are the aztecs and the mexicas the same???

Answer 1

Basically, yes - the terms "Aztec" and "Mexica" (that's meh-shee-ka, without an "n" on the end) both refer to Nahuatl-speaking peoples, and for the most part they are used interchangeably.

However, many people make a distinction between the terms. "Aztec" is derived from the word "Aztlan", which was the original homeland of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples. Mexica is derived from "Mexico", which originally referred to the area around present-day Mexico city.

In colonial documents from Mexico, you never see the term "azteca" used to refer to indigenous people, only "mexicano" (the Spanish version of Mexica). As "mexicano" came to be associated with the country of Mexico, the term "azteca" became more widely used.

The web sites below contain further discussion.

Answer 2

Yes the ancient Mexican civilization is both referred to as aztecs and mexicas. I believe, they called themselves Mexicas, and it was not until the spaniards came that they were known as Aztecs. Mexico's name was derived from mexica.

Answer 3

Mexica is the word that the people called Aztec today use to refer to themselves (and used to refer to themselves in the past).

Answer 4

yes, mexica and mexicatl are nahuatl(aztec) words refering to the population.

Answer 5

Mexico is a homegenous society under threat from the Zapatista rebellion, once you sift through the left-wing polemics of the anti-globalization movement that seems to love this sort of thing. People's children dying from grenades and living in isolated villages surrounded by troops, unable to make money off their traditional farming activities, crafts and tourism, well that isn't the story you hear about. The indigenous people are definitely mixed with the people but have a distinct character and set of cultures of their own. So it is both a homogenous and multicultural society. It is more about class than race these days in any Latin-American country. Poverty is an issue. Columbia is really blowing up over it--some of it is American military and drug trade policy.

Answer 6

The Aztecans were Mejicas who were in turn actually Chichimecas. Their mortal enemies, the Tlaxcaltecans were also an earlier tribe of Chichimecas also.

Answer 7

no the aztecs were the native peoples, Mexicans are a mix of aztecs and a majority of Spainsh peoples.

Answer 8

mexican = aztec + spanish