Economy

The Aztec economy changed over time from a farming community to a demanding army that demanded taxes. The city that the Aztec empire expanded from was Tenochtitlan which was also origins of the Aztecs economy. Tenochtitlan was on an island so the farmers had to leave the island to farm the surrounding countryside and then return to Tenochtitlan with their harvest. Once the farmers ran out of rich soil to farm they had to find somewhere else. The farmers decided to use the swamp area close to the shore of the island Tenochtitlan and the shore of the lake.

Used with permission of the photographer Senor G. Behena

This shortened the travel time thus allowing the farmers to farm more frequently. This land and the method of farming they used were called Chinampas. This idea allowed the Aztec for almost around the year farming by allowing them to always have rich soil with the mud scraped off the bottom of the lake. Another benefit was that they could farm almost year round because of a constant water supply for the crops

After awhile the Aztecs needed another way to collect food for trading so they set out to conquer almost all of the nearby civilizations. This tactic gave them two advantages. By conquering the kingdoms they had a constant supply of food coming in and therefore they could put almost all their farmers into the army. This allowed them to conquer more land which made more soldiers and more food. This cycle kept repeating itself whenever the Aztec conquered another civilization

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Used with permission of the photographer Senor G. Bahena