco, in a swampy island where they began building their empire using masonry technology that would later inspire some of the greatest architectural designs in America. The film is about the Aztec civilization between 1325 AD and 1495 AD that took place in Central Mexico near Modern Day Mexico City. Faced with nowhere to run, the leader of the Aztec community, Tenoch, proclaimed he received an epiphany to build a city in the middle of Lake Texcoco that he named the City Tenochlitlan (Weller & Carroll, 2014, 00:05:22). They constructed their empire to resemble a powerful “city of the gods” called the Teotihuacan (00:05:44). The city built with the Aztec utilized pylons made from wood submerged into the swampy island (Weller & Carroll, 2014, 00:07:24 – 00:07: 42). The treatment of the civilization in the film does not differ from the definitions of Adams (1997). He posits that models, such as the conflict and coercive and the warfare and circumscription approaches, are used to explain the merge of civilization. In the film Aztec:

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Engineering of Empire, the city was built after a local chief banished Aztec community into Lake Texcoco, a region circumscribed in a valley and surrounded by four lakes. The significant question that documentary of the civilization does not address is how the Aztec empire obtained the information used in crafting their feat of architecture that inspired awe and marvel. The system of keeping records is an important part of every civilization, which the film fails to address. In ancient Mesopotamia, ancient city’s, such as Egypt, kept their records through written records, including an advanced accounting system (Richard, 1997, p. 22) 1. A system of record provides references, which can be used to further civilization. The film, however, properly addresses how the Aztec crafted their city by using pylon to fabricate a foundation for their buildings before laying stones or rocks to support their structures. In addition to that, it details an account of various leaders that helped enlarge the Aztec empire, and by 1495, the population had ballooned to nearly 15 million individuals. Aztec civilization in the film exceeds some of the civilizations even during the precontact period. They had convoluted systems, such as aqueducts that supplied their city with water constantly that also irrigated their farms. Fascinatingly, their delivery system conveyed messages over 200 miles daily, which is even efficient that the modern-day postal services.

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Richard Adams, 1 Introduction: Complex Culture, Cities, and a Rapid Survey of the Earliest Old Civilization, examines emergence of cities, such as China, Egypt, Middle East and the culture that dominated.

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References Adams, Richard E.W. 1997 Ancient Civilizations of the New World. Westview Press, Boulder Colorado. Chapter 1: Introduction: Complex Cultures, Cities, and a Rapid Survey of the Earliest Old World Civilizations (1-24) Weller, P., & Carroll, M. (2014). The Aztecs: Engineering an Empire. Retrieved 13 May 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZyB47qGXoI...