The Americas: The Aztec

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The Americas The Aztec the Inca

• AP World History
• 1/6/11
• Ch 21

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The Aztecs
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Rise of the Aztecs

• Aztecs (Mexica) migrate to Lake Texcoco in
  central Mexico c. 1325
• Founded city of Tenochtitlan in 1325
• Empire started in 1434
• Aztec kings represented civil power and served as
  a representative of the gods on Earth

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Aztec Government

• City-states ruled by a speaker chosen from the
  nobility
• The Great Speaker, ruler of Tenochtitlan, was in
  effect an emperor
• Increasingly considered a living god
• Conquered peoples maintained some autonomy if
  they paid tribute

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Aztec Religion

• Aztec maintained traditional deities of
  Mesoamerica
• 128 major deities
• Huitzilopochtli (right) was the Aztec tribal
  patron and patron deity of the cult of warfare
  and sacrifice

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Human Sacrifice

• Human sacrifice was a typical part of
  Mesoamerican religion
• Aztec expand practice into a cult where military
  supplied war captives for sacrifice
• Why?
• Political purposes
• Population control
• Cannibal kingdom

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Human Sacrifice
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Tenochtitlan

• On an island in Lake Texcoco
• Aztecs called it the foundation of Heaven
• By 1519 had a population of 150,000
• Connected by causeways and canals

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Tenochtitlan The Venice of the Americas
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Aztec Economy

• Agriculture
• Food often provided as tribute
• Built chinampas
• Pochteca was a special merchant class which
  specialized in long-distance luxury trade
• Cacao beans and gold dust were used as currency
  bartering was most common

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Chinampas
Chinampas were man-made floating islands 17 long
x 100 to 300 feet wide. Aztecs built over
20,000 acres of chinampas.
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Chinampas
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Aztec Society

• Originally divided into seven clans called
  calpulli
• Calpulli redistributed land, organized labor
  gangs military units, maintained temples
  schools
• Eventually a class of nobility emerged
• Nobility controlled the priesthood military

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Aztec Society

• Womens primary role was the household
• Women spent six hours a day grinding corn
  restricted womens rights
• Marriages were arranged
• Polygamy existed amongst the nobility
• Women could inherit property

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The Inca
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Rise of Inca

• Founded by Quechua-speaking clans, ayllus, living
  near Cuzco c. 1350
• Inca (ruler) Pachacuti expanded the empire from
  1438-1471
• Built Machu Picchu
• Expansion continued after Pachacutis death

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Machu Picchu
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Machu Picchu
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Conquest Religion

• Expansion motivated by split inheritance
• Polytheistic
• Sun God was the primary god
• Influenced by animism
• Mountains, rivers, etc. were considered holy
  shrines

Temple of the Sun in Machu Picchu
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Inca Government

• Inca was considered almost a god
• Divided empire into four provinces
• Developed a bureaucracy run by nobles
• Nobility drawn from the ten ayllus
• Local rulers maintained their positions
• Colonized conquered areas
• Relocated some conquered peoples

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Inca Economy

• Unlike Aztecs, not a lot of trade
• Tried to be self-sufficient
• Primarily agricultural
• Terrace farming complex irrigation
• Over 200 types of potatoes
• Inca Socialism
• Used forced labor for massive projects
• Mita

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Terrace Farming
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Inca Society

• Inca emphasis on military reinforced gender
  inequality
• Women worked in the fields, wove cloth, and cared
  for the household
• Women worshipped fertility deities
• Recognize parallel descent
• Women passed rights and property to their
  daughters

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Inca Technology

• Built a complex system of roads and bridges
• 2500 miles of roads
• Used a system of runners to carry messages
  throughout the empire
• Beautiful pottery, cloth, and metalworking
• Quipu
• Masonry

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Bridges and Roads
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Quipu
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Inca Metalworking