The Aztec: Tenochtitlan, floating gardens and tribute

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   The fall of Tenochtitlan (1519 to 1521)

   Topic	What we know
   1519	Hernán Cortés landed with about 500 Spaniards and reached Tenochtitlan on November 8, with thousands of Tlaxcalan and other allied warriors
   Allies	many peoples who resented Aztec tribute and attacks fought alongside the Spanish
   Smallpox	a disease that came with the Spanish expedition and spread among people who had no immunity to it; sources differ on the death toll, and estimates run into the millions
   1521	Spanish and Indigenous soldiers led by Cortés took Tenochtitlan; Mexico City was built on its ruins
   Today	Nahuatl, the Aztec language, is the most spoken Indigenous language in Mexico: about 1.65 million speakers in the 2020 census

   Below the chart, a summary in our words: soon after 1521, a Nahua writer recorded in Nahuatl that the city was lost and that its people went hungry during the siege. It is the earliest account of the fall by the Aztec people themselves.

2. 1.

   When did Spanish and Indigenous soldiers take Tenochtitlan, Bo asks?

   • 1428
   • 1519
   • 1325
   • 1521
3. 2.

   Who fought alongside the Spanish, by the chart, Esme asks?

   • Peoples who resented Aztec tribute
   • The Inca army
   • No one
   • The Maya kings
4. 3.

   Which causes together help explain the fall of Tenochtitlan, Kira asks?

   • Smallpox by itself
   • A few hundred Spaniards fighting by themselves
   • Soldiers, allies and smallpox together
   • A flood of Lake Texcoco
5. 4.

   Why did many peoples join the Spanish against the Aztec, Luz asks?

   • They resented Aztec tribute and attacks
   • They wanted to pay more tribute to the Aztec
   • They were from Peru
   • They were Spanish
6. 5.

   Why does the chart give no exact death toll for smallpox, Milo asks?

   • No one caught smallpox
   • The number is exactly known
   • Smallpox came from Tenochtitlan
   • Sources differ on the number
7. 6.

   What did the Nahua writer record, by the summary, Noah asks?

   • The Spanish left in 1519
   • The city was lost; people went hungry
   • Chinampas grew bigger
   • The city won the war and drove out Cortés
8. 7.

   Why does the Nahua account matter to historians, Pia asks?

   • It was written by Cortés for the king
   • It is written in Spanish
   • It is about the Inca
   • It gives the Aztec people's own view

9. Three societies, same columns

   Society	Land and farming	Building and engineering	Records, writing and numbers
   Maya	maize, beans, squashes and chili peppers in the tropical lowlands	stone cities with tall buildings and carved monuments	a writing system of word signs and syllables, now mostly deciphered; numbers in twenties with a shell for zero
   Aztec (Mexica)	maize, beans and tomatoes on chinampas in a shallow lake	an island city with stone aqueducts for fresh water	picture-writing in books such as the Codex Mendoza
   Inca	potatoes, quinoa and maize, grown on terraces in the Andes	roads of about 30,000 to 40,000 km and fine stonework, built without wheels or iron	no writing system; quipus stored numbers in tens

10. 8.

    Which society farmed on chinampas in a shallow lake, by the chart, Tala asks?

    • The Maya
    • The three of them
    • The Aztec
    • The Inca
11. 9.

    How did the Aztec and the Inca keep records differently, Zee asks?

    • Both used quipus
    • Aztec books of picture-writing; Inca quipus
    • Aztec quipus; Inca picture books
    • Neither kept records
12. 10.

    Which society built roads without wheels or iron, by the chart, Ari asks?

    • The three of them
    • The Maya
    • The Aztec (Mexica)
    • The Inca