The+Americas

ESPIRIT CHART ON THE AZTECS

- founded the city of **Tenochtitlan** in 1325. - the aztecs adopted an ingenious system of irrigated agriculture by building chinampas for agriculture. these were beds of aquatic weeds, mud, and eath that had been placed in frames made of cane and rooted to the lake floor. allowed water to reach all plants. - More than 20,000 acres of land of chinampas were constructed. - 4 corn crops per year were possible. - Peasants worked on the fields - Each community had a wide variety of goods exchanged at markets. - Cacao beans and gold dust were used as currency but bartering was popular. || - had a reputation of tough warriors and fanatical followers of their gods, who they offered human sacrifices too. -Special merchant class, **pochteca**, which specialized in long-distace trade in luxury items. - Aztecs were divided into seven **calpulli**, or clans. - Calpulli performed important functions such as distributing land to heads of housefolds, organizing labor gangs and military units in time of war. . - Not all families were equal. - A class of nobility emerged, based on certain privileged familes in the most distinguished calpulli. - Nobles were born into the class. - the military was highly ritualized - large gaps between nobility and commoners -social distinctions were made apparent by clothes, hairstyles, uniforms, and other symbols of rank. - commoners were low status but higher than slaves. - scribes, artisans, and healers all were apart of the intermediate group. - class struggles between nobility and commoners - women helped on fields, but primarily dominant in the household. - weaving skill was highly regarded. - arranged marriages. - polygamy existed among nobility, peasants were monogamous. || - **Netzahualcoyotl**, the king of Texcoco, wrote hymns to the "lord of the close vicinity," an invisible creative force that supported all the gods. || - human sacrifices - Incorporated part of the Mesoamerica belief system. - there were gods of rain, fire, water, corn, the sky, and the sun. - there were 128 deities, each taking a male or female form. - gods were supported by annual festivals, along with penance and sacrifice. - **Tlaloc** was the god of rain. - Huitzilopitchli, the Aztec tribal patron, became the central figure of this cult. || - Art was focused on religious gods. || - women spent six hours a day grinding corn by hand on stone boards called //metates// to prepare the household's food. || The Aztecs were an agricultural based economy, using that as the basis for their civilization. Many peasants and even some women worked on the field. There was a large gap between different social classes, distinguished by hairstyles, clothes, uniform, etc. There were also some tensions between the nobility class and the commoners. They had a polytheistic religion and worship several different gods. They were in favor of annual festivals and human sacrifices to these gods. They were ruled by a single supreme ruler. They lacked in technological advancements.
 * E || - Also known as the Mexica, they had lived in the central valley and had known agriculture and the "civilized life" but had lived in exile to the north in a place called Aztlan.
 * S || - the Aztecs were a group of about 10,000 people who migrated to the shores of Lake Texcoco.
 * P || - had a supreme ruler
 * I || - Connected with other civilizations through trade. ||
 * R || - polytheism
 * I || - Built the Great Temple for worship of gods.
 * T || - teachnology was limited

ESPIRIT CHART ON THE INCAS - The Inca state could provide roads, irrigation projects, and hard to get goods. - Maize was a popular crop and it was an important as a ritual crop. - The empire was linked by almost 2500 miles of road. || - Official language was Quechua. They used this to integrate their empire. - Conquered people were enlisted under the Inca army and were rewarded with goods from new conquests. In return, they demanded loyalty and tribute. - Women were required to weave hgh-quality cloth for the court and for religious purposes. - Some women were taken as concubines for the inca, some were selected as servants at the temples, the so-called Virgins of the Sun. - The vast majority of men were peasants and herders. - Women worked in the fields, wove cloth, and care for the household. Women passed rights and property to daughters and men passed rights and property to their sons. - Either the wife or the sister of the inca was said to have ties to the goddess of the moon. She was the imperial authority to all women. - There was also a class of people called the **yanas**, who were removed from their ayllus and served permanently as servants, artisans, or workers for the Inca or the nobility. - The nobility were all drawn from the 10 royal ayllus. - Nobles who lived in Cuzco, were required to wear ear spools that enlarged the ears and Spaniards called the //orejones//, or "big ears." - There was a limited merchant class. Did not have as much power as the Aztec merchants did. || - His son and successor, Topac Yupanqui, conquered the northern coastal kingdom of Chimor by seizing its irrigation system, he extended Inca control into the southern area of what is now Ecuador. - The following successor, Huayna Capac (1493 - 1527), stretched the Inca empire or also known as the **Twantinsuyu**, from Columbia to Chile and eastward across Lake Titicaca and Bolivia to northern Argentina. - Incas adopted the practice of royal **split inheritance**, that allowed all political power and titles of the ruler went to his successor but all his palaces, wealth, land, and possessions remained in the hands of his male descendants, who used them to support the cult of the dead inca's mummy for eternity. This system required a greater need for expansion. - The empire was ruled by one inca, who was considered almost a god. He ruled at his court at Cuzco, which was also where the major temple was located. - The Inca empire was divided into four great provinces, each under a governor, and then divided again. - They developed a state bureaucracy in which almost all nobles played a role. - Local rulers, //curacas//, were allowed to maintain thier positions and were given privileges by the inca in return for their loyalty. || - Along the roads were **tambos**, way stations, that served as inns, storehouses, and supply centers for Inca armies on the move. Also served as relay points for the system of runners who carried messages throughout the empire. They had about 10,000 tambos. || - Built the **Temple of the Sun** in Cuzco, which became the center of the state religion, and in its confines the mummies of past incas were kept. - They worshiped many other deities, such as Viracocha, a creator god, this was one of the favorites of Inca Pachacuti. - Mountains, stones, rivers, caves, tombs, and temples were considered //huacas//, or holy shrines. These were places where prayer was held and animals, goods, and humans were sacrificed. The temples were served by many priests and women dedicated to preparing cloth and food for sacrifice. - Gods and goddesses were worshiped by both men and women, but women worshiped goddesses of the moon, earth, and corn: the fertility deities. || - The Incas were greatly influenced by the Andean society. - They created beautiful pottery and cloth that were produced in specialized workshops. - Their metalworking was one of the most advanced in the Americas. - They had no system of writing. - They had a passion for numerical order, creating decimals to calculate population, military enlistment, and work details. - They built complex buildings of the steep slopes of the Andes. - They also created a complex system of irrigation to water their crops. - The Inca stone cutting was extremely accurate; the best buildings were built of large fitted stones without the use of masonry. || The Incas were very focused on imperial and military organization. Also, religion was a major part of both the male and female's lives. Women could even gain power and the looked up to the goddesses of fertility. Like the Aztecs, they were in favor of human sacrifices as a part of their religious ceremonies. They also tried to create an overarching political state and to integrate their empire as a unit. They also a very developed intellectual life with several advancements in math and architecture.
 * E || - Communities were expected to take turns working on state and church lands and sometimes on building projects or in mining. Also called **mita** that were essential aspect of Inca control.
 * S || - Between 9 and 13 million people of different ethnic backgrounds and languages came under Inca rule.
 * P || - **Pachacuti** (1438- 1471) launched a series of military alliances and campaigns that brought the Incas in control of the whole area from cuzco to the shores of Lake Titicaca.
 * I || - A complex system of roads was built, with bridges and causeways when needed. Allowed trade within the empire.
 * R || - Like the Aztecs, the Incas believed the Sun to be the highest deity and they believed that the sun's representative was the inca on earth.
 * I || - Woven cloth had a great Andean art form, that had political and religious significance.
 * T || - Because they had no system of writing, the Inca's created a system of knotted strings, called **quipu**, to record numerical and even some other information. The Incas were able to takes censuses and keep financial records. ||