Conclusion

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Sacrifice

 * The Aztec sacrifice ritual played a big part in the fall of the Aztec empire. The fact that they killed thousands of people was not ideal for their society. Although many tribes sacrificed people, the rate at which they did so was unheard of. This also got neighboring people not like the Aztecs as much.
 * It's believed that the horror of human sacrifice motivated the Spaniards to conquer what they considered an evil culture - in other words, they used it to justify their war with the empire.
 * Disease
 * After Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico, a Spanish army came from Cuba to make sure he was doing what he was supposed to do. Cortes went to fight them. In the new group from Cuba, there was an African slave who had come down with smallpox. One of Cortes’ men had caught the disease. They then fought with the Spanish and the man was killed. An Aztec caught the disease when his body was looted. This quickly spread throughout the Aztec empire and over 25% of the population was lost to the disease alone. The emperor had also died, so the whole empire was in ruins.
 * Religion
 * Religion played a part in the sacrifices. There is a rumor that the Aztecs thought the spanish were Gods. Another theory is that they didn’t destroy the spanish army because they wanted more people to sacrifice to their gods.
 * Tactics
 * The tactics of the spanish played a big role in the fall of their empire. The aztecs soon became wise with the ways the europeans fought and their ways, and this almost led to a victory.
 * Chocolate
 * Chocolate actually may have played a part in the fall of the Aztec empire. The Aztecs believed that the god Quetzalcoatl brought the cocoa beans from the tree of life to give to man. Later, the god was banished. It seems that at first the Mexicans believed that Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conqueror, was their returning god.

