Aztecs vs Incas essays

Aztecs vs Incas essays Two of the biggest and greatest civilizations in the Americas were the Aztecs and the Incas. These two civilizations were both said to be conquered by the Spanish, but it was not just the Spanish who conquered them. They both also fell from a combination of a weak government, lack of technology, new disease introduced by invaders, and not being prepared for the invasion of their empires. For many centuries the Aztec civilization revolved around an ideological, social, and political system in which expansion was the cornerstone. Expansion was the cornerstone of their whole civilization because their religion requested that a large number of human sacrifices were to be made to the gods. To get these sacrifices the Aztec went to war with other tribes in Mexico. The people that they captured became sacrifices to the gods. With each conquest more sacrifices and more land was added to the Aztec kingdom. The Aztecs had a strong civilization that was familiar with organized, large scale war, had specialized war chiefs, and a well organized system of territorial levy in which large armies could be brought together in a short period of time. Although, they may have been well prepared or organized for a war, but they were not prepared for internal changes in their civilization. When expansion was no longer an option, their system crumbled. Without expansion they could no longer give the human sacrifices in the same amount in which they used to. Upon the arrival of the Spanish the Aztec government was falling apart, and Montezuma II (ruler of the Aztecs) programs of internal military consolidation and administrative and social stabilization had failed. . The Spanish used the Aztecs own legends to take advantage of them and gain the upper hand. Montezuma believed that Hernando Cortes, leader of the Spanish army, was the God Quetzalcoatl. An Aztec legend said that Quetzalcoatl was driven away by another rival g...