Latin America Before the Conquest

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During the 15^th century, the Incas and the Mexicans were able to expand and create large empires in a relatively short time. The Incas Empire occupied what is the modern day the southern frontier of Colombia stretching southward along the coast and highlands of Ecuador and Peru, the highland of Bolivia north western Argentina and Central Chile. The empire comprised of a single group ruled from capital Cuzco (Conrad and Demarest 84). The empire’s culture in its initial stages developed from interactions with other local antecedents as learnt through ethno history and archaeology.

The Aztec empire occupied the modern day Mexico and was formed by a collection of tribes after the collapse of the Toltec civilization. It was created in the 1400’s with the capital Tenchtitlan standing where the modern day Mexico City stands today and has attained an advanced level of artistic, economic and intellectual progress. The empire was established from a tiny island which was the only dry place surrounded by marshes and with powerful neighbors and flourished to be a strong and expansive empire (Crosby 13).

Modern studies of the Incas beliefs describe the upper pantheon of Incas beliefs as divine complex, multifaceted sky God composed of numerous individual aspects. This divine complex was interpreted into many aspects of sub complexes according to the needs of the people. In the imperialist Incas, there was a state religion which gave importance to three sub complexes of the sky God (Conrad and Demarest 101), Virococha, the universal creator; the sun god Inti; and the weather deity Illapa which were distinct deities. The most solemn form of worship for Incas was by fire which was employed on very serious occasions and therefore fire diviners were greatly feared and respected and were also known as ‘consulters of the dead’. In the fourteenth century, the Incas came to believe of a divine being Inti who protected their state, and from where their rulers came from. This led to formation of a cult which served the interests of the rulers and gave Incas a sense of national identity.

The Aztec mythology centered on the worship of forces of nature represented by the earth, sun and rain gods which were offered human sacrifices. The sacrifices included human body parts like the heart and blood from just killed victims. The need for human sacrifices was a major reason why the Aztec conquered new territories and people

In the fourteenth century, small groups and tribes began to make military alliances and this intensified previously minor misunderstandings. The Incas adapted to these circumstances well because they had leaders who were skillful warriors and shrewd politicians experienced through inter village raiding and rule by sinchi’s skills practices. This led to emergence of great leaders capable of defending the Incas in times of heightened competition and able to conquer, occupy and expand the empire. Divine patronage of the Incas religion, where the rulers were believed to descend from the Inti sun god, gave them a sense of national identity where they felt set apart from their neighbors and united them both politically and military. This gave them the drive to survive in competitive circumstances (Conrad and Demarest 110).

Another aspect which led to the expansion of the empire is the economic base. This base was supported by a system of labour taxation in which all able bodied adult family heads put in a certain amount of labour time to the state every year and also any surplus time after meeting their basic needs. The citizens tilled state land and undertook construction of all public projects and manned Incas armies. This supported the rulers and the armies.

The elaborate military rewards and honors offered to panama members, lesser nobles and commoners in the military after a military conquest. Upper class members who showed military prowess were rewarded with positions in the administration and rewards of land, additional wives, fine clothing, gold and silver among others and for the commoners’ social mobility which made the shed the tax payers’ status and continued even in death. These gifts attracted great prestige in order to manipulate them into believing that spoils of the war were rightfully theirs and were a sign of emperor’s favor (Burkholder and Johnson 56). The brave soldiers were also promised of a place in heaven for doing well and would rank among the ancestral spirits.

The rule of the pachakuti brought many changes among them the property ownership of the royal kings which they maintained even in death and the reigning son was not to inherit from him. The descendants of the dead king, except the king taking over, benefited from it but not own it. The king therefore had to create his own fortune of which he did by conquering and occupying new lands and motivating citizens and armies to support him. This turned the Incas economic, social, political and religious institution into an expansionist one (Conrad and Demarest 128).

The people of the Aztec empire thrived on a stable economic base of agriculture and well organized trade market and long distance market. In the markets, local and diverse goods were displayed and not only served to barter goods but also as a source of socialization as people exchanged information. The long distance traders also known as the pochteca moved to distant lands both within the empire and on lands outside the empire. They supplied members of the nobility with goods they displayed as wealth and amassed a lot of wealth. The other long distance traders were the naualoztomeca who sought after priceless objects for and acted as spies, and then the tlatlani who specialized in slave trade and bathing of slaves for sacrifice. These traders were as rich as the nobility and this strengthened the empire in relation to the neighboring tribes (Crosby 64).

The Aztecs also produced enough food at all seasons making them food secure. They practiced three farming methods for different regions of the empire. They practiced terrace agriculture on hilly areas which not only protected the soil from erosion but also increased soil depth ensuring a lot of productivity. Irrigation farming was practiced on the valleys of the empire ensuring regular supply of food. Dams were used to bring water to crops and elaborate systems of canals were also developed to avid reliance on rain water alone for crop farming. They also practiced crop cultivation method known as chinampas or areas of raised land mainly in swampy regions. Moreover, they were the first to tame a subspecies of wild turkey (Crosby 65).

Social organization of the Aztec is another strength which gave them a competitive edge to their neighbors. There were two distinct social groupings; the commoners and the nobility with mobility between the two non existent and clearer structures within the groups. The nobility had more civil liberties than the commoners and received honor from the commoners. The commoners on the other hand owned and cultivated land freely and could own other possessions and manage them while honoring their duty to services and tributes to the lords (Burkholder and Johnson 59).

The Aztec empire was a highly intellectual and artistic one compared to their neighbors which contributed to building of a strong empire. Education was compulsory for all children irrespective of gender, class or station in life. Children of fourteen years and below were trained by their parents and were tested periodically for development in their temples, and this involved learning ideals of the Aztec culture. Between the age of fifteen and twenty, it was also compulsory to attend schools which mainly taught practical and military lessons for both girls and boys, and calmecac for advanced studies (Morley and Brainerd 216).

Explosive growth of the empire posed communication problems between the far reaches of the empire and the king in Cuzco which was a source of instability and strain to the empire. Communication was done through runners who could take three to twelve days to reach the king. This meant he could make major decisions without the necessary information or based on incomplete information (Conrad and Demarest 129).

Other source of strain for the kingdom was the diverse groups of people in the empire as a result of conquests as reported by Burkholder and Johnson 83-92. In Peru alone, there were more than eighty provinces with some of them occupied by more than one tribe. These tribes were not happy with the Incas rule and started minor revolts which grew into more organized uprisings with the problem of communication between the king and the provinces helping them in their upheaval.

The Aztecs on the other hand were cruel and even the people lived in constant fear of their rulers due to their practice of offering human sacrifices to their many gods and thousands were sacrificed each year. This is the reason why they chose to fight on the Spanish side since they were tired of the practice.

The Aztec empire experienced great strain when the Spanish landed in Central America and brought with them small pox virus. The Aztec died by their hundreds as the diseased infected them in the valley and in Tenochtitian. This made it possible for the Spanish to conquer them afterwards.

The Tlaxcalans were a constant source of strain to the Aztec empire as they fought on numerous occasions most of which the Aztec won and their prisoners taken to the shrine for sacrifice. After the arrival of the Spanish, the Tlaxcalans found an ally to help them oust their enemies and this succeeded in breeching the Aztec empire.

Conclusion

During the 15^th century, the Incas and the Mexicans were able to expand and create large empires in a relatively short time. The empires grew through conquering and occupying large areas of Latin America. Factors such as contribution of religion in strengthening the empire and uniting them in case of there Incas, and search for human sacrifice to the gods from war prisoners for the Aztec, economic strength from agriculture, trade, labour taxation and conquests, and well organized social and political structures strengthened them. These strong empires, however, experienced instability and strains which contributed to their downfall in the later invasion by the Spanish. These included diverse groups of people in the empire as a result of conquests and explosive growth of the empire which posed communication problems between the far reaches of the empire and the king in Cuzco in case of Incas, cruelty of Aztec rulers which made their subjects fear them, infections from smallpox virus and alliance of their arch enemies Tlaxcalans with the Spanish invaders in case of the Aztec.

Work Cited

Conrad, G.W & Demarest, A.A. Religion and Empire: the dynamics of Aztec and Inca expansionism. Cambridge University Press. 1984.

Burkholder, M.A & Johnson, L.L. Colonial Latin America. Oxford University Press. 2007.

Crosby, A.W. “Conquistador y Pestilencia.” In The Columbian exchange; Biological and cultural consequences of 1492. Greenwood Publishers. 1972.

Morley, S.G. & Brainerd, G.W. The ancient Maya. Stanford University Press. 2006.

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Latin America Before the Conquest

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