Americas: 

Mexica/Aztecs:

• Societies in the Americas and how they developed over time

• Mexica migrated from the north to Lake Texcoco c. 1325

• Mexica was one of many different societies rising during this time

• Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City) was founded on the lake

• Considered the “Venice of the Americas”

  • City was connected by canals, causeways, and bridges

• Fresh water supplied by terracotta aqueducts

• Mexica Government:

  • City-states ruled by a speaker chosen from the nobility; the Great Speaker ruled the empire

  • Largely centralized (recognized Tenochtitlan is the most powerful city in the region)

    • Theocracy was centralized

  • To avoid being conquered, the people would pay tribute, surrender lands, and perform military service

  • Autonomy: self-governance/self-rule

• Mexica religion

  • Polytheistic society

    • Temples and pyramids were constructed to honor major deities

    • Rulers embodied gods on earth

      • Seen as divine

    • Human blood was thought to be necessary to please the gods

      • Human sacrifice was common

• Mexica Economy

  • Built chinampas to increase the amount of land available for agriculture

    • “Floating islands”

    • Bring in lots of soil, dirt, and mud, and then pile it up.

    • Maize, beans, and squash

  • Merchant class specialized in long-distance luxury trade

  • Bartering was most common

    • Cacao beans, gold dust, and cotton were also sometimes used as currency

• Mexica Society

  • Nobility controlled military, and priesthood; operated schools

  • POWs (Prisoners of war) enslaved, sacrificed

  • Women were primarily in the house

    • Polygamy was believed to exist among nobility

      • Men could have more than one wife

  • Women were healers, they could be a part of the merchant class, and inherit property

Incas:

• Founded by Quechua-speaking clans

  • Specifically upper-class or ayllus

  • Livin near Cuzco c. 1350

• Inca (ruler) Pachacuti expanded the empire from 1438-1471

  • Built Machu Picchu

• Split inheritance - the process where a ruler’s predecessor 

  • expansion continued after Pachacuti’s death through practice of split inheritance

• Economy:

  • Primarily agricultural

    • Focus on producing food, managing land

    • Terrace farming and complex irrigation

  • Unlike Aztec, most of society must participate in agriculture

    • Very little internal commerce, had no merchant class

  • Government oversaw production, distribution of essential goods

    • Strong government that had to distribute any goods that are needed

    • Food, clothing, tools, raw materials

    • Similar to modern-day socialism

• Politics:

  • Head of Inca was considered almost a god

  • Inca society ran off of theocracy

  • Divided empire into four provinces, run by a bureaucracy of nobles

  • Inca allowed self-rule to conquered peoples as long as they remained loyal

  • Colonized, relocated conquered people

    • Those who did not pay tribute, but served as coerced labor for massive projects

    • Mit’a (turn/rotation)

      • Rotational draft system where a certain number of people are asked to perform work for a period of time and then switched out with another group of people

• Religion

  • Polytheistic

    • Inti - the sun god

    • Temple built in honor of Inti in Cuzco

      • Important religious, political, and economic place

      • This led to a concentration of power in the capital

    • Human sacrifices did occur

      • Similar to Aztecs but with less magnitude

    • Women were allowed to hold roles of power

  • Influenced by animism

    • The belief that spirits embody living and non-living things

    • Mountains, rivers, lakes, etc. considered huacas

• Society:

  • Interactions between classes are not permitted

    • Social mobility is possible through marriage, but otherwise permanent

    • Polygamy among nobility

      • Men could have more than one wife

  • Craftspeople are tax-exempt, paid by government

  • Women played a critical role in the household

    • Wove cloth, farmed, cared for household

    • Worshipped fertility deities

  • Society recognized parallel descent

    • Unique practice of passing property and belongings down to offspring

    • Men would passed down their belongings to their sons and mothers would pass down to their daughters

• Technology:

  • Built a complex system of roads, bridges

    • 20,000-25,000 miles of roads

    • Used a system of runners to carry messages throughout the empire

  • Pottery

  • Cloth

  • Quipu

    • Number system used like an early calculator

    • Depending on the different number of knots tied on the string

  • Masonry

  • Metalwork