More handpicked essays just for you.
Similarities and differences between the maya aztec and inca
Similarities and differences between the maya aztec and inca
What are similarities between maya and aztec
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Looking into the Past of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas.
In the following paragraphs, I will be explaining the achievements, the technology, and the way of life of the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs. The Incan empire was the largest empire in all of pre-columbian America, and was possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century. The Valley of Mexico was the heart of the Aztec civilization. The Aztec Empire of 1519 was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. The Mayan empire mostly contained a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. These empires spoke the same language, followed a monotheistic religion, and developed large cities. “The Spanish conquest of the Aztec, Incan, and
…show more content…
Mayan civilizations proved detrimental to these New World empires.” (Hurley, 2014) “The Mayans flourished between 900 BC - 250 AD.” They were from parts of southern Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. An important role in the Mayans society was various symbols and methods they used to worship the gods. The rulers of the Mayans were believed to be descendents of the gods. The ideal sacrifice of blood was either through personal bloodshed or the sacrifice of royal blood. They developed a hieroglyphic writing system and had an immense technology. The Mayans invented highly accurate calendar that was carved in stone and they used symbols on the calendars. They had great architectural abilities, and built great temples and pyramids, which are still standing today. (Maya Inca Aztec) Mayans lived in a peaceful society.
They believed in order to get stronger one must be at peace, and they did not believe engage in war, that war was only used as a last resort. Priests played a very important role in the Mayan life. They believed that priests held special powers and they were the ones that could perform human sacrifices to the gods and practiced science and astronomy. The Mayans were good at mathematics and used general knowledge about science and astronomy in their everyday philosophy towards life. The Mayan spoken language was the classical Nauhuatl. The Mayans vanished around the 8th or 9th century. Many people have said that the Mayan empire “disappeared” people are still looking into why the Mayan civilization …show more content…
collapsed. The Incas lived in the mountains stretching down the west coast of South America. “The rise of the Incas was about 1000 AD and was made up of small tribes where they began building the city of Cuzco.” The city was named by the first chief named Manco Capac. “Manco Capac built the first sun temple, Intihuasi, so that the Incas could worship their primary god.” “The word Inca means “lord” and it was the title of the rulers of the empire.” “The Inca may have believed that a dead person’s spirit continued to live in an afterlife.” (Maya Inca Aztec) (Chrisp, 4) (Martin, 15) The Incas had no written language because everything was passed down verbally.
The oral language of the Incas was Quechua. The Incas believed their god was the sun. They believed this because their god helped grow the crops. The Incas established an extensive Andean empire in South America shortly before the conquest of the new world by the Europeans. The main form of medication used by the Incas was the coca leaf. The Incas used the coca leaf for a variety of magical ceremonies and initiation rites. “Clothing was highly valued in Inca society. Textile artists were highly respected. The type of clothing showed social rank. Rulers wore the finest clothing.” (Maya Inca Aztec) (Martin,
16) The Aztecs, also known as the Culhua Mexica, dominated central and southern Mexico from the 14th to the 16th centuries. “The Aztec capital was built on an island.” The central temples and markets were built on the lakeshore and they made canals to connect them to the rest of the city and suburbs. Many of the Spanish said that the Aztecs were “floating on water.” They are best known for having established an empire based on conquest, tribute paying and the religious sacrifice of humans and animals. The god of the Aztecs was Huitzilopochtli. “It was only regular human sacrifice to Huitzilopochtli that allowed the world to continue. The hearts of the victims were necessary to sustain their god, to ensure that the sun will rise each morning.” Religion was essential to the Aztecs’ understanding of their empire. The Aztecs oral language was Nahuatl. “The Aztec written language was a mixture of pictographs, ideograms, and phonetic writings. They enjoyed music, dancing, and poetry.” They were the only civilization that had schools for the children. The Aztecs frequently used war to get their items and they would make conquered empires tribute things to them. They were a tribe of hunters and gatherers. The Aztecs had a remarkable agricultural system, intensive cultivation of land, elaborate systems of irrigation and reclamation of swamp land. (Maya Inca Aztec) (Noble, 374) I found that the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations to be a very informative and interesting topic. The most interesting thing for me is how all the different civilizations all made things with what was found in nature. A lot of these things can still be found in today’s society and scientists are making new discoveries every day. Their way of life was more unique and astounding than in the centuries that followed. Many of the things that these civilizations did may still affect parts of South America today. With the vast amounts of history with the temples and pyramids still standing, and artifacts and mummies that are still being found by archaeologists.
The Aztec Empire was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. They dominated the valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Aztecs were an advanced and successful civilization that built beautiful, sophisticated cities, temples, and pyramids. They also created a culture full of creativity with mythological and religious traditions. Aztecs lead a structured and evocative life that let their society to become a very superior civilization. The Aztec’s communication skills were very well developed for their time; through religious beliefs, government involvement, and family life they lived a full and productive life. Until in 1519 when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, and defeated the Aztecs.
The Aztecs and Incas served an important role in the primal Native American civilizations. They were similar and different with the treatment of women, the economy, and intellectual achievements. Economically, both civilizations used trade, tribute, and agriculture to build their economy. However, the Aztecs had a more mixed economy, used trade more frequently than the Incas, and had a merchant class whereas the Incan civilization had more governmental control. Intellectually, both civilizations achieved in fields such as architecture, and art; however, the Incan empire had a wider range of achievements, disregarding their lack of writing. Throughout both civilizations, women had a tough life and were underappreciated but comparing the two, Incan women had it better off due to parallel descent.
The Mayans lived in Southern Mexico and Central America in their capital, Tikal, which is in present day Guatemala. The Mayans were known for their engineering, one structure they were famous for is their pyramid temple in Tikal (Document 1). This pyramid was the tallest structure in the Americas up until the 20th century and is still standing today. The government must have been strong and well organized in order to carry out such a large task. The Mayan religion had multiple gods and this pyramid was most likely devoted to one or used as a place for sacrifices. Another accomplishment of the Mayans was the creation of their calendar. An extra document that would be useful is one that explains how the calendar was created. The Mayans must have studied astronomy and math to a great length. Similar to the Ancient Egyptians, they wrote with symbols and pictures known as glyphs that were used in the calendar. These glyphs were gods, such as Zotz (Document 2). The use of glyphs is an acknowledgement of a writing system, which is another accomplishment.
The Aztecs and Incas were the two dominant new world societies which greeted and eventually succumbed to the Spanish conquistadors in the early 16th century. Since then, they have occupied some of the most curious comers of the western imagination. Purveyors of scholarly and popular culture render them in various disparate ways: as victims of European colonialism, incompetent militarists, heroic forbears, barbarians, or authentic practitioners of native utopias and cults. The Aztecs and Incas were two Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations that roamed the land of Latin America throughout 14th and 15th century. Aztec empire ruled much of what is now Mexico from 1428 till 1521, when the empire was conquered by Spaniards. Aztecs controlled a region stretching from the Valley of Mexico in central Mexico east to the Gulf of Mexico and south to Guatemala. Aztecs were great engineers and developed a multifarious social political and religious system with Tenochtitlan as their capital city. Inca Empire stretched it boundaries from Colombia to Chile and reached west to east from the Atacama to Amazonian rain forest. Incas lack the concepts of written language however they had an incredible system of roads. Casco as their capital Inca Empire only lasted a century before it was conquered by Spaniards in early 16th century. The two Mesoamerican civilizations burgeoned independently of each other with no cultural or religious swap. Aztecs and Incan societies were predominantly agricultural. Religions of both societies were shamanistic which were heavily influenced by preceding cultures. These complex polytheistic religions regardless of their chronological exclusivity have significant features in common.
The Inca Empire Janos Gyarmati’s Paria la Viexa and an expanding empire: Provincial centers in the political economy of the Inca Empire proved that the Inca’s built an empire unlike any other. From 1440 to 1532 A.D., the Inca Empire dominated the Americas. Known as “the fastest growing and largest territorial empire”(Gyarmati 37) of its time, the Inca Empire left a mark with their complex, perpetual and innovative economic, road, and settlement system. The Inca’s were advanced for their time, however, they lacked a system that would guarantee the survival of their kin. In order to strive, for the long-term, the Inca’s created provincial centers that would ensure their growth and economy for the generations to come.
Two of the biggest and greatest civilization in the Americas were the Aztecs and Incas. These two civilization were both said to be conquered by the Spanish, but it wasn’t just the Spanish who conquered them. These two civilizations both fell from a combination of a weak government, lack of technology, new disease introduced by the invaders, and not being prepared for the invaders. For many centuries the Aztec civilization revolved around a 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 where to be made to the gods.
In the fertile valleys or high plateaus the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs built communities and villages practicing sedentary lifestyles. They had for the most part “permanent, intensive agriculture.” (Lane and Restall 2012) This allowed them to produce complex foods that benefitted the villages because it made them possible but it also resulted in social stratification. “Agricultural activities of the majority allowed a minority to live and work as artisans, merchants, warriors, nobles and royalty – permitting the development of writing, metallurgy, bureaucracy, and other features of high civilization.” More specifically, the Mayans were able to create the most complete of the three Mesoamerican writing systems, “one that was still used in the early sixteenth century.” (Lane and Restall 2012) They were also able to expand, but their expansion would also be their demise. Because they were so large -- filled with regional kingdoms and empires -- the Spanish were easily able to conquer
The Maya and Aztec civilizations were both indigenous people that flourished in Mesoamerica during different periods of time. Maya 's classic period is dated from 250 to 900 AD, which was considered to be the peak of their civilization. They covered much of the Yucatan Peninsula and were centered in what is now known as Guatemala. The Aztecs dominated from 1325 AD to 1521 AD, in what is now modern day Mexico. Although they shared cultural similarities such as their social structure, they also had their differences in military and religious rituals.
The Maya were an advanced society, rich and full extraordinary architecture with great complexity of patterns and variety of expressions, that flourished in Mesoamerica long before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. They were skilled architects, building prodigious cities of primarily of limestone that remain a thousand years after their civilization fell into decline. Greatness and Grandeur was the signature of all Mayan cities, from the terminal pre-classic period and continued until the abandonment of all the city states by the beginning of the ninth century. The Maya built pyramids, temples, palaces, walls, residences and more. The limestone structures, faced with lime stucco, were the hallmark of ancient Maya architecture.
There are many legends that are told about how the Incan Empire came to be. One is that the Incans lived without houses until the Son of the Sun appeared. The Son taught agriculture and masonry. The people became so successful that they had enough food for everyone in the entire empire. Ten million people went without hunger and all had clothing. The second myth is that Manco Capac, First Inca King, and his seven siblings came from the caves of Pacariqtambo. These first Incans were created by the sun god Inti. Their mission was to bring civilization to the world. The final legend is that the god, Viracocha, created man out of clay and stone at Tiwanaku. Viracocha then led the people that he created to Cuzco. Viracocha left the humans to reign from the heaves. Viracocha gave deities to control the lives of humans. The dispute still continues on whether Viracocha, or Inti is the supreme god of the Incans.
The Mayans were a great powerful group of people that followed what they believed in, build big beautiful temples. The Maya build a big temple inside the big jungle of southern Mexico. The temple is so big that you can see it from high in the sky. You can still see the temple today, but the temple lays in ruins because of the thick jungle that have grown over it. At that temple, they sacrificed people for the gods. If the Mayans had died out because of all the desices the Spanish brought we could have learned more about them.
... a place to develop art and writings. It gave them a reason to write down their history. They are a unique an interesting culture. The Mayans were a highly developed society for their time.
The Mayan civilization was located in southeastern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. One of the first American civilizations, it lasted from about 1000 B.C.-1542 A.D. Their civilization flourished during the Sixth Century. They built many temples and over forty cities. The Mayan population consisted of almost fifteen million people who were all living in one of the many cities. The Mayan people were extremely religious and believed in multiple gods which meant they were polytheistic. Their most commonly worshiped god was the Maize God, or god of corn, as corn was the most grown and most relied on crop. The Mayans grew all of their own food so they needed to have useful farming methods. The one they used most often was the slash and burn method, which involved cutting down trees and burning them to make the soil fertil which was necessary to grow crops. This method worked for many years, but soon started to backfire. The Mayans were ahead of their time, but that did not prevent their mysterious decline which occurred between the years 800 A.D.-900 A.D. Although it is not known exactly why the powerful empire fell, but there are various probable theories. The mysterious decline of the Mayans may have been caused by
Pizzaro just watched them die the Spanish did the real work, and all of this stuff happened in 1572. The Inca Empire officially fell when Francisco and the Spanish took over. The Inca achievements are a lot of things we have today. The accomplishments were making flutes, drums, callenders, pottery, and cloth. The Incas callender was popular but not as popular as the Mayans.
Maya civilization was based mainly on agriculture and religion. Maya every day life revolved around an innumerable number of earth Gods. The most important God was chief, ruler of all Gods. The Mayans prayed to these God’s particularly about their crops. For example, they prayed to the Rain God to nourish their crops. They practiced their religion during ceremonies conducted by priests. They also practiced confession and even fasted before important ceremonies (Gann and Thompson 1931 118-138). The Mayans also b...