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The Aztecs
Rating: 4.2 out of 5(27 ratings)
100 students

The Aztecs

History, Art and Architecture
Created byFederico von Borstel
Last updated 6/2025
English
English [Auto],

What you'll learn

  • At the end of this course students will have a comprehensive understanding of the beginnings, growth and development of the Aztec nation.
  • The course promotes self-learning.
  • The course enhances human development.
  • The course seeks to enrich your life experience.

Course content

1 section • 13 lectures • 1h 38m total length

  • Introduction2:40

    Explore the history, art, and architecture of the Aztecs within Mesoamerica, tracing origins, the Three Sisters, codices, and the empire's monumental sculpture, sacred precincts, and calendar.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 24:45

    Trace Mesoamerica's geography and early migrations, from Alaska down to Mexico, and examine competing theories about peopling the Americas, including Bering Strait, European, and African contacts.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 37:12

    Explore the three sisters, corn, beans, and squash, and how Mesoamerican peoples, including the Aztecs, grew them together for nutrition; learn about tamales and stuffed squash.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 43:52

    Trace the Aztec postclassic empire and its warrior culture from the valley of Mexico outward. Bronze weapons and the arrival of Spaniards around 1500 ushered decline.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 518:45

    Trace the Aztecs' origins and migration from northern lands to the valley of Mexico. See codex and island layouts illustrating settlements near Chapultepec and the Aztec emergence.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 67:00

    Discover how the Aztecs founded the largest city in the world at the time, on a lake island using floating beds and three guarded causeways with drawbridges.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 710:33

    Trace the Aztecs from a brief reign like Mark Masooma the second to expansion through the Dominion War, using obsidian weapons and tribute-driven power.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 88:52

    Explore the basalt Aztec calendar sculpture, centering the sun god with sacrificial imagery and rings that encode solar and ritual cycles, including 365‑day and sacred calendars.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 96:57

    Explore the Aztec religion and sculpture, where a broad pantheon links natural and social phenomena to anthropomorphic deities, including the corn goddess, earth goddess, sun, and war gods.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 1011:19

    Explore the Aztec sacred precinct and city layout, with central temples, canal networks, and living quarters, revealing daily life, ritual shows, and architectural power.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 113:11

    Explore Aztec hydraulic engineering and landscape design, featuring baths for royalty, largest irrigation in the Americas, a garden with native and exotic crops, and a dedicatory temple for gratitude.

  • The Aztecs Lecture 123:35

    Explore the Crowley complex, the Aztec eagle and jaguar warrior initiation chamber with snake motifs, carved faces, and benches bearing eagles and a central jaguar as initiates prove worth.

  • Course Catalog9:46

    Examine the playful rhythm of the repeated 'birdie' motif and the refrain 'it's over' as a study in audio storytelling and emphasis within the course catalog.

Requirements

  • There are no prior knowledge requirements.

Description

This is a course on the history of the Aztec nation, also called the Mexicas. Using personal experience, original art and literature this course follows the Aztec nation from its origins in the semi-mythical Aztlan to their capital Tenochtitlan. The course then explores the reason for their growth and dominance over other peoples in Mesoamerica. The movement of the heavens was not only a way to keep time, but it ruled their entire pattern of behaviors, ceremonies and beliefs. Their art in the form of monumental sculptures honor their Gods. I grew up in their city and experienced the everyday life of the Aztec capital, puzzled and fascinated by the dual nature of the Mexica nation. I teach lecture courses and studios as I wish they would have been taught to me. Much of the graphic material in my lectures is taken or generated first hand directly by me on site. I teach to learn. I teach subjects as I wish they were taught to me. The Mission Statement. Education is a tool for the improvement of successive generations. I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Confucius

This course is designed under the premise that humans should be taught in a way that is modeled after the educational patterns of evolution.

The design, development and application of educational systems based on the educational principles of evolution generates a philosophy and methodology of education in synchrony with the evolutionary education system that is firmly and deeply rooted in each of us.

Education for evolution is an educational system designed to help propel humans forward in the natural course of evolution. The purpose of education for evolution is to enhance and strengthen the natural evolutionary process of humans through the mechanism of education. The means to achieve this objective is the design of a curricula based on the same educational techniques and strategies used by natural evolution, enhanced and guided by the application of conscious educational decisions.

Who this course is for:

  • This course is for anyone interested in the history, art and architecture of the Aztec nation.

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