{"id":2304,"date":"2018-08-15T09:46:57","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T09:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2304"},"modified":"2026-02-27T08:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T08:08:49","slug":"who-influenced-the-aztec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/who-influenced-the-aztec\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Influenced the Aztec?: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who influenced the Aztec<\/a>? Historians have studied this question by examining the Mesoamerican civilizations that came before the time of the Aztecs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

WHO WERE THE AZTECS?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Aztec Empire\u00a0was a civilization in central Mexico that thrived in the time before the arrival of European explorers during the\u00a0Age of Exploration<\/a>.\u00a0 Throughout its history as a civilization the Aztec Empire expanded<\/a> across much of central Mexico and other surrounding areas, to become that most dominant and powerful people in the region.\u00a0 However, the Aztec were simply one of many different powerful civilizations in the long history of Mesoamerica.\u00a0 Thus, to fully understand the Aztec Empire and its significance it is also important to understand the earlier societies that ultimately inspired and influenced the Aztec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map
Map of the Aztec Empire and Aztec Triple Alliance by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

WHO INFLUENCED THE AZTEC?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Different aspects of the Aztec Empire were not necessarily unique to the Aztec people.\u00a0 For instance, several different elements were common throughout most Mesoamerican societies in the time before the arrival of Europeans in the early 16th century.\u00a0 More specifically, the political and\u00a0economic systems\u00a0of the Aztec<\/a> had a long tradition from earlier societies.\u00a0 For example, the role of the\u00a0huey tlatoani<\/a>\u00a0and the system of tribute were common throughout the history of the area.\u00a0 As well, religious practices such as the wide array of\u00a0Aztec gods<\/a>\u00a0and the tradition of\u00a0human sacrifice<\/a>\u00a0were both rooted in earlier Mesoamerican history.\u00a0 For example, historians have uncovered evidence of human sacrifice from much earlier time periods in Mesoamerica.\u00a0 As well, there is evidence of the celebration of\u00a0Quetzalcoatl<\/a>\u00a0(Aztec God) by the\u00a0Teotihuacan people near the 1st century AD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, historians have identified several different Mesoamerican societies that they believe influence the Aztec people in terms of their political, economic and religious practices.\u00a0 These include: Olmec<\/a>, Toltec<\/a> and Teotihuacan<\/a>.\u00a0 Click on the links of each society in order to read more about their history and influence on the Aztec Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map
Map of the Olmec Empire by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who influenced the Aztec? The Aztec Empire was influenced by several prominent Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec and Teotihuacan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[78,77,15,79],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aztec-empire","tag-ancient-history","tag-aztec-empire","tag-history","tag-mesoamerica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5832,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions\/5832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}