Comparing The Aztecs And Incas

The distinct advantage over the Conquest of the Americas

The Aztecs and Incas were complex and advanced societies that had themselves already conquered large parts of the Americas. In encounters between them, the Spanish had a distinct advantage over the Aztecs and Incas as they were no match for the weapons and diseases the Spanish brought with them from Europe.

The Aztec (also known as Tenochca) civilisation was a complex and successful society from the Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado areas in America. Altogether, the Aztec civilisation had around 15 million people, spread across nearly 500 communities and many beautiful and sophisticated cities. 300,000 of these lived in the capital, Tenochtitlan. While the Aztecs were migrating

They created artificial islands in the middle of Lake Texcoco to provide land for farming, and built bridges in between islands. Aztec people were culturally developed in the arts, crafts, music and also had an advanced understanding of agricultural science. Music played a very important role in most of the Aztec religious rituals, worshiping their many gods. Rituals such as these were to prevent punishment from the gods and improve the agriculture and many other aspects of the Aztec civilisation. Typical Aztec crops included maize, beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes and avocados.

The Inca civilisation was also much like the Aztecs. Incan society was based in Peru from 1400 to 1533 CE. concrete archaeological evidence has revealed that the first settlements in the Cuzco Valley actually date to 4500 BCE, when hunter-gatherer communities occupied the area (Mark Cartwright-15 September 2014). Regions began to unify towards the 14th century. The civilisation spread very quickly from that point and eventually covered most of Western South America, from Quito to Santiago. It was the largest empire

Spanish horsemen primarily used two different weapons, a lance and sword. The lances were essentially a long wooden spear with an iron or steel tips on each end. Lances were one of the more devastating weapons used against the natives and could easily clear out large masses of Aztecs and Incas. In close combat, a horseman would use their sword. Spanish swords were three feet long with steel blades that were sharp on both sides of the rather narrow blade. Footsoldiers used a large amount of different weapons. Most people incorrectly believe that it was firearms that caused the most trouble to the natives from a weapons perspective. However, most of the readily available firearms had a very slow reload and were more often used to startle the Aztecs and Incas, who believed the spanish were creating thunder. The harquebus was an early make of musket. They were highly effective against a single target, though were extremely slow to reload, requiring a wick that had to stay lit. The crossbow was a European weapon designed to pierce the armor of a knight. They were too bulky and slow and malfunctioned too easily to be used against the quick, low armored natives. Still some soldiers used