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Question: History essay on Aztec religion need details on Hernan Cortes and the conquistadors!?
i need heaps of stuff on hernan cortes his lover malinali and the other spanish conquistadors it wud be great if u cud helpWww@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The Aztecs worshiped the following gods:

Talocan
Home of the Aztec gods and goddesses!.

Coatlicue
She represents the pain of life, has a serpent skirt (poverty), claws and heart necklace (pain of life)!.

Tezcatlipoca
God of magic, war and death!. Has missing foot which was eaten by the earth monster as he dragged the earth from the waters before man was created!. He's called 'smoking mirror' or the dark side of life!.

Xipe Totec

God of spring and new life and the god of suffering!. He wore a human skin!. At his festival a prisoner was skinned alive and the skin was worn by priests to show new life bursting from the old!.

Xochipilli
Prince of flowers, god of dawn, dance and love!. Shown as eternity!.

Huehuetecti
God of fire!. Shown as a toothless old man!.

Tloque Nahuaque
Lord of everywhere, the one supreme force, both male and female!.

Quetzalcoatl
God of knowledge, creation, priesthood, and wind!.

Chantico
Goddess of the hearth!.

Tlaloc
God of rain!. Recognized by his fangs and eye rings!. Thought to be half human and half alligator!.

Mictlantecuhtl
God of the dead!. Those who died of natural causes went to live with this god!. On the way to him their skin was ripped off by a wind of knives; then they lived as skeletons!.

Chalchiuhtlicue
Goddess of the lakes and streams!.

Chicomecoatl
Goddess of maize!.

Tezcatlipoca
God of fate and creation!.

Huitzilopochtli
God of war, sun, and the nation!. Shown holding a fire-breathing serpent and a shield

The Aztecs had many beliefs!. They believed the sun fought darkness every night and rose to save mankind!. They believed the earth was flat!. They believed that if they fed the sun blood, it would rise!. They also believed in 13 heavens and 9 hells!.

The Aztecs worshiped about 1,000 gods! But they worshiped the sun god the most!. Religious ceremonies took place in a temple called a teocalli!. This temple had sacred pools for ceremonial cleansing, gardens, living quarters for a priest, and racks to hold the skulls of victims!. Religion played a great part in Aztec life!.

Sacrifice was one of the main events in the Aztec religion!. Priests made human sacrifices to make the sun god happy!. Aztecs fought in wars to capture men to sacrifice!. On God's Feast Day, they killed their slaves for the gods!. Human sacrifices were offerings to the sun and earth so that food would grow!. The priests would stretch the captive over an altar, or a special stone!. Then the high priest would light a fire on the victim's heart and tear it out!. After the heart is cut, the priest would hold the heart to the sun, then put it in a sacred dish!. Finally, the bodies were rolled down the temple stairs to lie in a heap!. Even after that, most victims were happy to die because they thought they would go straight to heaven!.

The Aztecs strongly believed in the afterlife!. It was the way the Aztecs died rather than the way they lived that determined whether they would go to the sun god or go to the dark and dismal underworld!. If a person died a normal death, his or her soul would have to pass through the nine lives of the underworld before reaching Mictlan, the realm of the dead!. A warrior who died in battle or a woman that died in childbirth would go straight to the sun god in the sky!. Religion played an important part in Aztecs' lives, and human sacrifice was used to pay homage to their gods!.

As far as the Spanish conquest there is a lot of information at this web site!. However, one item that is often overlooked is the role of the Aztec woman, La Malinche!." Slave, interpreter, secretary, mistress, mother of the first "Mexican!." her very name still stirs up controversy!.

Many Mexicans continue to revile the woman called Dona Marina by the Spaniards and La Malinche by the Aztecs, labeling her a traitor and harlot for her role as the alter-ego of Cortes as he conquered Mexico!.

They ignore that she saved thousands of Indian lives by enabling Cortes to negotiate rather than slaughter!. Her ability to communicate also enabled the Spaniards to introduce Christianity and attempt to end human sacrifice and cannibalism!. Herself a convert, baptized Marina, she was an eloquent advocate for her new faith!. It is very possible that without her, Cortes would have failed!. He himself, in a letter preserved in the Spanish archives, said that "After God we owe this conquest of New Spain to Dona Marina!. " In more recent times, the term "Malinchista" has been used by some to describe those who are considered traitors by Mexicans!.

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I suggest you go to your local library!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I'm w/ BP, gurgle gurgle gurgle!.
(oops i meant google google google)Www@QuestionHome@Com