Compare And Contrast The Inca Empire And Aztec Empire

Improved Essays
The Aztecs were ethnic groups of central Mexico who grew to conquer large areas Mesoamerica known as the Aztec Empire. The Incan Empire was a civilization along the coast of South America that conquered neighboring regions through their military strengths. While both the Aztecs and Incas had similar social hierarchies consisting of the elite, government officials, and commoners, the Aztecs had no structured form of government only paying tributes to officials compared to the Incas’ military ran bureaucracy.
The Aztec Empire and the Incan Empire shared similar structures of their social class. Both empires had emperors from royal families that were given their position from heredity. The aristocrats from both empires wore special clothing to
…show more content…
The commoners of the Aztec Empire mainly lived a farmers and land cultivators in community groups called calpulli. They would work either on land or on labor services constructing infrastructure and paying tribute to the elite class. Inca commoners and peasants would also work and care for the land that was granted to them by the aristocrats; any land production would be given to the state or royals. They also owned labor services like construction, maintenance, and building infrastructure. The roles of women were also very similar because women had a low status that did not allow them to own property or participate in political positions. Both empires view women to serve the job of motherhood and raising the children and great warriors as well as caring for the home and husband. The Aztec and Incan Empire shared similar societal aspects of their civilization because their empires both thrived during the same time period and they were in close regions to each other, which allowed their ideas of social classes to diffuse. Also, both empires were heavily reliant on agriculture for production of trade, which gave power to the wealth accumulating class compared to the working class. Along with agriculture and trade, religion influenced each …show more content…
The Aztecs had loose governing techniques, relying mainly on their military to demand tribute from their citizens; by paying tribute to the elite, it was a scare tactic to guarantee that the military would not harm any citizens as long as they kept paying. The Aztec theocracy placed power in the divine king or priest to rule. The Incas, on the other hand, ruled with their military and administrative positions through bureaucracies throughout the empire. There was an exchange of goods between the elite class and commoners, but it was the upper class that provided the people with land of benefits to keep them from becoming restless and to prevent rebellions. The Incas would also have their people pay taxes to the rulers and give any extra food or textiles produced to the state-owned warehouse for surplus supplies. The Aztecs ruled with military skill and fear to keep their people orderly; however, they did not have military bases stationed throughout the empire and did not have a permanent standing army. The Incas used their military positions to control neighboring land, and they would take hostages from neighboring ruling classes in order to achieve obedience and to brainwash them with Inca governing beliefs. Therefore, the military used well built roads

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Incas And Aztec Culture

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Incas only performed human sacrifices in times of disasters unlike the Aztecs. The Incas were extremely harsh towards their enemies, but felt responsible for their welfare. People worked land but also had designated jobs such as military, mining, and public service. They gave workers incentives to get better production from the workers. The Incas and Aztecs both were taken over by the Spaniards.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since they did not need as many sacrificial victims, warfare was more about conquering areas for land, not for people to sacrifice. Overall, the Aztecs and Inca had very different ways of running their empires. The Incas micromanaged their economy and did not center their public religion on human sacrifice. The Aztecs gave more freedom regarding the economy and needed many human sacrifices, which fueled warfare. However, they did both use tribute labor and worshipped sun deities.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Empires as vast and complex as the Mexica and the Inca needed precise administration or the empire would collapse into chaos. The Inca used a hierarchical system, much like today’s society, where control was passed down a chain of command. Each curacas, or government official, was given fewer households to manage, the smallest unite being 100 and the largest unit being 10,000 (Malpass). This detailed systematic organization allowed the Inca to properly manage and collect tribute and workers for the central Inca empire. The Inca also had system to establish privilege between those conquered and those loyal to the Inca empire.…

    • 1790 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    In regards to the subjects of the Aztec empire, the particularly gruesome human sacrifices would have helped to prevent resistance and would ensure the commoners paid tribute to the nobility (Smith 219-220). Some anthropologists also believe that human sacrifices were completed to help with population control. This is especially true because they would have wanted to control the population of the surrounding kingdoms where they captured many of their sacrifices (Berdan 89). Overall, anthropologists believe that the Aztecs’ reasons for human sacrifice are their worldview or religious fulfillments and for political reasons. These two theories go hand in hand to demonstrate the power possessed by the Aztec empire and their…

    • 2192 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The rest of Incan government was primarily made of people related to the ruler. The Mayans royal court was made up of nobles. The Aztecs were dualistic, and much like the consuls of Rome had two leaders; a higher one for external affairs and lesser one for internal…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Aztec’s engaged in long distance trade using their agriculture to barter for other items; and the Incan’s agriculture was redistributed by their government, however, the mountainous range made it impossible to engage in long distance trade. Both civilizations had tributes; but the Aztecs had more than the Incan’s. Neither had large animals to domesticate, but families of both civilizations lived in groups called calpullis. Both civilizations built roads. The Aztecs did develop their own writing system were the Incans did not.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome can be compared in many ways, such as their geography, the position of women in society and government. Geography helped influence the development of civilizations by allowing permanent settlements, irrigation for crops, and a constant water supply. This led to the increase in human population, which led to cities which resulted in civilizations. The women of ancient civilizations had few rights and men had power over them. They were considered inferior and many people valued women as a baby producer and taking care of the house and children.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After Chimalpopoca’s passing, this militia group chose Itzcoatl to be the future ruler of the Aztecs. Moctezuma shared control of General of the Army with Itzcoatl’s nephew during his reign as king. Moctezuma finally gained control as leader of the Aztecs after Itzcoatl’s death. Something interesting about Moctezuma is he had the title of “Great Speaker”, while all other rulers before him only had the title “Speaker”. This was because he represented all tribes that gave him tribute.…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dbq Essay On Aztecs

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lastly, trade was impacted negatively because all the populations but one, collectively channeled their energy towards and only towards religion. while trade remained only local, killing their economy off and depriving them from new resources and domestic animals. Aztecs were maybe the only civilization to develop the most in trade than others their Emperor conquered other civilizations, and expanded upon trade. Tenochtitlan was made a Mesoamerican trade center, most likely because he wanted to have new items and ally other civilizations coming there. However, according to Aztecs Economically Isolate and Enemy, they banned trade against Tlaxcalans, taking cotton, gold, silver, cocoa, salt, etc.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    They would become successful due to their military success. Under their social structure the leaders where known as sinchios, “war leaders who derived their power and prestige from personal prowess” (Conrad and Demes,99). This leadership allowed the Inca to compete with other indigenous powers. The sinchio were warriors and had strong knowledge in politics which allowed them to take down the Channca and allying themselves with the Lupca (Conrad and Demes, 107). However, in 1438 the Chanca attacked the Inca in hopes of gaining their territory, but they were defeated by Cusi Inca Yupanqui who was the son of the old emperor.…

    • 1692 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays