The Aztec and Inca Empires

1. The Aztec and Inca Empires

2. General Info • Aztecs = in Mexico and Central America ( chinampas, causeways, canals along Lake Texcoco to form Tenochtitlan) • Incas = in South America (suspension bridges and roads will connect Central Ecuador to the tip of Peru) • Both will engage in expert engineering despite geographic adversity • Both will collect tribute (Inca mita system, Aztec militaristic tribute often for human sacrifice) • Both polytheistic( monumental architecture) • Both lacked: large work animals, metal tools, wheels • Both still developed: centralized governments ( although Aztecs will provide more autonomy for its empire) & armies and both conquered other empires • Both ended when: conquered by the Spanish ( guns, germs, steel… and horses too) • Both will have much of their history told by the Spaniards (who were looking for Gold and Glory and looking to convert to Roman Catholicism: God)

3. Illustration Friday: Similarities and Differences-key vocabulary • Social: Cappuli vs Alluyu, Gender parallelism, tribute(Mita vs Goods) • Political: Centralized vs Decentralized, role of tribute, military, Infrastructure, Religion, Tenochtitlan vs Cusco • Interaction between Humans and Environment: Chinampas, vs Terrace farming, bridges, roads, canals, temples • Cultural: Polytheism, human sacrifice, calendar, ceremonies and temples, role of religion and state Nahuatls vs Quechua, Multi-Cultural Empires • Economic- tribute, Mita System, Gender parallelism, warriors, trading items or goods produced, labor specialization • Technology- Causeways, suspension bridges, Hieroglyphs vs Quipus, terrace farming, Chinampas, lack of large beasts of burden, connection to large interregional trade network, advanced metallurgy

4. Aztec Empire

5. Inca Empire

6. Aztec Empire • Capital = Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City) • Agricultural center and marketplace

7. Aztec Empire • Built chinampas = artificial islands used for farming made by piling mud from the lake onto rafts  floating gardens • As population grew, Aztecs expanded outside of the city  built canals and bridges to connect the mainland to the island where the capital was

9. The Empire • Stretched from Mexico to the border of Guatemala • Stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean • Conquered people had to pay tribute (taxes) in the form of: food, clothing, raw materials, prisoners for sacrifice, jewelry, military supplies, rubber balls, etc.

10. The Empire • Aztec civilization organized as a hierarchy • At the top = the emperor • Classes = nobility, commoners, serfs, slaves • Land owned by: nobility and commoners • Commoners = priests, merchants, artisans, farmers • Serfs = farm workers tied to noble lands • Lowest class = slaves = prisoners of war; criminals; debtors – often sacrificed

12. Religion & the Arts • Religion moved them to engage in war and sacrifice • Live human sacrifices were needed to keep the gods happy • Aztec artists decorated temple-pyramids with scenes of gods or battles • Writers glorified Aztec victories in their works Quetzalcoatl God of dying & resurrection

13. The Inca Empire • Lived in the Andes Mountains in South America • Empire stretched about 2500 miles along the Andes • Capital = Cuzco

14. The Inca Empire • Raided other tribes and slowly built a large empire • Strong central government  local rulers had to report to Inca emperor • Unlike the Aztec Empire, which had no centralized government or complex administration

15. The Inca Empire • Emperor closely controlled the lives of common people • Owned all land and carefully regulated the growing & distribution of food • Farmers used step terraces on hillsides • Part of all crops after every harvest went to emperor as taxes

16. The Inca Empire • Work crews built roads & bridges to link different regions of the empire • Gods pleased with food, animal, and human sacrifices • Not even close to the scale of the Aztecs • No writing system  used quipus to record information = ropes with knotted cords of different lengths

17. The Inca Empire • Mita = labor service used • Required periodically of every household • Required to work for the state • Examples: farming, herding, mining, crafting manufactured goods, construction • In return: state provided elaborate feasts for the people

18. “Gender Parallelism” • Both the Aztec and Inca Empires used this system with men and women • Separate spheres and responsibilities, but each one equally valuable • Each had autonomy in its own sphere • Did NOT mean total gender equality

20. Comparing Aztecs and Incas

21. Two Worlds Collide: What would a meeting of an Aztec and Inca have looked like? • Although they had no contact with each other due to North/South migratory patterns and geographic obstacles, they had much in common. Would they meet in the lowlands or highlands? Would they speak Nahuatl or Quechua? Would it be peaceful or violent? Would they use tribute in goods or in labor. Both would appreciate their abilities to engineer and overcome tremendous geographic obstacles. Using your notes on similarities and difference illustrate a interaction between the two: • Formats: Songs, Poems, Skits, Interpretive dance, Pow Wow ( gathering of the tribes) tweets, peace negotiations, declarations of war, epic rap battle, meme, etc.

22. Theses • From 600-1450 both the Inca and Aztec Empires would flourish engineering great monumental irrigation projects (Chinampas, Waru waru Farming and strong fortresses and temples) despite the geographic adversity of their respective regions, both would collect respective tribute in labor or goods to maintain the stability of the empires, however the Aztecs would maintain a written glyph system while the Incas only form of communication would be the knotted string Quipus. • The Aztec and Incas 600-1450 would both have limited contact with regional trading networks and, thus, have limited exposure to the Afro-Eurasian diseases which would wipe them out, both would innovate methods of irrigation to develop surplus crop yields, yet the system of Mita in the Inca capital of Cusco suggests a far more centralized method of control than the tribute system of the Aztecs which left far more autonomy of their surrounding regions around Tenochtitlan. • The Aztecs and Inca Empires 600-1450 adapted to a vastly different topography with the Aztecs in the central valley of Mexico with chinampas as the Incas adapted terrace farming in the Mountains of the Andes. They also appeased their polytheistic deities in a varying degree with human sacrifice in the Aztecs and animal and agricultural appeasement in the Incas. Both Empires would erect monumental architecture to honor their various deities arguably the most important being that of the sun (Huitzitipotchtli/Inti)

23. From 600-1450 both the Inca and Aztec Empires would flourish engineering great monumental irrigation projects (Chinampas, Waru waru Farming and strong fortresses and temples) despite the geographic adversity of their respective regions, both would collect respective tribute in labor or goods to maintain the stability of the empires, however the Aztecs would maintain a written glyph system while the Incas only form of communication would be the knotted string Quipus.