The Aztec Empire controlled most of central Mexico by the 15th century, with their capital at Tenochtitlan located on an island in Lake Texcoco. At its height, the Aztec Empire had over 22 million subjects, making it larger than any European kingdom at the time. The Aztecs developed no formal bureaucracy and instead allowed regional kings to remain in power as long as they continued to pay tribute. Religion played a key role in Aztec rule, especially human sacrifice which was believed to nourish the gods.

1. The Aztec Empire

2. Overview
• The Aztecs were a Mexica group of about 10,000 people who slowly
expanded their power till they controlled the most important lands in
South Central Mexico.
• At its height the Aztecs controlled an empire of some 22 million people,
making it more populous than any kingdom or empire in Europe.
• Unlike their European counterparts, the Aztecs developed no formal
bureaucracy.
• Instead, the Aztecs let regional kings and leaders remain in power as long
as they continued to send tribute.
• Aztec kings held both political and religious power. They controlled the
civil powers and were seen as representatives of the gods.
• Religion was a key element in keeping control of conquered peoples –
especially with the sacrifice system.

3. Aztec
s
Overview
• The Aztecs were a Mexica group of about 10,000 people who expanded their power.
• At its height they controlled an empire of some 22 million people, making it more populous than
any kingdom or empire in Europe.
• The Aztecs developed no formal bureaucracy.
• Let some regional leaders remain in power as long as they continued to send tribute!
Aztec city of Tenochtitlan at the time of the Spanish invasion.

4. Incas
Overview
•The Inca Empire extended for some
3,000 miles making it as long as the
lower 48 states of the US.
•The Incas incorporated ideas and
culture from many different peoples
and fused them into a truly unique
society.
•Unlike the Aztecs, the Incas had a very
sophisticated and effective
bureaucracy.
•Between 9 and 13 million people lived
under Incan rule. Truly remarkable
when you consider the geography and
limited technology of the empire.

5. Incan Empire

6. Aztec Geography Incas
s
•Lived in central valley of Mexico • Lived in Andes Mountains in modern
•Capital City: Tenochtitlan – in Lake day Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile.
Texcoco by 1345 • Capital City: Cuzco- by Lake Titcaca
•Swampy marsh land, islands • Controlled coastline, highlands, parts
•Contained some rivers of rainforest.

7. Aztec Political Systems Incas
s
Montezuma II • Led by “Sapa Inca”- Supreme Ruler, seen
as a god
• Aztec Emperors were thought to be gods.
•Authoritarian ruler who controlled
• Absolute power - held both political and
marriage, movement, produce
religious power.
•Created centralized bureaucracy –
• They had a strict law code
educated elites, Priests were officials
• Religion was a key element in keeping
•Used Military force and resettlement
control of conquered peoples – especially
to control people
with the sacrifice system.

8. Rise of the Incas
•Developed independently from Mayans and Aztecs in the Andes (Peru and Bolivia)
•Cuzco: capital city
•Similar to ancient Egypt
•Sun God. “People of the Sun”
•Centralized State
•Divine ruler

9. Aztec Social Structure Incas
s
Emperor
Emperor
Nobles, High Priests
and Warriors Nobles, High Priests
Merchants and Warriors and
Artisans officials
Farmers Merchants, Artisans,
Farmers
Slaves, Prisoners Slaves, Prisoners
• Dominated by Kings, warriors • Emperor expanded control over
and priests regional neighbors
• Depended on warfare to • Relocated conquered people to
acquire slaves live in cities dominated by loyal
•Subordinate groups forced to citizens.
pay tax and tribute •Spoke Quechua
• Spoke Nahuatl

10. Aztec Economy Incas
s
• No money - Collected taxes in form of
• Importance of Maize, beans, squash
goods, food, services
•Markets in the cities – Regional trade
• Very rich in gold and silver
• Relied on extensive slave labor,
• Stressed self-sufficient communal
tributes
farming
•Wealth based on strength of military
• Used system of roads for trade and
and ability to control others
communication.

11. The Aztec Economy
• Lands of conquered peoples were used to feed the capital city and other important
centers.
• Food was sent as a form of tribute by conquered peoples.
• Market days were held every 5 to 13 days to buy, sell and trade goods.
• Cacao beans and gold dust was used for currency.
• The state controlled the markets and redistributed wealth to needy areas. So there
was more government involvement than in Europe.
• Chinampas Agriculture was used to supplement the food supply.

12. Incan Economy
•ROADS: 10,000 miles throughout mountains
•Facilitated communication, trade, troop movements, travel
•Record keeping: “Quipu” System of colored ropes and knots.
•No written language
•Advances in metalworking – especially gold and silver. Also used
copper and bronze for tools and weapons.

13. The Incan Road System
• A complex system of roads was built
through out the empire with bridges and
causeways.
•Along these roads, way stations were
placed about a day’s walk apart to serve
as inns, storehouses and supply centers
for the Inca armies.
•They also served as relay points for the
system of runners who carried messages
throughout the empire. A message from
the extreme south would reach the
extreme north in about 9 days.
•The Inca probably had around 10,000
way stations throughout the empire.

14. Incan Agriculture and Architecture

15. Aztec Religion
1) Polytheistic
2) Similar to other regional
religions
• Pyramids, art, ceremonies,
sacrifice.
• Sacrifice: Up to 20,000 at a time!
• Sun was created as a result of
gods being sacrificed.
• Needed human blood as
nourishment
• required constant warfare
•There were at least 128 major deities in the Aztec religion with many more
minor deities as well.
• Each god had a female consort – recognizing duality in all things.
• The gods had different forms or manifestations – like Hindu avatars.
• Asked the really big and important questions in life just like all great religions.

16. Incan Religion
• Less brutal than Aztecs
• Tolerant of local beliefs
• Royal family descended from sun
god.
• Mummification
• Like the Aztecs, the Incas held the
sun to be the highest deity.
• As the empire spread, so did the
cult of the sun, however, locals
were not prohibited from
worshiping their local gods as
well.
• Viracocha (seen to the right) was
a creator god that was a favorite
throughout the empire.
• Popular belief was primarily
animistic. Mountains, stones,
rivers, caves were considered to
be ‘huacas’ or holy shrines.

17. Incan Religion

18. Cultural Achievements Incas
Aztec
s
•

19. Incan Rope Bridge
Stone Steps

20. Technology/ Trade
•Markets in cities
•Relied on extensive slave labor, tributes.
•Wealth was based on strength of military and their ability to exploit the
resources of surrounding people
Expansion
Militaristic Empire
Dominated by warriors, kings, and priests
Subordinate groups (i.e. Mayans) forced to pay tribute in gold and slaves but
could run own internal affairs.
Depended on warfare as a means to acquire slaves (POWs) for labor and
sacrificial purposes

21. Quetzalcoatl. The creator god of
humanity represented duality by
nature. Half air and half earth, the
feathered serpent was one of the
most important pre-Hispanic deities,
the main protagonist of many of the
major Mesoamerican myths and his
cult was very ancient. Quetzalcoatl
had different avocations: Venus as the
morning star, called
Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli; Xolotl, the
"Precious Twin," Venus as the
afternoon star; and Ehecatl, god of
Wind. The cult of Quetzalcoatl
reached the Maya zone, where he is
known as Kukulkan. Among his most
important attributes are the cut shell
ornament, whether used as a
pectoral, earplugs or adornment in
some other part of his accouterments.
As the wind god, he wears a beak-
shaped mask, with which he produces
the wind.

22. Tezcatlipoca is Aztec the god of the night
sky and the night wind. His name means
"Smoking Mirror," the Nahuatl term for the
black obsidian mirrors the Mesoamericans
used for divination. Tezcatlipoca also had
several titles, for He was considered a
fearsome god whom the people were
careful to call upon by name.As the Lord of
the Near and Nigh, Tezcatlipoca governs
the fate of mortals, seeing into their minds
and hearts with His obsidian mirror. He
gives both reward and punishment as He
sees fit; having the power to both bestow
riches and take them away. As the night
wind, Tezcatlipoca would rush through the
streets in the night, giving terror or luck to
any He came across in accordance with His
whims and their worth. He carries five
arrows which He uses to punish the
wicked.

23. HUITZILOPOCHTLI - (from huitzilin,
"hummingbird," and opochtli, "left") was the Aztec
sun and war god ... what a name ! Blue Humming
Bird on the left.The Aztecs believed that dead
warriors came back to life as hummingbirds and
that the south was the left side of the world.
Huitzilopochtli's name, therefore, meant the
Warrior of the South brought back from the dead.
His animal disguise, was the eagle.
Huitzilopochtli's image, in the form of a
hummingbird, was carried upon the shoulders of
the priests when the Aztecs invaded, and at night
his voice was heard giving orders.
Thus, according to Huitzilopochtli's command,
Tenochtitlan the Aztec capital, was founded in AD
1325 on a small rocky island in the lake of the
Valley of Mexico.
The god's first shrine was built on a spot where
priests found an eagle poised upon a rock and
devouring a snake. Successive Aztec rulers
enlarged the shrine until the year "Eight Reed"
(1487), when an impressive temple was dedicated
by the emperor Ahuitzotl.

24. Aztec
s
Decline
•No loyalty from subordinate
groups. Resisted whenever
possible.
•Spanish - Hernando Cortes, El
Conquistador. Overpowered
Aztecs with superior weapons
and horses.
•Convinced Aztecs the Spanish
were gods.
•European disease. Small pox,
measles. Americans had no
natural immunity. Destroyed
pop.

25. Decline
•1400s. Overextension of territory. Unable to keep subordinate groups
cooperative.
•Weakened at the arrival of Spanish in 1500s.
•Francisco Pizzaro. Defeated Inca army of over 20,000 with a force of several
hundred conquistadors.

26. Conquest of the Incas

27. Comparing Inca and Aztec
• Both were successful with imperial and military
organization.
• Both had intensive agriculture organized by the state
that created a food surplus.
• Both redistributed resources to all classes.
• Both used nobles to run state machinery.
• Both recognized local ethnic groups – although the
Inca did spread their culture and language.
• Both developed systems of roads and advanced
engineering techniques
• Both were polytheistic and made human sacrifices to
the Gods
• Both were defeated by the Spanish

28. Political
•“Sapa Inca” (Only Inca):
supreme ruler
•Despot: Authoritarian ruler
who controlled marriage,
movement, produce.
•Communal system/self-
sufficiency emphasized
•Education of elites
regulated by state
•Protests and uprisings dealt
with through military force
and resettlement.
The Inca (king) was considered to
be a near god by the people.

29. Expansion Citadel at Machu Picchu
•Exerted control over regional neighbors
•Late 1400s. Empire spanned from
Ecuador to Chile.
•Largest governmental unit in the
Americas

30. Why they built an empire.
• The usual motivations for economic
gain and political power did play a
role in the building of empire for the
Incas.
• However, the cult of the ancestors
was extremely important to the
Incas.
• Deceased rulers were mummified and
treated as intermediaries with the
gods. From the Chimor kingdom the
Incas adopted the practice of royal
‘split inheritance’ whereby political
power and titles of the ruler went to
the successor, but palaces, wealth,
land and possessions remained under
the control of the dead leader.
• To ensure that he would have a place
for eternity each new ruler needed to
expand the empire to gain lands and
wealth for the afterlife.

31. Incan Sun Priest and his Family

32. The Techniques of Inca Imperial Rule
• The Inca (king) was considered almost a god.
He ruled from his court at Cuzco which was
also the site for the temple of the Sun God.
• The empire was divided into four districts
each with a local governor and then divided
again into smaller regional districts.
• The state bureaucracy was run by the
nobles. Each of the four large districts had
bureaucracies based on decimal units of
10,000, 1,000, 100 and smaller for collecting
taxes and mobilizing labor for public works.
• Local rulers were allowed to keep their
positions as long as they remained faithful to
the Inca and sent their sons to Cuzco for
their education.
• The Incas intentionally spread the Quechua
language as a way to integrate the empire.
• They would also send Quechua speakers to
live in other parts of the empire to speed up
integration.

33. • Conquered peoples were enlisted in
the Inca armies under Inca officers.
• Subject peoples received access to Conquered Peoples
goods not previously available to them
and the Inca state undertook large
building and irrigation projects that
formerly would have been impossible.
Loyalty and tribute were the only
requirements.
• The state claimed all resources and
redistributed them.
• The Incas divided conquered areas into
lands for the people, lands for the
state and lands for the sun – that is for
religion and to support the priests.
• The kind of tribute exacted by the
Incas was labor through the mita
system.
• Women were required to produce cloth
and some women were taken as
concubines for the rulers.
• Other women were selected as
servants at the temples called “Virgins
of the Sun”.

34. Gender Roles in Inca
Society
“Inca Princess” Barbie
•Women worked in the fields,
wove cloth and cared for the
household.
•Property rights among nobles
passed in both men and women:
•Father’s wealth to sons
•Mother’s wealth to
daughters
• Emphasis on military virtues
reinforced gender inequality.
•Both gods and goddesses were
worshipped but women felt a
particular affinity with the Moon
Goddess.

35. Aztec or Inca?
•Trade and markets were more developed.
•Developed more metal working skills.
•Developed a writing system.
•Had a more efficient bureaucracy
•Sacrificed more humans – reason for conquests
•Controlled more land – reason for conquests

36. Incan Road and Settlement

37. Incan Engineering

38. Inca terrace farming

39. The Inca Ullo temple of fertility,
Chucuito, Lake Titicaca

40. • Trade and markets were more developed in the Aztec
regions.
•Incas developed more metal working skills than the
Aztecs.
•Aztecs developed a writing system and the Incas did not.
•Incas had a more efficient bureaucracy
•Aztecs sacrificed more humans – reason for conquests
•Incas controlled more land – reason for conquests

41. Fortress of Ollantaytambo