The+Americas


 * ESPIRIT Chart on AZTECS:**

SumSummary: The civilization that followed the collapse of Teotihuacan and the abandonment of the classic Maya cities in the 8th century C.E. were the Aztecs. They built on the achievement of their predecessor but rarely improve on them except in political and military organization. The Aztecs rose from humble in the 15th century. They created an extensive empire organized for war, motivated by religious passion, and resting on a firm base. Aztec society became more hierarchical as the empire grew and social classes with different functions developed. Their society faced technological problems that made it complex to keep the huge population of central Mexico.
 * E || **Economic:**
 * Fall of Toltec Empire = Aztec rise to power
 * Aztec built ingenious system of irrigated agriculture by building chinampas for agriculture (beds of aquatic weeds, mud, and earth.
 * Yield from chinampa agriculture was high: four corn crops a year were possible
 * Communities had periodic markets (variety of goods were exchanged) ||
 * S || **Social:**
 * Group of 10,000 who migrated to the shores of Lake Texcoco (central valley of Mexico)
 * Central valley had Chichimec and Farmers
 * Reputation as tough warriors
 * Warrior nobles took lands and tribute from conquered towns
 * Extended from the Tarasca frontier to the Maya area
 * People were force to pay tribute, surrender lands + military service
 * People that surrendered paid less
 * Tribute payments; food; slave, sacrificial victims = served political and economic ends
 * 120,000 mantles of cotton were collected as tribute each year and sent to Tenochtitlan
 * Divided into calpulli (clans) form of organization that later expanded and adapted to their imperial position\
 * Calpulli = residential groupings, neighbors, allies and dependants
 * Calpulli governed by councils of family heads but not all families were equal
 * Every person, noble/commoner belonged to a calpulli
 * Later overshadowed by the military and administrative nobility of the state
 * Nobles controlled priesthood + military leadership
 * Banners, cloaks and other insignia marked off the military ranks
 * The imperial family = most distinguished of the pipiltin families
 * Had people like serf that served as laborers on lands ( war captives, criminals/people sold themselves into bondage o escape hunger)
 * Another group were the scribes, artisans, and healers which were important to big cities
 * Population was 1.5 million to more than 25 million (historical demographers estimate reached over 20 million) ||
 * P || **Political:**
 * Aztec rise to power and formatted a imperial state (rapidly)
 * Aztec tribe = used political anarchy to invade the area of agricultural peoples
 * Lake dominated by tribes or people organized into city-states
 * State marriages and political maneuvers; competing powers and shifting alliances
 * Served as mercenaries -> to allies
 * Rule by a king who represented civil power and preventative of the gods on earth
 * The Great Speaker, the ruler of Tenochtitlan was chosen from the nobility
 * The prime minister was close relative of the ruler
 * Governing council were rulers in other cities
 * Most power was in the hands of the Aztec ruler and his chief advisor ||
 * I || **Interactions:**
 * Based on military power and their connection to Toltec culture
 * Cacao beans and gold dust used as currency (trade was done as barter
 * Tlatelolco (great market) controlled by the special merchant class (porchteca)
 * Long-distance trade in luxury items (plumes of tropical birds and cacao)
 * merchants served also as spies or agents for the Aztec military ||
 * R || **Religion:**
 * Fanatical followed of theirs gods -> offered human sacrifice
 * Human sacrifice expanded into an enormous cult
 * The gods of rain, fire, water, corn, the sky, and the sun -> pasted onto the Aztecs
 * 128 major deities
 * Some gods were thought to be the patrons of specific cities/groups/occupations
 * Gave gods a yearly festivals and ceremonies (feasting + dancing)
 * Three major themes or cults Tlaloc, Huitzilopochtli and Nexhualcoyotl
 * Tlaloc; god of rain and the gods/goddesses of water, maize, and fertility
 * Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec tribal patron became the central figure of the cult
 * Nexhualcoyotl; the king of Texcoco, wrote hymns that supported all the gods.
 * Brought polytheism and monotheism ||
 * I || **Cultural & Intellectual:**
 * Rewrote history to suit their purposes
 * spoke Nahuatl (language of Toltecs)
 * Aztecs art and poetry are filled with images of flowers, birds, and songs (religious art)
 * human hearts and blood (the precious water needed to sustain the gods)
 * peasant women helped in the field but household was first (cooking and child rearing)
 * marriages were arranged
 * Polygamy excisted but peasant were monogamous ||
 * T || **Technology and demographic changes**:
 * Lake of Texcoco provided a rich aquatic environment
 * Lakes became cultural heartland and population center of Mexico
 * Technology limited social development
 * Grinding corn by hand on stone boards took long ||


 * ESPIRIT Chart on INCAS:**

Summary: The Inca Empire also knows as the Twantinsuyu was highly centralized system that integrated different ethnic groups into an imperial state. After 1300 C.E. in the Andean cultural hearth the new civilization emerged and eventually spread its control over the whole region. Irrigated agriculture supposed a state religion and a royal ancestor cult. With the achievements in architecture and metallurgy the Incans got many elements of the civilization that helped them. That and other things is what made the Incas like he Aztecs.
 * E || **Economic:**
 * Each community depended on the state for goods at self sufficiency
 * State provided roads, irrigation prjects + hard to get goods. ||
 * S || **Social:**
 * Coastal kingdom of Chimor (centered on its capital of Chan-Chan) emerged as the most powerful and was conquest by the Incas in 1465
 * Pachacuti (Ruler/Inca) launched military alliances + campaigns = brought control Cuzco -> Lake Titicaca
 * Inca Empira = Twantinsuyu
 * Sons of conquered chieftains taken to Cuzco for education
 * Conquered people were enlisted in the Inca armies + rewarded with goods from new conquests
 * Some nobles held private estates
 * Incas divided conquered areas into lands for the people and lands for the state and lands for the sun
 * Mica = communities were expected to take turns working on the state/church lands + building projects/ mining
 * Inca provided wool but household produce cloth
 * Women were taken as concubines for the Inca
 * Women were selected as servant at the temples (Virgins of the Sun)
 * Majority of men were peasant/herders
 * Roles + obligations were gender specific + theoretically equal/interdependent
 * Women passed rights/property to daughters(men to sons)
 * Picked the most beautiful young women to serve the temples or be given to the Inca
 * yanas (removed from their ayllus) = served as servants/artisans/ workers for the Inca/the nobility
 * nobles distinguished by dress/custom ||
 * P || **Political:**
 * State organization and bureaucratic control over peoples of different cultures and languages
 * Chimor spread its control over 600 miles of the coast
 * Then Pachacuti was the rules + next was Huayna
 * Split inheritance = all political power + titles of ruler went to his successor but palaces/wealth/land remained his
 * Empire ruled by the Inca (considered almost a god)
 * Inca ruled from his court at Cuzco -> high priest was a close relative
 * Divided into four great provinces (each under a governor) and then divided again
 * State bureaucracy where almost all nobles played a role
 * State claimed all resources
 * Inca queen (Inca’s wife) = queen and sister of the sun seen as link to the moon
 * Reciprocity + hierarchy continued to characterize
 * Nobility were all drawn from the 10 royal ayllus
 * I || **Interactions:**
 * Ica armies were on the march, extending control over territories
 * Spoke of decimal units of 10,000, 1000, 100, and small #’s of households to mobilize taxes and labor
 * Made extensive use of colonists
 * Long distance trade was important
 * State regulation of production and surplus limited trade ||
 * R || **Religion:**
 * Political and social life = infused with religious meaning
 * Sun to be the highest deity and considered the Inca to be the sun’s representative on earth
 * Temple of the Sun (Cuzco) = center of the state religion
 * Prohibit the worship of local gods
 * Viracocha (creator god) favorite of Inca Pachacuti
 * Based on a profound animism (many natural phenomena with spiritual power)
 * Mountains/stones/rivers/caves/tombs/temples = holy shrines -> prayers offered and animals/goods/humans were sacrificed
 * Temples served by many priests + women and responsible for the great festivals + celebrations
 * Women weave high quality cloth for the court and for religious purposes
 * Gods/Goddesses = worshiped by men/women
 * Women felt for the moon + goddesses of the earth and corn ||
 * I || **Cultural & Intellectual:**
 * Incan Empire incorporated many aspects of previous Andean cultures but fused them together in new ways
 * Spread the Quechua language
 * Beautiful pottery and cloth were produced in specialized workshops
 * Metalworking was the most advanced
 * Artisans worked gold + silver
 * Sued copper + bronze for weapons/tools
 * No system of writing
 * Practical used of the wheel
 * Used quipu to record numerical + other information
 * Empire was linked together with almost 2500 miles of roads ( rope suspension bridges over mountain gorges/rivers
 * Best building were built with large fitted stones without the use of masonry (some buildings were immense) ||
 * T || **Technology and demographic changes**:
 * Complex system of roads was built w/ bridges and causeways
 * Along the roads; way stations or tambos were placed about a day’s walk part to serve as inns, storehouse, and supply centers for Inca armies on the move
 * Incas had more then 10,000 tambos ||
 * Incas had more then 10,000 tambos ||