The Incas

They believed in good and evil things and saw omens in many things such as rainbows, falling stars, and the hoot of an owl.

The Inca Empire, the massive nation that extended 2,500 miles along the western coast of South America and had a population of over 7 million at its peak. It included all of what is now Ecuador and Peru and most of Chile. Known as “The Children of the Sun”, they excelled at craftsmanship, weaving, and culture (“Children of the Sun”). A very religious people, they worshiped the Sun as their supreme god and held religious festivals monthly to appease these gods. Although they did not value it aside from its beautiful appearance, the Inca Empire was home to millions of pounds of solid gold and silver. The Inca had no use for it except to use it to craft decorations and statues. In fact, an Inca citizen valued cloth more than they valued gold

The Incan society believed in ranks, topmost, including the royal family, the descendant kin of past rulers, the non-royal ethnic Incas, and the Incas by Privilege. Despite the elites prominence, peasant families who lived in towns and villages: farmers, herders, fishers and artisans, made up about 95-98 percent of the population. The Incas called their empire Tawatinsuyu, the “Land of the Four corners”, and its official language was Quechua”. By the time of the Spanish conquest, much of the Inca Empire was made up of numerous non-Inca groups.

Inca Empire, which contributed languages, as well as promoted irrigated farms, and buildings and roads composed of stones

The Incan Empire was the largest indigenous empire in the world before the conquest of South America by the Spaniards. "At its height, the Inca Empire controlled all of the western part of the South American continent between Ecuador and Chile. The Inca capital was at Cusco, Peru, and the Inca legends claimed they were descended from the great Tiwanaku civilization at Lake Titicaca" (Hirst 2012). The Incan rulers, at their Empire's height, were able to exercise control over such a massive territory in part because of their extensive system of roads. Incan roads spanned all over the empire, enabling a great deal of centralized control by the leadership hierarchy despite the territorial sprawl (Hirst 2012). "The Inca state's domain was unprecedented, its rule resulting in a universal language a form of Quechua, a religion worshipping the sun, and a 14,000 mile-long road system crisscrossing high Andean mountain passes and linking the rulers with the ruled" (Clark 2012). The roads were constructed so they could be traversed in all weathers.

The Aztec and Inca Empires The Aztec empire was established in the 14th century in the present-day location of Mexico City. Previous civilizations had already occupied the region which allowed the Aztecs to form a foundation off of their accomplishments. The Aztecs built the capital of Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco. This would benefit them in the future.

They lived 200 years and in the early 1000th century. The Inca leader was Sapa Inca. The Inca government was called the Tawantinsuyu. It was a monarchy ruled by a single leader called the Sapa Inca. Atahuallpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, dies by strangulation at the hands of Francisco Pizarro's Spanish conquistadors. When Francisco Pizarro's Spanish conquistadors came, the execution of Atahuallpa, the last free reigning emperor, marked the end of 300 years of Inca civilization. As you can tell, these similarities and differences are not all the

The origin of the Aztecs remains uncertain to this day. Most people believe that the Aztecs originated a northern hunter-gatherer tribe. The Aztecs also took on the names Tenochca or Mexica. Their arrival happened close to the end of the fall of the civilization called Toltec’s. In fact, The Aztecs might have helped start the fall of the Toltec’s.

When the Spaniards arrived at the New World, they were just a small group on a new frontier. Their minds were set on a goal to conquer and become wealthy. Their only obstacle was the Aztecs and Incas. Despite the factor or numbers being a disadvantage, other factors allowed them to win a seemingly impossible battle. The first factor is when a man named Hernán Cortés established communication with the nearby communities. The Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma, believed Cortés to be the god Quetzalcoatl which was supposed to return to them after being driven away. This enabled the Spaniards to have the element of surprise when they attacked. Before they attacked, Cortés was smart to forge an alliance with enemies of the Aztecs to aid the Spaniard assault.

The title "Inca Empire" was given by the Spanish to a Quechuan-speaking Native American population that established a vast empire in the Andes Mountains of South America shortly before its conquest by Europeans. The ancestral roots of this empire began in the Cuzco valley of highland Peru around 1100 AD. The empire was relatively small until the imperialistic rule of emperor Pachacuti around 1438. Pachacuti began a systematic conquest of the surrounding cultures, eventually engulfing over a hundred different Indian nations within a 30-year period. This conquest gave rise to an empire that, at its zenith in the early 16th century; consisted of an estimated 10 million subjects living

To understand the capabilities of the Inca to overcome natural disasters they had learn from their ancestors and civilizations that came before them. The earlier civilizations fought with the climate and the ability to prosper in the coastal and mountain areas until they were able to find a way to prosper through agriculture and through high altitude levels, droughts, earthquakes and other disasters. The Inca Empire were able to adapt to climate changes, build an empire, and communicate with its empire that stretched from parts in Chile to the Northern equator. Their ability to overcome challenges that they encountered and work with the environment to benefit them was extraordinary. The most notable civilization that came before the Inca and is rumored that the people from that civilization went to Cusco after their band disappeared, where the Tiwanaku.

The Incas Religion was a polytheistic, which means they didn’t believe in just one god they believed in many gods. They believed that there was a god for every part of the earth like the moon, sun, wind, lighting, rain and most of the other elements. Even though the Incas believed in many gods they still believed that there creator was Viracocha who was worshipped a lot before the Incan times by the Peru. At that time is what thought that Viracocha created all the living creatures and even though that Viracocha created the Earth because of this the Incas Believe system is based on Viracocha.

Although the Incas were strange they were very intelligent in terms of the government, as well as military and building their own society. This made them successful in their culture because they all would work together as a team . This teamwork caused their society to set up an empire system spanning 300 years. Pachacuti was the man who set up the first Inca central government there military was very organized although it was a very large the army grew to about 200,000

At the time, it was the largest empire on earth, with an estimated population of 6,000,000. The Inca were not intimidated by the region’s harsh weather or topography. They steadfastly grew the empire and coaxed incredible feats from their subjects.

Most Empires have lasted more than a 100 years. The Roman Empire for example, lasted for 1500 years, however, this was not the case for the Inca Empire. The Incas started in a small area in Peru and prospered to become one of the most influential agrarian civilizations (Mahiout, Khan, Karim - Inca Empire). However, the Inca Empire was pushed to its fall by external forces such as disease brought by outsiders like the Spanish conquistadors. Disease weakened the Empire and the conquistadors took advantage of the already crumbling Inca Empire and fully destroyed it.