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Aztec, Mayan And Inca Empires

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There were many American Indian tribes living in the Americas before Europeans “discovered” the continents; some of these tribes had very distinguishing cultures unique to their tribe. A few of these cultures are those of the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca empires and of the Pueblo people of the Southwest. These cultures are very unique and recognizable by their way of life. The Aztec, Mayan, and Inca empires and the Pueblo peoples; with their geographic location and architecture, their religion and governments, and their notable innovations became some of the most recognizable American Indian tribes to date. The Aztec, Mayan and Inca empires lived in North, Central, and South America in modern day Mexico, Central America, and Peru. The Pueblo people …show more content…

The king or emperor had the most power, but because the societies held their polytheistic views so high, the priest often had a very high amount of power too. The Aztecs also believed that human blood had to be sacrificed in order for the sun to rise each day; the usual sacrifices were prisoners of war. The Aztec and Mayan kingdoms were divided into city-states that each had their own independent government, but the in the middle of each Aztec city-state there was a large city that was the most powerful and demanded tribute from the smaller cities. The Inca had one emperor who ruled all of the land. Each “pueblo” or village was its own community but they all shared similar langue and customs. The Pueblo peoples would choose representatives for the council that lead them, sometimes they even alternated between a summer and winter chief, but the most important things like war, agriculture, hunting and religion were handled by priests. The priests were very powerful in the Pueblo people’s communities and made most of the decisions. The Pueblo peoples worshiped hundreds of divine creatures that they believed spoke to their god on behalf of humans. So both had their priests and another type of leader at the top of the government, but the Pueblos gave their priest much more power than the …show more content…

The Aztecs also had their calendars; they had two: one for religious events and one to track time. Every 52 years the calendars would start on the exact same day. The Aztecs were afraid the world would end on those days. The Mayans also had writing in hieroglyphics. They also had written numbers. The Mayan is perhaps their most famous technological advance; which many believed predicted the end of the world to happen on December 21, 2012. The Incas had no written langue, and didn't have many technologies like the other two but they still were very efficient farmers with water storage techniques to grow crops all sorts of terrains, build intricate stone buildings without iron tools, and they had their own calendars as well. The Pueblo people’s technology was based in their “pueblos”. Their pueblos were often carved into the sides of cliffs and were optimized to keep the people safe from attacking tribes. Sometimes the pueblos didn’t touch the ground and had retractable ladders that came out of the top with no other doors or windows. They also built many roads connecting roadways, the longest and most famous called “The

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