Aztec And Inca Empires Flashcards, test questions and answers

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What is Aztec And Inca Empires?

The Aztec and Inca Empires were two of the most powerful civilizations to have existed in pre-Columbian America. Both empires rose to power in the early part of the 15th century, with the Aztecs having their center at Tenochtitlan and the Incas at Cuzco. These two empires had very different cultures, languages, religions, and economic systems. The Aztecs were a warlike people who practiced human sacrifice in order to please their gods. They also had a highly organized political system, with an emperor ruling over powerful nobles and priests. The economy was based mainly on agriculture and trade, as well as tribute payments from conquered regions. The Aztecs used a type of pictographic writing known as glyphs which were inscribed on stone tablets or carved into monuments like the famous Sun Stone found in Mexico City. The Incas practiced a more peaceful religion centered around worship of nature spirits called huacas. Unlike the Aztecs they did not practice human sacrifice but instead made offerings such as llama sacrifices or small clay figures representing animal spirits called tupus (singular tupu). Their economy relied heavily on terrace farming and irrigation systems to make use of Andean mountain slopes for agricultural production as well as large-scale public works projects like canals and roads that connected important urban centers across their empire. The Incas also developed an advanced form of quipu knot record-keeping which was used to keep track of taxes, store records, and send messages between provincial governors throughout their vast Empire. Despite these differences both empires shared some similar characteristics such as strong central governments led by powerful rulers (the Sapa Inka for example), social stratification by class or ethnicity (the mita labor system for instance), religious beliefs involving nature worship or ancestor reverence (such as believing mountains or rivers to be sacred places), monumental architecture including stepped temples or palaces constructed out of stone (like Machu Picchu) ,and complex systems for collecting taxes or regulating trade between provinces within each empire’s respective boundaries. While both Empires eventually fell due to conquest by Spanish forces during colonial times it is clear that they left behind impressive legacies that continue to influence Latin American culture today even if it is just in terms understanding what it means to be Latin American through a shared history that spans centuries.