Similarities And Differences Of The Aztec And The Roman Empire

There are many civilizations built on rivers. These civilizations experience many advantages, and disadvantages because they live along rivers. Rivers give the natural resource of water. Throughout history many great countries thrived on rivers, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, to name a few. Water from a river can be useful and therefore some civilizations thrived on their rivers, and for other communities the river was their doom.

The Aztec Empire has the history of a fast-growing empire destined to dominate Mesoamerica’s empires. Although their exact origins are unclear, experts believe the Aztecs evolved from a tribe of nomadic hunters (History 1). They conquered nearly all of Mesoamerica, creating an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and south to present day Guatemala (Mcdowell 726).

In Greece, the geography affected early settlements in positive ways. An example is Mount Olympus, since it was so high up and covered by clouds, Greeks believed Gods lived there. Document 2 states, ”According to the ancient Greeks, their gods controlled every part of daily life--the weather, crops, money, love, and business, phases of the moon, earthquakes, and even whether a loaf of bread burned in the oven.” This proves that ancient Greeks not being able to see the top of the mountain, made them believe the gods were up there, and it gave them an explanation to everything. Another one is, how hot and dry climates were great for growing olive trees. In document 4 it states, ”Olive oil was as good as money to the ancient Greeks, since they could trade it for other land not available

of the Aztec and Inca Empires created two great cultures that are still present in the world

Geography had a tremendous impact on early civilizations, the topography of the different regions played a key role in their development and formation. This statement by Fernand Braudel “ Geography is the stage in which humanity’s endless dramas are played out” (Getz et al., Exchanges, 26) is a very moving and telling description. The terrain, whether it is natural or man made is not the end all, be all. It does however affect the stage a great deal. Mountainous areas act as blockades, which keep the societies independent, plains open up the area, and rivers enable everything to move around freely. 2

As you can see the Aksum empire was the best and biggest trading empire because of where they were and the geography around them. Ancient Egypt was a smart empire and learn the way the geography around them worked and what it did, so they can plan around it and be successful. Lastly, Ancient Greece was affected and they weren’t able to move and be able to life with a very successful empire where they were. This shows that geography was a huge part of the way the people in the empires lived and if they were successful or

Another important factor is the rivers allowed civilizations to have more trade routes, and get to places inland faster, as well as the sea. The societies could trade their resources for ones they didn’t have, which allowed their technology to grow and their populations to expand. Trade “brought in new goods and immigrants” which allowed for an increase of resources and technology. Many of the River Valley Civilizations traded with each other sharing their technology.

I will start by addressing the primary similarities, which are that each Empire was responsible for innovating and creating things in the following areas of: mathematics, architecture, and philosophy. In contrast, the differences that existed were due to each Empire creating advancements and developments as a need from their respective demography, which means their environment and surroundings dictated the areas they excelled and innovated the most in.

The Aztec society was organized into tightly structured groups or classes. There were three main classes that formed Aztec society. The nobles, the intermediate class, and the commoners. Each class was divided further. At the top was the emperor who belonged to the noble class. His power came from control of the military and was supported by Aztec religious beliefs. He had a very nice and luxurious life. The nobles were the smallest class, but had the most power. They owned large estates and ran the government and the military. Priests were also from the noble class. Merchants and skilled artisans

During the years of 3500 BC to 2500 BC, the geography of a land often impacted a civilizations development in great measures. Depending on the resources available or the detriments present due to certain topographical characteristics like rivers or deserts, a civilization could flourish or collapse. By studying the geographic features of growing societies like the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris Rivers as well as the Mediterranean Sea of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the link between developing cultures and geography will be examined through sources, including Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land edited by Jaromir Malek and Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek. To determine the extent

For example the Northerners were mainly known as fisherman and ship builders so they did not need all of the land that the southerners did. The inability to grow crops meant that there was no need for slaves in the North, which would later have a huge impact on the Civil War. This proves that geography really was the primary factor in the shaping of early America. The geography also affected the New Englanders because they were not used to growing crops with such bad soil, Squanto the leader of one of the Indian tribes saw this and helped them learn how to grow crops. When the Northerners learned how to grow the crops themselves they no longer needed Squanto and the Indians and they did not want to share the land with them, especially the land near the water. This unwillingness to share the land led to many wars between the Indians and Northerners, and this shows that geography can affect a society and their relationships with other people. In the South there was automatic distrust between the Native Americans and the Southerners. This was because before using African slaves the Southerners forced the Native Americans to work on their plantations. The mistreatment of the Native Americans led to many rebellions and wars between the two. The Middle Colonies did not have a lot of problems with the Indians like the other groups of colonies did, at times they even traded with one another. The Middle Colonies had fertile land and were able to trade making it a destination spot for people. The population began to grow and it was a lot more diverse than the other colonies. The geography also affected the social hierarchy in each colony with the addition of slaves. So as you can see the different geographies in the different colonies had a huge effect on their social

The Aztecs were influenced by the Toltecs, their self-proclaimed ancestors, who were “a warlike people, no doubt conquering surrounding tribes and imposing tribute without any concern for integration into the Toltec political and religious culture”5. To justify their conquests, Itzcoatl, the third Aztec ruler, devised a new vision of the Aztec as the “chosen people” who were the “true heirs” to the Toltec. The Aztec rewrote history to link the Aztec to the Toltec and to show that the Aztec were the heirs, the direct descendents, of the Toltec nobility”7. The Aztecs were a war faring people who engaged in such to acquire territory, resources, quash rebellions, and to collect sacrificial victims to honour their gods. Warfare was a fundamental to the Aztec culture10; warriors were trained from youth, in special military compounds where children learnt to master weapons and tactics and were regaled

Secondly, the Aztecs were a sophisticated civilization because of their complex religion and religious rituals. The Aztecs treated warriors as a royal member, leading up to the sacrifice (doc H). This made them advanced because they organized the sacrifice and elevated warriors’ status to that of a living

Both powerful in their own right, the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty had numerous contributions that are still valuable and influential in our today. The Roman Empire impacted

There is a saying that “Geography is destiny”. For early civilizations, geography was an obstacle when it came to survival. As people settled in permanent locations, they relied on the local geographical features to sustain themselves. As people relied on geography, it helped shape the development of early civilizations, such as to provide many natural barriers, trade routes, and fertile land. China, for example, was able to develop and prosper due to its natural barriers.