Compare And Contrast Inca And Aztecs

The Mayas, Incas, and the Aztecs are important in history and are still learned today because they invented many things and had a very unique way of living. Each of these empires were located in different countries, the Mayans were in Guatemala, the Aztecs were in Mexico, and the Incas were in Peru. The Mayan empire lasted from 2,000 BC to 1697 AD, the Incan empire lasted from 1438 AD to 1532, the Aztecs lasted from 1345 AD to 1521. The Aztec, Incas, and Mayas were overall very similar civilizations with very few differences.

All three of the civilizations built pyramids, did human sacrifice rituals, and used hieroglyphics as a way of writing. It’s also very interesting that once the Mayans created the 365 day calendar the Aztecs followed many

One of the differences was that the Mayans were the best civilization out of the other two with a population of 60 million people and lasted the longest, over 3,000 years in existence and started around 2600 B.C. they were conquered by the spanish but came back and eventually slowly died out. (Griffin, pa.2). The Aztecs were the youngest civilization with a population of 20 million citizens and fell in 1521. Aztec society was very complex (meaning that their way of life had many different parts) and stratified (meaning organized and arranged a certain way). The Incas was the largest civilization and it arose during the 13th century, with a population of 16 million people. The Incas called their empire Tahuantinsuyu or land of four quarters and their empire was held together only by promises and threats, but they fell faster than the Mayans and the Aztecs because, the Incan people got into a civil war to try and figure out who should take the throne, it was a very stupid war so as a result the spanish came and invaded them very easily because, the Incans were not prepared. As a result the Inca empire only lasted less than 300 years, fell in 1533. (Griffin pa.4) (Incan Culture 11c) Another different between these three civilizations is that each empire had a different system where all the people were divided on a social

The Aztecs had four social classes. Their first class was the nobility, these people had all the political jobs. The next social class was the commoners which 90% of the Aztec people were. the commoners could never become upper class like the nobles but they could earn privileges by success on the battlefield. The highest class was the king, and all lower ranks were required to basically pay him and give him gifts as a way to say “thank you” for ruling the empire. The next class just below the king were the lords also known as “Tecuhtli” who took care of military roles and also political roles. At the very bottom of the social scale were the slaves, known as “Tlacotin”, their only job was to listen to their owners and do jobs for them when needed to. (Smith,3). The Incas social scale was a little less complicated than the Mayans and the Aztecs social scales. The Incas scale was dependent on how the land was divided, in this case the land was divided in three parts, one third was the people that worked for the emperor, one third was for the gods and the last one third the people of the Incan empire kept for themselves. (Incan Culture U.S