Coast of Mexico and marched inland to Tenochtitlan. The Spaniardswere joined by many of the Indians who were conquered and forced to payhigh taxes to the emperor. Montezuma did not oppose Cortes because he thoughtthat he was the God Quetzalcoatl. An Aztec legend said that Quetzalcoatlwas driven away by another rival god and had sailed across the sea andwould return some day. His return was predicted to come in the year CeAcatl on the Aztec Calendar. This corresponded to the year 1519. Due tothis prediction, Montezuma II thought Quetzalcoatl had returned when Cortesand his troops invaded. He did not resist and was taken prisoner by Cortesand his troops. In 1520, the Aztecs rebelled and drove the Spaniards fromTenochtitlan, but Montezuma II was killed in the battle. Cortes reorganizedhis troops and resurged into the city. Montezuma's successor, Cuauhtemoc,surrendered in August of 1520. The Spaniards, being strong Christians,felt it was their duty to wipe out the temples and all other traces ofthe Aztec religion. They destroyed Tenochtitlan and built Mexico City onthe ruins. However, archaeologists have excavated a few sites and haveuncovered many remnants of this society. Language: The Aztec spoke a languagecalled Nahuatl (pronounced NAH waht l). It belongs to a large group ofIndian languages, which also include the languages spoken by the Comanche,Pima, Shoshone and other tribes of western North America. The Aztec usedpictographs to communicate through writing. Some of the pictures symbolizedideas and others represented the sounds of the syllables. Food: The principalfood of the Aztec was a thin cornmeal pancake called a tlaxcalli. (In Spanish,it is called a tortilla.) They used the tlaxcallis to scoop up foods whilethey ate or they wrapped the foods in the tlaxcalli to form what is nowknown as a taco. They hunted for most of the meat in their diet and thechief game animals were deer, rabbits, ducks and geese. The only animalsthey raise...
