Ancient Central American Empires – Aztecs and Incas
- Who was Hernan Cortes and what was he known for?
- Who was FranciscoPizzaro and what was he known for?
- Why were the Aztecs and the Incas the two largest empires in the Americas?
Aztecs The Aztecs arrived in Mesoamerica around the 1200 A.D. They began to dominate and conquer their neighbors because of their superior military. As the Aztecs arrived in Northern Mexico, they saw an eagle perched on a cactus on the marshy land near the southwest border of Lake Texcoco. They took it as a sign to build their settlement there. They drained the swampy land, constructed artificial islands on which they could plant gardens and established the foundations of their capital city, Tenochtitlán, in 1325 A.D.Their capital city Tenochtitlan was an engineering marvel and is the site of Mexico City today.
The Aztecs developed a sophisticated system of agriculture (including intensive cultivation of land and irrigation methods). Typical Aztec crops included maize (corn), along with beans, squashes, potatoes, tomatoes and avocadoes; they also supported themselves through fishing and hunting local animals such as rabbits, armadillos, snakes, coyotes and wild turkey.
The Aztecs instilled a powerful military tradition that enabled them to conquer neighboring people groups. By the early 16th century, the Aztecs had come to rule over up to 500 small states, and some 5 to 6 million people, either by conquest or commerce. Tenochtitlán at its height had more than 140,000 inhabitants, and was the most densely populated city ever to exist in Mesoamerica.Their sophisticated agricultural techniques, powerful military and centralized government helped them build one of the biggest empires in Mesoamerica.
The Aztec religion was polytheisticand included human sacrifices from among the conquered peoples. The hatred of the Aztecs by their conquered neighbors fueled an alliance between those people and the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes.In November 1519, Cortes and his men arrived in Tenochtitlan, where Montezuma and his people greeted them as honored guests. Many saw Cortes as a visiting god because of a prophecy that a “light skinned” god would one day visit them. Though the Aztecs had superior numbers, their weapons were inferior to the guns and steel of Cortes who was able to immediately take Montezuma and his entourage of lords hostage, gaining control of Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards then murdered thousands of Aztec nobles during a ritual dance ceremony, and Montezuma died while in custody. Montezuma’s, young nephew, took over as emperor, and the Aztecs drove the Spaniards from the city. With the help of the Aztecs’ native rivals, Cortes mounted an offensive against Tenochtitlan, finally defeating all resistance on August 13, 1521. In all, some 240,000 people were believed to have died in the city’s conquest, which effectively ended the Aztec civilization. After his victory, Cortes razed Tenochtitlan and built Mexico City on its ruins; it quickly became the premier European center in the New World.
Incas The "Land of the Four Quarters" or Tahuantinsuyu is the name the Inca gave to their empire. It stretched north to south some 2,500 miles along the high mountainous Andean range from Colombia to Chile and reached west to east from the dry coastal desert called Atacama to the steamy Amazonian rain forest. At the height of its existence the Inca Empire was the largest nation on Earth and remains the largest native state to have existed in the western hemisphere.
To rule such a large empire was a continuing struggle. The Inca state's domain was unprecedented, its rule resulting in a universal language—a form of Quechuaand, a 14,000 mile-long road system criss-crossing high Andean mountain passes and linking the rulers with the ruled. Referred to as an all-weather highway system, the over 14,000 miles of Inca roads were an astonishing and reliable precursor to the advent of the interstate highway system. This highway system of the Incas rivaled that of the Roman Empire roads.
The Incas religion was as complex as their road system. The Incas believed that their ruler was the direct descendant of thesun god, Inti. Their ruler was considered a god. The Incas believed in many gods, (polytheism)and along with the Aztecs also had the ritual of human sacrifice.
Through military conquests, the Incas created a large empire and like the Aztecs, the Incas, themselves, were conquered by a Spanish conquistador named Francisco Pizzarowho followed the pattern of Cortes by creating a small disciplined army, creating alliances with groups that hated the Incas, and kidnap/control the emperor to control the empire. Spanish conquistadorFrancisco Pizarrolured the Inca emperor Atahualpa to a meeting for a supposed dinner in his honor and kidnapped the emperor instead in November 1532. Atahualpa was executed the following summer, and although the Spanish were far outnumbered by the locals, they easily sacked Cusco in late 1533 with their superior weaponry – guns, steel swords, horses – and with the help of native allies who hated their Inca rulers.
What remains of the Inca legacy is limited, as the conquistadors plundered what they could of Inca treasures and in so doing, dismantled the many structures painstakingly built by Inca craftsmen to house the precious metals. Remarkably, a last bastion of the Inca empire remained unknown to the Spanish conquerors and was not found until explorer Hiram Bingham discovered it in 1911. He had found Machu Picchu, a citadel atop a mountainous jungle along the Urubamba River in Peru. Grand steps and terraces with fountains, lodgings, and shrines flank the jungle-clad pinnacle peaks surrounding the site. It was a place of worship to the sun god, the greatest deity in the Inca pantheon.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Inca kings and nobles amassed stupendous riches which accompanied them, in death, in their tombs. But it was their great wealth that ultimately undid the Inca, for the Spaniards, upon reaching the New World, learned of the abundance of gold in Inca society and soon set out to conquer it—at all costs. The plundering of Inca riches continues today with the pillaging of sacred sites and blasting of burial tombs by grave robbers in search of precious Inca gold.
With the arrival from Spain in 1532 of Francisco Pizarro and his entourage of mercenaries or "conquistadors," the Inca empire was seriously threatened for the first time. Duped into meeting with the conquistadors in a "peaceful" gathering, an Inca emperor, Atahualpa, was kidnapped and held for ransom. After paying over $50 million in gold by today's standards, Atahualpa, who was promised to be set free, was strangled to death by the Spaniards who then marched straight for Cuzco and its riches.
Ciezo de Leon, a conquistador himself, wrote of the astonishing surprise the Spaniards experienced upon reaching Cuzco. As eyewitnesses to the extravagant and meticulously constructed city of Cuzco, the conquistadors were dumbfounded to find such a testimony of superior metallurgy and finely tuned architecture.
Temples, edifices, paved roads, and elaborate gardens all shimmered with gold. By Ciezo de Leon's own observation the extreme riches and expert stone work of the Inca were beyond belief: "In one of (the) houses, which was the richest, there was the figure of the sun, very large and made of gold, very ingeniously worked, and enriched with many precious stones....They had also a garden, the clods of which were made of pieces of fine gold; and it was artificially sown with golden maize, the stalks, as well as the leaves and cobs, being of that metal....Besides all this, they had more than twenty golden (llamas) with their lambs, and the shepherds with their slings and crooks to watch them, all made of the same metal. There was a great quantity of jars of gold and silver, set with emeralds; vases, pots, and all sorts of utensils, all of fine gold....it seems to me that I have said enough to show what a grand place it was; so I shall not treat further of the silver work of the chaquira (beads), of the plumes of gold and other things, which, if I wrote down, I should not be believed."
MACHU PICCHU AND LIVING AT HEIGHTS
THE CONQUEST
How did Pizarro and his small army of mercenaries, totaling less than 400, conquer what was becoming the world's largest civilization? Much of the "conquest" was accomplished without battles or warfare as the initial contact Europeans made in the New World resulted in rampant disease. Old World infectious disease left its devastating mark on New World Indian cultures. In particular, smallpox spread quickly through Panama, eradicating entire populations. Once the disease crossed into the Andes its southward spread caused the single most devastating loss of life in the Americas. Lacking immunity, the New World peoples, including the Inca, were reduced by two-thirds.
With the aid of disease and the success of his initial deceit of Atahualpa, Pizarro acquired vast amounts of Inca gold which brought him great fortune in Spain. Reinforcements for his troops came quickly and his conquest of a people soon moved into consolidation of an empire and its wealth. Spanish culture, religion, and language rapidly replaced Inca life and only a few traces of Inca ways remain in the native culture as it exists today.