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Test your knowledge of the Aztec Empire with this quiz by Danny!
- 1.Which two civilizations combined cultures to create the Aztecs?
- A.
Toltec
- B.
Zapotec
- C.
Chichimec
- D.
Maya
- 2.What language did the Aztecs speak?
- A.
Tenochca
- B.
Atzlán
- C.
Nahuatl
- 3.The founders of the Aztec civilization believed in a legend stating that they should establish a great civilization in a marshy area where there was a cactus growing out of a rock with an eagle perched on top of the cactus.
- A.
True
- B.
False
- 4.The Aztecs were monotheistic (having one god).
- A.
True
- B.
False
- 5.Where did the Aztecs perform their human sacrifices?
- A.
On an altar at the top of a giant stone pyramid.
- B.
At the top of a mountain, where the victim would freeze to death (many such sacrifices are found perfectly preserved by modern hikers).
- C.
On a wooden boat, torched and set adrift. The victim would be chained to the hull to prevent jumping overboard.
- 6.Human sacrifice was a scheduled activity.
- A.
True
- B.
False
- 7.The Aztecs usually sacrificed children to the gods, except when asking for an especially large favor, when a warrior was killed instead.
- A.
True
- B.
False
- 8.The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, was called the "______ of the New World" by Spanish conquistadores.
- A.
Madrid
- B.
Venice
- C.
China
- 9.What was the basis of the Aztec economy?
- A.
Warfare
- B.
Trade
- C.
Agriculture
- 10.The Aztecs frequently employed the wheel and draft animals when constructing their grand structures and when transporting goods.
- A.
True
- B.
False
- 11.How many calendars did the Aztecs use?
- A.
Two
- B.
Three
- C.
Four
- 12.The meshing of the Aztec calendars created a __-year cycle, at the end of which the Aztecs would let their hearth fires go out. To begin the new cycle, a "New Fire Ceremony" was held.
- A.
12
- B.
33
- C.
52
- 13.How did the Aztecs begin the next calendar cycle?
- A.
A mass sacrifice was held of up to 1,000 war captives and hundreds of Aztec infants. The people rekindled their hearths and began a public bloodletting ceremony, in which the participants drank each other's blood to signify the beginning of a new life.
- B.
Priests lit a sacred fire in the chest cavity of a sacrificial victim. The people rekindled their hearths and began feasting.
- C.
The people observed a four-day period of fasting, during which they could eat absolutely no food. Violence plagued the Aztec cities as hallucinating people walked the streets, oftentimes murdering one another and eating the flesh for their intense hunger.
- 14.What best describes the Aztec writing system?
- A.
Pictographs (small pictures symbolizing objects or the sounds of syllables)
- B.
Letters
- C.
Logograms (symbols which represent entire words or morphemes)
- 15.The Aztecs were faced with inevitable doom in 1519, when the Spanish explorer/conquistador ______ ______ and more than 500 Spaniards landed on the shores of eastern Mexico, searching for land and gold.
- A.
Francisco Pizarro
- B.
Juan Ponce de León
- C.
Hernán Cortés
- 16.When did the last Aztec emperor surrender to the Spaniards?
- A.
February 1520
- B.
August 1521
- C.
July 1523
- 17.What Spanish-brought disease decimated the Aztec population by about one-third?
- A.
Yellow Fever
- B.
Smallpox
- C.
Influenza
- 18.What modern-day city did the Spaniards build on the ruins of Tenochtitlán?
- A.
Mexico City
- B.
Veracuz
- C.
Cancun
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