Native+American+Civilizations

Mayan, Aztec, and Inca.



Aztec Warfare

The Aztec really had no army, but they had military officers who controlled small forces that defend their villages or small towns. When the officers were children, they were trained day after day. They were trained to be fierce warriors. To fight in battle was a very big honor to them and to their family. They were trained at school and they spent most of their life training for battle. The officers took their students into battle with them to show them how to capture their first prisoner. After the student captured his first prisoner he was then considered a man from then on.

If a declaration of war was declared the Aztec warriors greeted it with great happiness. They saw it as a time to show off their skills in battle. Some of the warriors dressed in jaguar skins to scare their enemies. The other soldiers wore outfits with war symbols and unique patterns. These outfits were a very useful scare tactic to frighten their enemies so they were on edge for the battle against an army of fiercely dressed warriors.

A place for battle was decided and the two armies met. The two armies cursed and insulted each other until the war drums and horns were sounded. Then they charged each other with a wall of men and crashed into each other like two waves crashing against each other. The battles were short and ended when the weaker of the armies surrendered and the winning side took prisoners.

The technology they used in battle: The Aztec used many different materials to fight with. Most of their egded weapons (with blades) were made from obsidian, which is a shiny volcanic rock that can be chipped to a cutting edge. There main fighting weapon was actually the club. There were many variations to it, but the wooden club with obsidian spikes was very commen (pictured below). The spear was sometimes thrown for a long distance kill, or at short range for stabbing. They also made bows and arrows and small daggers to kill the enemies once they were out of arrows. When the Spanish attacked the Aztecs the Aztecs were very out-gunned. The Spanish had cannons, guns, and steel swords and the Aztecs only had arrows and big clubs. The Spanish armor was far superior to that of the Aztecs, who had none. The armor the Spanish had helped them kill many Aztec warriors. The big advantages over the Aztecs are what helped the Spanish take over the Aztec lands.

Aztec Warrior with Obsidian weapons - edged club at bottom
 * [[image:http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:egwEgG3Zut-oiM:http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff89/hiphopyreggaeton/aztec.jpg width="140" height="175" caption="Aztec warrior" link="http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff89/hiphopyreggaeton/aztec.jpg&imgrefurl=http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread%3Fcmd%3Dprint%26id%3D4350802&usg=__Up6NiM9wINaW94udcAEAPjwIShU=&h=640&w=480&sz=261&hl=en&start=4&itbs=1&tbnid=egwEgG3Zut-oiM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daztec%2Bwarrior%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1"]] ||
 * Aztec Warrior ||